Page 19 of Won't Back Down
“Time for what?”
He took a moment to fold his hands on the table. “Your grandfather assumed, rightly so, that your parents were going to fight the terms of the will, and so he left funds earmarked for the purpose of hiring a private detective to follow their movements for a span of time after the reading.”
Well, that was a level of paranoia I hadn’t expected from Granddaddy.
“I don’t understand. We already knew they were planning to challenge.”
“Yes, we did. I didn’t think that there were any grounds on which they could legally challenge. I may be wrong.”
Those talons dug in deeper, dragging lower to skewer my gut. My fingers automatically tightened on Roy’s ruff, but he didn’t protest, simply leaned harder against me.
“Okay, what does this mean? What are they doing?”
“They’re not challenging the competency of your grandparents in writing of the will. They’re challenging your competency.”
His words barreled into me like a freight train.
This was my worst nightmare. In a flash, everything I’d experienced off-island came flooding back. The hospital. The drugs. The locks.
I didn’t realize I’d started hyperventilating until Mr. O’Shea gently forced my head between my knees. Roy whined, nosing and licking at my face.
Five things I can see. Roy. Flip flops. Chair leg. Frayed hem of my cutoffs. Mr. O’Shea’s dress shoes.
Four things I can feel. Roy’s tongue. Roy’s fur. The hard seat of the chair. Cotton of my shorts.
Three things I can hear. Roy’s panting. Violin from the speaker. Gulls.
Two things I can smell. Lemon. Rosemary.
A glass was thrust into my line of vision, and slowly I straightened, wrapping both hands around it. Carefully, I lifted it to my lips.
One thing I can taste. Water.
I drew in a ragged breath, and then another, until the leading edge of terror waned. As if I hadn’t just had a panic attack in front of my attorney, I squared my shoulders. “I’m an adult. How can they do that?”
“I don’t know for sure whether they could pull it off, but I was given to understand that there are some circumstances in your past that make this a more viable possibility than it might otherwise be.” He was hedging in a way that made it impossible to know what he knew. He wasn’t offering any information on that front, and I sure as hell wasn’t offering up the reality of what I’d been through. Not yet. Not unless it became absolutely necessary.
Hold it together, girl.
“Okay, so what do we do?”
He spread his hands in apology. “Honestly, I don’t know yet. Some of it will depend on the specifics of what they file. But I wanted you to be aware of what was coming so that you could prepare.”
How could I possibly prepare for this? This was everything I’d cut myself off from my parents to prevent.
I shook my head. “How can they possibly have any grounds to say what I’m like as an adult?”
“It’ll depend on the judge. I’ll continue to look for precedent and some way to combat this, but I didn’t want to move forward without both your awareness and permission. We’re going to be ready for whatever they’re bringing.”
Did they train that confidence in law school, or was he really that certain? He was here, delivering this news in person, where we wouldn’t be overheard. Surely, that meant he had his doubts. Or maybe it was simply a sign of his discretion and awareness of client confidentiality.
“Thank you, I understand.” Except I really didn’t.
I’d slid from panic into numbness because this was all too much to process at once. I needed to speak to someone I trusted about all of this. Another attorney. Someone who knew at least the broad strokes of what had happened to me while I was off-island.
Somehow, I managed to get O’Shea out the door. Then I systematically went through the entire house, shutting all the windows and locking up before loading Roy into the Jeep and driving to the opposite end of the island.
The lighthouse rose like the beacon it once had been. I sent up a prayer that it would give me hope, as it had to countless sailors on stormy seas in the past.