“I think I have an idea.”
Everyone eventually cleared out not too long after Savannah and Ben left to go put whatever her insane idea was into motion. With promises to stop by Brett’s house later that night once I was released, they left me and Brett alone in my hospital room, curled up in the tiny bed together. Neither of us had said a word for hours as we lay together. Finally, having had enough of the silent tension that filled the room, Brett broke the silence.
“I can’t lose you, beauty,” he spoke quietly against my neck. The agony in his voice caused my silent tears to fall even faster. I wanted so desperately to tell him that he wasn’t going to, but I couldn’t force the lie past my lips. Because that’s exactly what it would have been. A lie. If whatever harebrained scheme Savannah was working up fell through, I knew exactly what I would do. I would take my kids and run. I’d leave behind the life and people I’d come to love if it meant keeping them safe.
“I love you,” was the only response I was able to give him. “No matter what, Brett, I will always love you.”
There was a soft knock on the door before another word could be said. Savannah came through, pulling us both out of the depressing thoughts running through our heads.
“Hey, sweets, how you feeling?”
“I’ve been better. I’ll be great if this plan of yours works.”
She graced me with a small smile before pushing the door all the way open. Ben walked through, quickly followed by a short, older man. If I had to guess, I would have put him in his late sixties, early seventies. He had a gentle disposition and a kind face. With his white hair and round belly, it felt like I was meeting the real life Santa Claus.
“Kenzie, Brett, this is our boss, Bradford Pruett. He’s the founding partner of Pruett & Carter.”
“The law firm here in town?” I asked in confusion.
“Yeah, I’m a paralegal there and Ben’s an associate. We specialize in handling family law cases.”
“Oh, dear girl,” Mr. Pruett said softly as he walked up to my bed and extended his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I just wish it could have been under different circumstances.”
I sat up in the bed as Brett moved to the chair next to it to give me room, and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, too.”
“When you told us the name of the law firm Lance works for earlier, I knew it sounded familiar, but it took me a moment to figure out where I’d heard that name before. Then it hit me.”
“You see, Ms. Webster,” Mr. Pruett chimed in. “My cousin is Reginald Spaulding.” When I just continued to look at him in bemusement, he pressed forward. “The Spaulding in Spaulding, Jefferies, & Dunn and the managing partner of the firm.”
My eyes grew wide and my mouth dropped as I tried to wrap my brain around what he’d just said. Unable to form an intelligible sentence, I was struck mute as Brett spoke an excited, “No shit?” from beside me.
“That’s right. Our family founded that firm years and years ago. It was actually where I started my career before deciding something smaller was more my pace. I moved here and started up my practice, but I’ve remained close with all of my relatives in Ohio. I make an effort to travel there at least twice a year. Funny thing, that six degrees of separation, isn’t it?”
“Mr. Pruett, please forgive me, but I’m just not seeing how this pertains to my situation.”
Ben stepped forward and placed his hand on the old man’s shoulder. “We did some digging into your allegations against Lance. We wanted to make absolutely certain there wasn’t anything left out there that could lead back to him being the one accepting bribes.”
Hope burst in my chest as Ben talked. “Were you able to find anything?”
“Our highly skilled, very well paid private detective was able to track something down,” Mr. Pruett answered.
The grin that spread across Savannah’s face was positively beaming. “Apparently, the dude turns into a talker after he gets off. He had a little thing on the side he’d spill all his dirty little secrets to after they had sex. Only problem was, he didn’t take into account how pissed off she might be when he up and left her to come track you down. Turned out, she had his bun cooking in her oven when he bailed. The woman’s all too happy to spill every last dirty detail as revenge for being knocked up and ditched.”
“You’re kidding me,” I gasped.
“It’s also been discovered that he enjoyed videotaping some of his more…illicit adventures. My guess is he didn’t expect Baby Mama to make copies of her own as a failsafe. He’d know all of this if he bothered to return any of her calls.”