Top Dog

ut of the picture.”

“Yeah, he’s alive, but he’s never been involved in her life. He’s unfit to be a parent,” he said.

“Oh.”

“He’s taking me to court to fight for custody of Lanie. That’s why I have to go to town, to meet with a PI that’s helping me out.”

“But if he’s an unfit parent, how can he sue you for custody?” I asked.

His eyes glanced over at me. I could see his temple throbbing with the clenching of his jaw. The questions were pissing him off, but I didn’t care. This was Lanie we were talking about. The little girl I’d come to know that enjoyed whenever I came over. The girl with the big, beautiful eyes and the brown hair that matched his.

I suddenly realized how attached I’d become to her in such a short period of time.

“When my sister gave birth, she didn’t put down Lanie’s father’s name on the birth certificate. She was cleaning herself up. You know, getting her act back together.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means my sister was a drug addict,” he said sternly.

“I’m sorry.”

“ When she found out she was pregnant, she kicked that asshole to the curb and checked herself into rehab. It was horrible, going through withdrawals while she was pregnant, but she did it. She got clean. A few months after she got out, she had Lanie, met a great guy, and they got married. He was set to adopt Lanie and raise her as his own, when the accident happened.”

I watched Brian close his eyes as he relived the horrors of his sister’s death.

“I’m so sorry, Brian,” I said.

“I was nowhere. Here. Isolated. Running from my own pathetic existence. It took them ten months to track me down. That poor baby had been in foster care for ten months,” he said, clearly disgusted with himself.

“And that’s when she came to live with you,” I said.

“Yes.”

“So if her biological father was never listed on the birth certificate, how does he even know about her?” I asked.

“Because he had come looking for my sister about a year after she left him and saw that she had baby that was only a few months old. He was never that smart, but he’d done the math and figured out Lanie was his. He still didn’t really care at the time, and when my sister died, he still didn’t step forward. I am my sister’s only living next of kin, so by law, she came to me as long as I wanted her. And I did. Now this asshole got a whiff of money, and he’s trying to play a game.”

“So he’s only fighting you because he wants money?” I asked.

Brian nodded curtly, and I could see the frustration and annoyance plain on his face. He didn’t like asking for help, or divulging too much information about himself, but he’d just done both. He grunted and huffed a sigh.

I could tell he was done with the conversation, and I couldn’t blame him. The pain he must’ve been enduring and the loss he experienced while he was out here. I couldn’t imagine the sleepless nights he probably had. He lost his sister, and now he was faced with the possibility of losing his last connection to her

“Look, can you watch her or not?” he asked again.

“Of course, I can,” I said. “When do you want me over there?”

“Could you come over Monday in the morning? Around breakfast?”

“I’ll be there,” I said.

“I’ll pay you for your time.”

“Don’t worry about it. You go meet with your PI. It’ll be fine. Brian?”

“Yeah?”

“You know if you can prove that he’s on drugs and unfit, the courts will never award Lanie to him, right?” I asked.