Forever Right Now

I straightened my shoulders. “How do I even know you’re who you say you are?”

Gerald reached into pocket for his wallet to show ID, while Alice pulled a small stack of photos from her purse.

“Mr. Holloway said to bring these. Here’s Molly as a little girl, and one as a teenager.” Her voice thickened with tears. “Here she is at her Sweet Sixteen birthday party…”

She held the photos to me while Gerald flashed his driver’s license. I barely glanced at them and I didn’t move any closer. They exchanged troubled looks again, their arms slowly lowering. Holloway cleared his throat.

“We need to sit down, Mr. Haas. Today. I advised the Abbotts to limit all contact with you for the hearing before the court, but they insist on speaking to you first.”

A hearing. There’s going to be a hearing…

My heart dropped to my stomach, but outwardly my armor was on, my face impassive. “Three o’clock,” I said stiffly. “At the Starbuc

ks on Market and 8th. One hour. I’ll be bringing my attorney.”

I said all this as if I were calling the shots, while inside I felt like I was disintegrating.

“Very good,” Holloway said. He opened the back of the sedan, and indicated for the Abbotts to get in.

They did so, reluctantly, both of them looking like they wanted to say more. Both of them giving the Victorian a final, longing glance. After his wife was in the car, Gerald Abbott fixed me with a stern look.

“Good luck with your test,” he said, then climbed in.

I watched the sedan drive away. The instant it rounded the corner, out of sight, I sank to the steps, my briefcase scraping along the cement beside me as I dropped it to cover my face with my hands. I sucked in deep breaths, grasping for calm when panic was tossing me like a tiny ship on a vast ocean.

Holy fuck, it’s happening. And I was so close. A few more weeks…

Defeat tried to drown me, but I shrugged it off. I had rights. If the Abbotts were here for a fight, I’d give it to them. I’d give everything until there was nothing left of me.

Livvie…

I fished my phone out of my jacket pocket. “Jackson,” I said, my voice hoarse. “I need you.”

I’d never been more grateful for my eidetic memory in my life. The American Legal History exam was all names and dates, statutes and by-laws, ground-breaking precedents and Founding Fathers. I scanned my mental database for the answers, and finished the exam in record time.

At the meeting in my advisor’s office, she asked me twice if I needed a glass of water and once if I wanted to reschedule when I was ‘feeling better.’ I pushed through, pushed my emotions aside where they sunk their claws in my back and shoulders. Under the conference table, my leg wouldn’t stop bouncing.

The day crawled and yet flew by, and at a quarter to three, I met Jackson at the Starbucks.

“Jesus, will you calm down?” he said while waiting in line to order. “I’m getting an ulcer just looking at you.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” I said. “A fucking horrible feeling. I have rights,” I spat. “They can’t just take her from me…”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down,” Jackson said. “We have no idea what they want yet.”

“They want a hearing, Jax,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at the front entrance. “It’s already set up.”

“We’ll see,” he said.

“Do you know what you’re doing? It’s a far cry from tax law…”

Jackson fixed me with a raised-eyebrow stare. “You have the money to retain someone else? ‘Cause if you do, I’ll give you my phone to call him right now. I’m taking time out of my work to be here.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, sucking in a breath. I clasped his hand. “God, I’m sorry, man, really. I trust you. I’m just scared shitless.”

“I know you are. Go ahead and be an asshole to me if it helps, but as your attorney, I’m officially advising you to not be an asshole to these people, okay? They’re Olivia’s family, for one thing. For another, you catch more bees with honey, or some shit.”

I nodded absently. My mind was reeling, going in a thousand different directions. One thought stuck out from the rest, in bold type.