Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 78340 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78340 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
“Of course I want to help! There’s no freaking way any of us are going to let our baby go to live with some homophobic dentist! Also, just for trying to discredit me for being a stripper, I’m going to message this witch I met last week and ask him to put a curse on the dentist.”
As Lark typed furiously, I asked, “Do you mean he’s a Wiccan? Because they don’t do that.”
“No, he’s a witch. I know the difference.”
Why argue? I had to ask, though. “Where did you meet this witch?”
“At Whole Foods, obviously.”
That made absolutely no sense, but again, it was best to just let it go. After my brother sent the text, I said, “I called Lucky, and he’s going to find us a lawyer. I called Hal, too, and he wants to help. With all of us pooling our resources, I feel like we actually have a chance at a fair fight. It still scares the hell out of me, though. If there’s even a chance I could lose Owen—”
“There’s no way.” Lark looked fierce as he said that. “Good always triumphs over evil. Everybody knows that.” I loved his optimism, even if I wasn’t so sure that was true. After he received a reply from his boyfriend, he said, “Dylan’s on his way back. Do Yolanda and JoJo know what’s happening?”
“Not yet. Eliot doesn’t, either.”
Lark started texting again. “I’m sending them a quick summary and telling everyone we need a house meeting tonight. All hands on deck for Operation Defeat the Dentist.”
“Good idea.”
A message popped up less than a minute later. Lark grinned and told me, “Yolanda’s pissed. She’s ready to go find the dentist and kick him in the nuts.”
“Fine with me. Just tell her to wear a disguise, so the Wilsons and their spies don’t use it against us.”
Lark shuddered. “How creepy that they hired someone to get all up in our business like that. It wasn’t enough to just locate you and the baby. They must have dug deep to find out I worked as a stripper, since that was a couple of years ago. What a puritanical thing to try to hold against you, too. Like, oh no, a member of your family shook his ass for money, the shame!”
“I know. It’s weird and ridiculous, and it tells me a lot about the type of people we’re dealing with here.”
“Really shitty ones.”
I nodded and said, “Exactly.”
Chapter 12
It was a six-hour flight from Miami to San Francisco, so it surprised me when Lucky called just about six and a half hours after I’d reached out to him and told me, “I just landed at SFO, mi amor. How are you holding up?”
As I took a pitcher of iced tea out of the refrigerator, I said, “I feel numb.”
“Hang in there, sweetheart. I’m getting in the car, and I’ll be there soon. Have you eaten? I can call ahead and have dinner delivered.”
“Thanks, but Dylan just ordered a lot of pizza. It’ll probably arrive about the same time you do,” I said, as I put the pitcher on the counter. “The Pink Victorian Crew is coming together in a show of support, and later we’re holding a family meeting to talk about the custody case. We all agreed not to talk about this until after the baby goes to bed, just in case he picks up on our tension. Anyway, there’s a lot to figure out here, including how much we have to spend on a lawyer once we all pool our resources.”
“Your friends are wonderful, but you don’t have to do that. It’s already taken care of.”
“What do you mean?”
“I made arrangements to hire two of the senior partners from Singh, Spiegel, Jackson, and Mulvaney and paid their retainer. I hope that’s okay. I did some research first, and by all indications they’re the top family law practice in California. But we haven’t signed the contract yet, so if you’d rather go with someone else—”
That law firm had come up in some of my research that afternoon, so I knew they had an excellent reputation. “No, that’s perfect. Thank you. I’m surprised any of the senior partners were available on such short notice.”
“Actually, I offered to triple their fee if they’d fit you onto their case load, and they agreed.”
“That’s really going to add up…”
“It’ll be worth it,” he said, “because they’re supposed to be phenomenal.”
“Okay, you’re right. If that’s what it takes to get the best lawyers on our side, then I’m all for it. But is it okay if I pay you back over time? I won’t be able to come up with that kind of money all at once.”
“I don’t want you to pay me back.”
“You really are the sweetest man alive, but I can’t let you pay for this on your own,” I said. “It’s going to end up costing a fortune.”