“You’ve known him what—a year? Maybe two? You only know the sides of him he lets the world see, Molly.” She spat my name at me like it was a dirty word. “I’ve known him his entire life. I knew him before the Navy fucked him up. He’ll come back to me. He always does.”

I snorted at her absurd argument. Yeah, they’d grown up together, and they’d been married. So how was it that he was still a stranger to her? “Maybe before you decided to fuck around, but not now.”

Unfiltered fury washed over her face. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I shrugged. “You’re right. It’s none of my business, and I only know one side—Mike’s. But I do know that you took something important away from him, Julie. And for that, he’s never going to forgive you. If he can’t forgive you, he’ll never love you.”

Her eyes flashed dangerously, and then she gave me a smug look. “He doesn’t have to forgive me. He doesn’t have to love me. Hell, he doesn’t even have to like me. I’m the mother of his children. At the end of the day, he will always choose his children first.”

She was right. We both knew it. What kind of woman would use her children as pawns to get a man? The thought left a bitter taste in my mouth. “Child,” I snapped back without meaning to. “He will always put his child first. That’s because his son means everything to him.” When her mouth dropped slightly in surprise, I knew I’d gone too far. I felt like I’d just betrayed Mike’s trust, like I’d given away a secret that I’d sworn to keep.

“What?” She hissed at me as if she was honestly surprised I knew.

I stood, completely done with her and this pointless conversation. She disgusted me.

As I moved to step by her chair, she stood, blocking my way. “Janet is a Carson. That’s fact.” She took a step closer, making me take a step back—not out of fear, but because her children were in the room and I didn’t want to cause a scene or scare them. All things their mother apparently didn’t care about as she leaned her head in toward mine. “Don’t mess with my family, Molly. You’re not a mom so you have no idea how far I’ll go to protect my children. I’ll do what’s best for them, even if it’s not something I want to do. Might as well get it through the ditzy little head of yours that their father”—she spit the words—“will do the same.”

With that, she spun on her heel and stomped across the room. I took a deep breath, my eyes moving over my friends, thankful all of them seemed engrossed in their own conversations. Out of everything that Julie had just said, my mind was caught on one thing.

Janet is a Carson. That’s a fact. 

Janet was a Carson. Maybe not by blood, but by name. Mike and Julie had been married when she’d been born. Why had I not thought of that before? That meant that Janet was legally Mike’s daughter. Didn’t that mean he had a legal right to her? I needed to call my sister.

I pulled my phone out of the back pocket of my jeans and started to dial her number. Feeling like there were eyes on me, I glanced up to find Julie glaring at me from across the room. I couldn’t talk to Anneslee with her watching me—not about this.

I paused, thinking about the places I could go. The bathroom was too risky, because hagface could walk in and hear me. The hall wasn’t an option because Mike could overhear the conversation, and I didn’t want him to know until I had definite proof. I could head to my dressing room—Lia had given us the venue tour earlier so I knew where it was. Mike would be pissed that I’d left without security. But if I rushed down there, made the call, and then hurried back before his meeting was over, he’d never know.

Peterson, the mammoth of a man that Sammy had brought on for this tour, stopped me as soon as I opened the door. “I need you to go back inside, Ms. Ray.”

I put my hands on my hips and gave him my best diva look. “I’m going to my dressing room.”

He held out a hand. “No, you’re staying here until Carson gets back.”

“He’s meeting me there.” I held up my phone. “I just got the text.” Ugh. I hated to lie. If this hadn’t been so damn important, I would have just gone back inside and waited.

Peterson looked at my phone then back at me. “I didn’t get anything.”

“Does he know your number?” I asked, digging myself a deeper hole. “He said the meeting was running late and that I needed to get to makeup, so he’d meet me there.”

Peterson didn’t look convinced.

“He’s gonna be pissed at me if I’m late. Then he’s gonna be pissed at you for making me late.”

I saw the change instantly and knew I’d won. I hated knowing that my white lies could get this man in trouble, and hoped that no one would know. But the longer he kept me here, the more chance I had of getting caught. I gave him puppy dog eyes.

“Fine. Go. Tell Carson that next time he wants to change the plan, he needs to let me know. I can’t do my damn job if they leave me out of the loop.” He grumbled, shooing me away with his hand.

I nodded and turned, trying not to hurry away. Once I rounded the corner, though, I broke into a sprint, thankful I was still wearing jeans and sneakers. I headed straight to the room that had been assigned to me for the next two nights. As soon as the door closed behind me, I pressed Anneslee’s contact button and held the phone to my ear.

“She lives!” my sister announced in greeting. “I thought we’d be playing the epic game of phone tag a little longer.”

I smiled, happy to hear her voice. After I’d had Bryant, I’d been lost and didn’t know where to go. Anneslee took me in with open arms, and we’d been extremely close ever since. She was old enough to be my mom, and I’m sure she thought of me more like the daughter she’d never had than her little sister. “You’re it.” I heard people talking in the background and knew instantly she wasn’t alone. “You got a minute?”

“For you? I’ve got two. How in the hell are you?”

“I promise I’ll call and catch up soon. But I’ve only got a few minutes. Are you still dating the lawyer?”

She laughed. “Fucking. I was fucking the lawyer. I’m dating the investment banker—the lawyer’s best friend,” she clarified. “But yes, I’m still fucking the lawyer.”

I shook my head. Leave it to my big sister—she got more play than women half her age. And they say men only want young beauty queens. Please. My sister could put any gold-digger to shame. I wanted to hear more about this sordid little love triangle, but I was on a time crunch. “He’s in family law, right? Or was that someone else?” I honestly couldn’t remember, there were just so many in the revolving door of men that my sister dated.

“Yes, he practices family law.”

“Can you ask him a question for me? Or is that overstepping?”

She cackled. “Please. Honey, I’ll ask him whatever you need me to. Hell, I’ll have him call you if you want me to. The things I do to that man guarantee me free legal advice whenever I need it.” I hoped she was joking. “Why, what’s up?”

“I need to find out what rights a legal father has. If he has any rights to the child at all.”

“Hold on.” Her tone had changed, no longer playful. “Okay, people, meeting’s over. I need the room.” I heard her slap her hands, as if to hurry them out. Only high-level executives would stop a work meeting to have a personal conversation, and then end the meeting early to finish said conversation in private.

A few seconds later the background noise was gone and she came back on the phone. “What does he want now?”

I shook my head, not knowing what she was talking about. “Huh? Who?”

She didn’t listen. “I told him when he was here that he could shit in his hat. The adoption had been finalized and there hadn’t been a paternity test, so he didn’t have a leg to stand on. He wasn’t getting anything, not money and definitely not information on Bryant. Not from me, and certainly not from you. I told him if he came within five feet of you again that I’d slap him with a restraining order so fast his head would spin. Stalking itself may not be illegal, but harassment is. Those letters he sent were enough proof—and we had no doubt they were from him—any judge would grant an order of protective. I thought the ass would slink back into his hole. Apparently, I overestimated his intelligence.”