“Do you think she really made that up?” Jada asked, nibbling on a cookie. The evening sun shone brightly in the West-facing windows, creating shadows across all the walls.
“I do. I really do,” I said, nodding in disbelief. “I just don’t know how to go about handling it at this point. I want to go rip her a new . . .” I looked at Kari and cleared my throat, catching myself. “I want to knock on her door and let her have it.”
“But that will only keep the ball rolling,” Kari said, cutting me off. “You have to ignore her. We all do.”
“What about Bri?” Cane asked.
“Bri agrees. She’s the one that told me about Joe Dumas. I called her after Kari called me, telling me about Gladys. She said Sam had been calling her but she wouldn’t answer. And I guess Sam went by her apartment a couple of times, but Bri wouldn’t answer the door.” I took a drink of my beer. “She let that shit happen to my sister. I just don’t think Bri knows what to say to her. She’s pissed as hell, but she’s also, I don’t know, sad? Hurt?”
Jada shook her head. “This is just so disgusting. She was sneaking into your house. I lived there, too, at that time. Even I feel violated! What if she went through all of my stuff? I just . . . it makes me sick!”
“I know,” Kari said, taking a cookie off the plate. “I’m just so over crazy people. Sam apparently coming in my house, making my life a mess. Blaine called me again today.” She added that little piece on the end as a side note.
“He did what?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“I didn’t answer it.”
I tossed my hat on the chair next to me, dropping a little bomb of my own. “I met with him this afternoon, too.”
“You did what?” Kari asked, turning to look at me. “Why?”
“I wanted to know how he met Sam. I wanted to know if she did set you up.”
“And?”
“Of course she fucking did,” Cane said, rolling his eyes.
I nodded.
“Is there anything you can do?” Jada asked. “I mean, to protect yourself?”
“I think you’re giving them too much credit,” I said, laughing. “All we have to do at this point is not believe Sam’s bullshit and Kari needs to ignore Blaine and this will all go away. Be history.”
“Speaking of Sam’s line of bullshit, I got a call from Dan Collins today,” Cane said. “He found the original Grady quote that was sent for the Chandler job. The one he had been using was a copy and the top of the fax, where it shows the fax number it was sent from, was cut off. Anyway, he was going through the job file and found the original. Guess where the Grady quote was sent from?”
My stomach sank. “Us.”
“Bingo.” Cane got up from the table, a serious look on his face. “I need some air.”
I flashed Jada a curious look and she watched him walk into his office. “His mom sent another letter. He’s . . . touchy. I don’t know what to do. He’s so preoccupied with it, Max. I heard him vomiting this morning. It’s killing him.”
I stood and made my way to his office door. I opened it cautiously. He was standing at the window, looking over the city. He didn’t even acknowledge I was there.
I closed the door behind me. “Cane?”
He shook his head but didn’t move. “I don’t know what to do.” He sounded so un-Cane like. Normally he was bursting with energy, hell-bent on every situation, one way or the other. But that confidence was gone.
“What’s going on, man?”
He turned towards me, his hands deep in his pockets. “I got another letter from Kellie. She wants to meet me.”
My heart sank for him. “I know that has to be hard.”
“I want to tell her to go fuck herself. She left me, so what makes her think she gets a chance to just waltz back into my life?” He walked to his desk and sat down.
“But you’re not telling her to go fuck herself. Why?”
His shoulders slumped forward. “Jada says I need to think about giving her a chance. That I don’t have to let her in my life, but I need to hear her out. Something about there being two sides to a story and she knows what it feels like to be a mother now. I don’t fucking know.”
“Well, she has a point.”
“But damn it, I might not be a mother but I’m a father. And I’m telling you,” he said, his voice getting angry, “that I cannot imagine walking away from Jada or this baby. And she walked away from me!”
I hung my head, not knowing what to say. I saw both sides of the coin. “Look,” I said, meeting his eyes, “if you really want to tell her to fuck off, do it. I’ll stand by you. Jada will, too. No one can blame you for that and it’s your right. This is your call, Alexander. But you do need to think about it. I mean, she was kind of young when she had you, right?”