DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(80)

“Fuck you, Libby.”

I disconnected the call and thought seriously about throwing the phone against the wall. I couldn’t believe my mother would do this to me. My beautiful, innocent mother. Was she ever as innocent in all of my father’s schemes as I had always assumed? Or was she the mastermind behind them all? What else had she done to control me, to change the course of my life? What else had she hidden from me?

“I want to tell him.”

I turned, bitter words on the tip of my tongue until I found myself face to face with Penelope.

“No matter how this turns out, it’s clear that you have no intention of backing off. So I want to be the one to tell JT the truth.”

“Of course,” I said.

“He doesn’t know yet. I was going to take him out of school, but I didn’t want to disrupt things any more than I had to.”

“I quit my job there. I thought it might make things easier.”

A cloud crossed her face, but she didn’t give it voice. She looked away briefly, chewing on that bottom lip in a way that made me want to pull her close to me, that made me want to replace her teeth with my own. I leaned back against the cool wall and cleared my throat, trying to clear my mind of my thoughts.

“I only want what’s best for JT,” she said softly.

“So do I.”

“Then how can you—“

She stopped before she finished her thought. She nodded a little crazily, her hair falling over her face. I slid my hands in my pockets to keep from reaching over and brushing her hair away, from freeing her beautiful face for my gaze.

“I never meant for it to go this way, Penelope. I hope you know that.”

“I don’t. But it turns out I knew very little about you.”

“We can change that.”

She shook her head. “I think it’s too late for niceties.”

A door crashed to a close, announcing the judge’s return. Penelope strode off, the tension back in her shoulders.

I walked back to the table where my lawyer waited and watched the ceremony of the court play itself out once again. We took our seats and the judge leaned forward, his eyes moving first to Penelope, then to me.

“This is a highly unusual case,” he began. “Normally when an adoption is found to be invalid, the child is immediately returned to the custody of the biological parents. However, the child in question here is fifteen. For that reason, I think it would be best to proceed with a little more caution. Therefore, I am issuing an injunction against the custody order.”

Penelope hissed, a relieved sigh slipping from her pursed lips.

“However,” the judge continued as he glanced at her, “I am ordering that the biological father be allowed visitation with the child. And I want all parties back in this courtroom next week, along with the child, so that I can get a better picture of the situation.”

Visitation. What the hell did that mean?

My lawyer grabbed my wrist, clearly sensing my need for clarification. The judge got up and walked away as Penelope’s lawyer whispered furiously in her ear. My lawyer leaned close to do the same.

“The judge’s clerk will likely give us a visitation schedule with his order. I will push for you to be allowed a few hours, unsupervised, with JT every day until the next hearing. That will give you time to convince JT to speak favorably of you when he talks to the judge.”

“Excuse me?” I said, glaring at him. “Are you suggesting I attempt to ask my son to lie?”

“Of course not. But the kid’s testimony will weigh heavily with the judge. It would be in our best interest that he says the right thing.”

I stood in a rush, nearly knocking over my chair. “You’re fired.”





Chapter 11


Penelope

I walked out of the courtroom with the intention of running to my car as quickly as I could. But Jack grabbed my arm and pulled me into a small room the sported a small table and a handful of chairs.

“This is a victory, Penny,” he said.

“No, it’s not. They’re going to let him spend time with JT. And the judge is going to make JT choose which of us he wants to live with. Do you really think JT will choose me when he has the chance to live with a billionaire?”

“Don’t panic. JT knows where he belongs.”

“Does he? Sometimes I wonder.”

I moved away from Jack, crossing the room to stand near the small window that overlooked the busy street below. Tears were threatening again, but I managed to hold them back. I still couldn’t wrap my head around all of this. Just this morning I woke with the warm memories of the night before—I still couldn’t stop thinking of the way it felt when he touched me—and now I was fighting for everything that mattered to me. What would happen to me if I lost JT? What point would there be to my life? Everything I’d given up to come back here would have been for nothing. And JT? What would happen to him if he was ripped away from the only home he’d ever known? From all his friends, his neighbors? The life he’d built for himself these last fifteen years?

I couldn’t let this happen.

“We can still fight this. We have time.”

“We have a week. And then he’ll bring his high-power lawyers from…wherever he’s from…”