“Uh, not a lot, how about you?”
“I found some stuff on my dad’s computer.” I hit Print on the loan documents. I’m sure there must be a folder in my parents’ filing cabinets with signatures. The most recent are signed, scanned PDFs, but the older ones are drafts with no signatures. “What kind of stuff?” “Financial stuff connected to Linda that might explain why she wanted custody so badly . . .” I trail off as I note the time in the corner of the screen; I didn’t realize it was almost midnight. “But it can wait.” “I’m not going to sleep anytime soon, if you want to talk it through.” “My parents loaned my aunt a lot of money.” “What constitutes a lot?” “Tens of thousands over the past decade and a half. And that’s just based on the documents in one folder. I have no idea if there’s more that’s unaccounted for.” I rub my temple, the dull throb telling me a headache is on the way. “I can come over.” There’s a short pause. “If you want help going through what you found. Or it can wait. I can shift my appointments around tomorrow morning, unless now is better.” “Now is better.” “I can be there in fifteen.” “Okay.” While I wait for her to arrive, I rifle through my parents’ filing cabinets. At the back of one I find a thick folder with Linda’s name on it, but before I can open it, Kailyn texts to signal her arrival. I find her on my front porch in a pair of black leggings and a ratty It’s My Life hoodie, hair in a messy knot on top of her head, wearing her glasses, holding two takeout bags and a tray with coffees. She smiles a little uncertainly. “I brought fuel.” “Good thinking.” I take the coffees from her and step aside. “Come in.” We stand there for a protracted moment, staring at each other. Neither of us certain what to say, maybe. Tension lingers between us; unanswered questions hang in the air like thick fog. I’ve missed her, more than I wanted to admit. “Want to show me what you found?” Kailyn asks. “Yeah, follow me.” I incline my head toward the office. “Oh, wow,” she murmurs as she takes in the papers lining the desk; the endless loan documents, the emails she printed out from the boarding school. She raps on the desk with her long, polished fingernails. “And I just stumbled across this right before you got here, but I haven’t had a chance to look through it.” I offer her a chair and we pull up close to the desk as I flip the thick file folder open. Inside are printed copies of the loan documents, bank statements from my aunt with maxed-out lines of credits, credit cards with outrageous balances, and agreements between her and my parents that she would pay back the money. I rub my temple as all the pieces finally click into place. “She has a gambling problem.” Kailyn stops biting the end of her pen so she can respond. “I was about to say the same thing. It would explain the trip to Vegas and the comment about doubling what they lost last time.” “It makes sense, doesn’t it? Now I know why she’s so desperate to make me into some kind of villain and take custody of Emme.” I motion to the sea of papers spread out before us, still reeling. “This proves Linda’s intentions were purely selfish. She planted a bottle of vodka on a thirteen-year-old for Chrissake.” “There’s no way she’ll get custody now, not with all of this and that recording.” “I wouldn’t have figured this out without you.” “You would’ve, it may have taken longer, but you would’ve found all of this eventually and put it together.” She squeezes my forearm. “I just want Emme to be where she belongs, Dax, and that’s with you.” She seems so sincere, but it’s hard not to wonder how much of this is her wanting to help and her still working the partner angle. “Is that all you want?” She regards me uncertainly. “What do you mean?” “How much of this”—I tap the printed emails and glance down at her hand, still on my arm, keeping us connected, which I’ve missed over the weeks since I’ve seen her—“is to get you closer to your partnership? I don’t know what’s real and what’s not with you, Kailyn. I don’t know if I can trust your motivation for helping me.” Kailyn drops her hand to her lap and focuses there for a few seconds. “I know I broke your trust when you were in a vulnerable position and that earning it back won’t be easy, but know that everything I’m doing right now is because I want what’s best for you and Emme, and that’s for you to have each other.” She takes a deep breath. “I admit that when Beverly presented me with the offer for partner, I took you on as a challenge. I had a very different opinion of who you were. I also wanted to make sure that Emme wasn’t being taken advantage of. I had no idea what your reasons were, if you were just after Emme’s money like Linda so clearly is.” Kailyn meets my gaze with an imploring one of her own. “The first few years of my life weren’t good, Dax. Thankfully, I don’t have a lot of memories, but the ones I do have are the reason I’m here fighting for Emme to stay with you. I want you to know that the partnership stopped being a factor when I realized how hard you were trying to do what was best for Emme.” “And when was that, exactly?” “When you called me from CVS.” She smiles a little, maybe at the memory. “That’s when I saw the real you.”