“You don’t know him.” There was a little less defense in Gabi’s tone.
“No, you’re right, I don’t know him. But I know his type. He’s rich, arrogant, and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Men like him bend the law, bribe the law . . . seduce it even, to reach their goals. You went into this contract cold and detached, Gabi. I suggest you find that woman and bring her back if you want to walk away a whole person. Don’t let Blackwell do to you what Picano did.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Gabi stared at her lawyer and knew the woman gave sound advice.
Not that Gabi wanted to hear it.
Back inside the car, Solomon reached inside the glove compartment and removed a small box. “Neil had this made,” he told her. “And he wants you to wear it at all times.”
She opened the lid and found a locket on a silver chain. “Why would Neil be buying me jewelry?”
Solomon laughed as he pulled out into traffic. “It’s a GPS device. As much as one of us will be glued at your side, there are times, like today, where you’ll be out of our sight. I meant to give it to you earlier. Sitting in the lobby reminded me that you didn’t have it on.”
She placed it over her head and looked at the simple design. Fiddling with the latch didn’t result in opening it.
“It doesn’t open.”
“Oh.” Overkill. From bodyguards to lockets.
“It’s merely a tracking device, right? It doesn’t record what I’m saying?”
Solomon offered a shake of his head. “Nope. Just GPS. It’s waterproof, too. So you can shower with it.”
With a shrug, Gabi tucked the locket under her shirt and focused on the passing landscape and the barrage of people surrounding them . . . people who weren’t wearing tracking devices or traveling with an armed bodyguard at their side.
The morning visit to his office was met with a subpoena from Sheila requesting Hayden’s child support. Seems the woman was moving forward faster than Hunter could run.
Hunter sat across from Ben Lipton and his team of family law attorneys.
“She has to consent to a paternity test,” Ben told him.
Hunter already had one. Underpaid staff in the clinic Sheila was taking Hayden to had no problem supplying saliva for a little money.
“The test will prove I’m the father,” he told them. “Your job is to use the information I give you to obtain my complete and exclusive custody.”
“As I told you before, she has to be unfit to care for her son. Your stability and proof positive that Hayden is your son will only grant you partial custody. Child support will be inevitable.”
“The woman wants a payout, not the title of mother.”
The lawyers glanced at each other. “She will appoint a paternity testing doctor, and we’ll have ours. That will buy us forty-eight hours to find something on her that’s unfit.”
“You have the reports from my investigators.”
“An antidepressant isn’t a smoking gun. And she hasn’t seen a doctor for anything psychological in five years. She might not provide well for Hayden, but she does have him with adults when she’s not by his side.”
“Incompetent adults.”
“Which makes them liable, not her,” Ben told him.
The attorney on Ben’s left sat forward. “She’s not expecting you to take her son. She might come back fighting.”
“She’s only in this for the money. Dangle a check, she’ll take it.”
Ben crossed his arms over his chest. “How can you be so sure?”
Hunter knew the lawyers were obligated to keep his secrets. So he gave them what they needed. “Because Hayden isn’t my biological son. I never slept with Sheila Watson . . . my brother did.”
A collective sigh went through the room.
“And if your brother seeks custody?”
“He can try. Once Sheila proves I’m the father, and I confirm it, Noah will have nothing to support his claim. If he tries, I’m sure you men can make his case disappear.”
A few nods were knocked back and forth.
Hunter stood to leave. “Call me with the doctor we’re using. Gabriella and I will be here on Friday for the hearing.”
“If I can push the court that quickly,” Ben said.
Hunter offered a cold stare.
Ben lifted his hands. “I’ll make it happen.”
“That’s better. Good day, counselors.”
Before he left the room, he heard someone whisper, “And I thought Christmas with my family sucked.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Gabi sat on the sofa, her legs curled up under her as the twinkling of Christmas lights added a glow to the room.
Lori’s words had haunted her all day.
Was she making the same mistakes? Was she trusting the wrong man? If Hunter was capable of bribing the law, seducing it . . . was he doing the same to her? All his mutterings of not being good enough for her infused her with power in their relationship. Was it false power? Was his seduction of her an extension of getting what he wanted?
He wanted Hayden . . .