I smile my best smile, hiding the pain and cutting devastation as I regard her, looking into the green eyes that I miss with an ache that’s threatening to spit me in the deepest, darkest part of an unknown abyss.
“Oh good, then why don’t you march right up to the Bishops amazing mansion and ask them to help you bail out your son from the mess you put him in,” I get in the car. “I mean, what else are in-laws for if not to be there for you in your time of need.”
Bitter. I feel bitter and rotten inside.
“Mia, please,” she rushes, stepping right in front of the door before I can close it. “I wouldn’t be here if I knew you couldn’t help.”
“Yeah, after what you made me do? I don’t owe you a damn thing,” I say with all the venom I can’t contain. “Now move before I move you.”
“He’ll go to prison for life!” Courtney shouts. Just then, the front door opens and Nicky steps out, a frown on her face.
“What are you doing here, bitch?” Nicky demands, quickly walking over to us. “Step away from my daughter.”
“Honestly, Nicky, I didn’t come here to fight with you or with Mia,” Courtney says, rolling her eyes.
“You’re just here to antagonize her, huh?” Nicky snaps, folding her arms. “Why are you really here?”
“To ask for help,” Courtney says. “And if you want me to beg, Mia, I will. I’ll get on my knees if I must, just please, help me keep my son from going to prison. If that trial starts, well, it can’t be good. I know you care about him enough to not want to see him suffer.”
What about me? Who fights for me? But the point is moot seeing as I’m already late in meeting up with Cole with all the evidence that will help Julian.
“Please, Mia. I’ll do anything for my son.”
“Yeah, anything but actually love him and understand that he just wants a simple yet fulfilled future of following his dream of playing professional football, not playing house with some girl,” I murmur, my phone vibrating with a text.
“That’s not a fulfilled life but right now he’s facing life in prison, Mia please.”
“Hey, back away,” Nicky says to Courtney. “Stop putting pressure on her. You’ll have to give Mia the time she needs to decide whether or not she actually wants to help you. So, thanks for dropping by your house—that will honestly never really belong to you no matter what—we’re somehow now living in. Goodbye and have the shittiest day known to mankind.”
“Spare me the theatrics, Nicky,” Courtney says. “Mia knows this is a time sensitive matter.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means she’s the only one that can help this situation.”
“What?” Nicky demands. “You want my daughter to go up to that court with the kind of violent media storm around her name already and what? Testify in denial of the lies you made up? No way in hell.”
“If push comes to shove, Nicky, that’s what we’ll have to do, but honestly at this point, we can’t do that because Nathan is watching her.”
“What?” Nicky screeches. “What do you mean by that?”
“It means just that, Nicky, why do you look surprised like it’s out of the realm of possibility with that asshole.”
“No, no, he played you for a fool,” I say, stepping out the car to stare at Courtney. “You’re here because you lost.”
“Yes, I might have lost to that jerk, but Mia, you’re the key. Nathan knows it too, that’s why he’s watching you!”
My mind starts racing like one of those old VCR tapes on rewind. If what Courtney is saying is the truth—which I highly believe—then if I go to meet Cole, he will find out, thereby, breaking one of the terms of the deal I made with him.
I can’t let him get to Liam too. God, it would kill me. As it is, I’m half dead.
“So, what do we do?” I whisper. “Because if he’s watching me…” I can’t risk him finding out all the information I have that will save Julian.
“This was all a part of Nathan’s plan. He’s always wanted to get back at John by all means possible,” Courtney cries. “What do we do?”
Before she can say anything, I grab my phone as well as the thick envelope with my own contingency plan. Shooting out a hurried text to Cole, I let him know that he’ll be meeting with someone else.
“Sweetheart, what are you doing?” Nicky questions, but I ignore her, waiting for Cole to text back.
Cole: Sure thang. But are you ok? Do you need me?
Me: Let’s talk after we get Julian acquitted. Keep him safe, Cole. Both of them.
Cole: I’ve got you. All 3 of you.
Me: Ditto.
“Do you have a plan, Mia?” Courtney questions quietly, watching me with a knowing gaze, her eyes shifting from my phone to the envelope.
“Yes, I do, but first, you are going to fuckling ensure this goes through without a hitch.”
“I will—”
“Are you still working with Nathan?” I snap, cutting her off. She starts, her eyes widening just a fraction as if she wasn’t expecting to be asked that. “Well, are you?”
“Answer the question!” Nicky presses.
“Yes!” Courtney yelps. “Yes, I’m still in contact with that jerk but only because I want to find out what exactly he intends to do with my sons,” she says between breaths. “Nathan has had his eye on you and trust me on this, if you deviate from what your ‘agreement’ he will not hesitate to put my sons in danger.”
“Your sons? You’d think that you actually care for them,” Nicky spits out angrily, now standing behind Courtney, but Courtney ignores her.
“I only made the deal with Nathan because he was the only one I could trust to get the results I wanted. To protect my sons.”
“No, you sided with him to break me and Julian apart!” I cry. “You said I should stay away from him. That I should not get in the way of his marriage shit!”
“What?” Nicky gasps in shock but I ignore her.
“You wanted me to out the way and you got your wish!” At the expense of my own heartbreak, the void on my mind, the aches that ravage me driving back to slashing my wrists, all of that in the name of protecting him. “But that doesn’t matter right now. What fucking matters is what you’re going to do between now and five minutes.”
“Anything.”
I explain what she has to do, giving her the envelope that Cole is expecting right now.
“I should give him this?” Courtney says with a delicate frown on her pretty face. “I mean, I can go straight to the—”
“Listen lady, I don’t trust you,” I snap. “I’ve never trusted you and now, you either go meet him or the entire thing is off.”
“If you don’t trust me, what makes you think I will go straight to Cole?”
“Because he’s the only one who can open the folder in there now,” I say with a hard smile on my face, proud of the lock that’s on the inner folder of which the code I already texted to Cole. “Now be a dear, Courtney, and go run this errand for a son you don’t even respect.”