“I owe you an apology,” he says. My eyes bug out. Of all the things I imagined him saying, that wasn’t one of them. He holds up a hand, then sighs and runs it through his white hair. “Sue doesn’t know I’m here. I wanted to talk to you first. I recently had a visit from a woman named Jarrah Reinhart.” He lifts his brows when he sees my reaction. “You know her?”
“Yes, sir,” I say, tightening my grip on my purse strap. I’m still not sure if this is good news. “I’ve met her.”
He nods, then clears his throat. “She showed me Elijah’s eighth grade report card. Apparently, he had given it to her back in the day.” He straightens, and a slight smile curves on his lips. “All A’s. I was quite impressed. This woman, whom I’d never met before, came to my office at work and spent an hour talking to me about Elijah Delgado. She made a real case for the boy, talking him up as if he were her own flesh and blood.”
I press my lips together as I listen to his story. I’m trying to smile, but tears are lingering in the wings. “She’s a really nice lady.”
“She is,” he says. The corner of his eyes crinkle. “She asked for my legal services. Said she didn’t have much, but she wanted to give me the entire contents of her savings account, one thousand dollars. She even had it in cash, right there in her hands.”
Chills prickle up my spine. While Mr. Reinhart and I were giving up hope, Jarrah was making one last attempt. I gnaw on the inside of my lip until it goes raw.
“Raquel,” he says, heaving a long sigh. “I loved my daughter with all of my heart. But the truth is that I kept a secret from her, and although I told myself it was for her own good, I realize now that I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have judged Elijah for the sins of his father.”
His hands twist together and his forehead is creased with deep lines. “I kept asking myself, what would Sasha think? How would she see me now, refusing to help the boy? How could I do justice to her memory if I didn’t do something?”
I can tell this is hard for him to admit, but the anticipation is about to break me in half. “What are you saying, Mr. Cade?”
There are tears in his eyes, vulnerability I’ve never before seen in the tough Texas lawyer. “When that woman came to visit me, I saw some of Sasha in her. My daughter also sought out the good in people. She loved her brother and she would have wanted me to do anything I could to save him.”
He laces his fingers together, elbows on the table, and the wealthiest man I know looks me right in the eyes.
“I guess what I’m saying to you, Raquel, is that I’ve decided to help.”
&n
bsp; Chapter Thirty-One
Over the next few days, Mr. Cade works his lawyer magic, and I decide to come clean to my parents about Sasha’s last wish. I figure I’ve already broken Sasha’s ultimate rule, so revealing everything to my parents isn’t much worse. After Thanksgiving dinner at the Cades’ house, I sit Sasha’s parents and mine together in the living room and show them Sasha’s first video.
Mom didn’t cry as much as Mrs. Cade did, but Dad didn’t cry at all. He said this was the greatest gift Sasha could have given me. He said a friendship like that only comes along once in a lifetime, if you’re lucky. And I have to agree with him. I am the luckiest to have had Sasha, if only for a little while.
While the infamous Walter Cade sets to work on the case, Mrs. Cade wants to meet Elijah through the jail’s video chat visitations. It costs twenty freaking dollars just for a ten-minute video call, but Elijah is allowed visitation time every day.
I set up my laptop on the Cades’ dining table and log in to the jail’s visitation website. Mrs. Cade fusses with her hair as I set up the video chat. “You look fine,” I tell her, rolling my eyes.
An empty booth stares back at us as we wait for them to let Elijah into the visitation room. In the corner of the computer screen, our ten minutes have already started. Once it reaches zero, our visitation time will be over and we won’t get to see him again until tomorrow. Mrs. Cade exhales. “I’m really nervous,” she whispers. That makes two of us.
Even in an orange jumpsuit, Elijah is the cutest guy I’ve ever laid eyes on. I wave at him, and he grins at me, then turns his attention to Mrs. Cade.
“Hello,” he says.
“Elijah,” Mrs. Cade says, her voice warm. I don’t know how she manages to turn off the anxious vibe she had just a second ago. She leans forward. “I’m Sue Cade. I’m so happy to meet you.”
“Same,” he says, his smile softening. “I wish it were in person and not like this, but yeah.”
Mrs. Cade watches him as the timer on the corner of the screen slowly counts down the minutes. “You look just like her.”
He grins. “So I’ve been told.”
“How are you? Are they treating you okay?” Her voice cracks, and she reaches for a tissue. I use the opportunity to give him a look that shows how awkward I feel. He winks at me.
“I’m fine. Really. Mr. Cade is confident about my case. Hopefully I’ll be out of here soon.”
“Are you sure? No one is messing with you or anything?” Mrs. Cade dabs at her eyes. “Walter could talk with someone. Move you to a safer place.”
Elijah shakes his head. “Nah, I’m good. My cellmate is in here for scamming people out of money online, so he’s not scary. If anything, I think he’s scared of me.”
I smile, unsure what to say. I don’t want to take up Mrs. Cade’s time with him, so I just sit here and let her do the talking. Just getting to see him fills me with a peace I hope I can hold on to when the screen turns off.