Chapter 13: The Lawyer Walks Out

The housekeeper came into the study without knocking, which she had never done before.

"Madam, Mr. Gavin is at the front door," she said. "He has the lawyer from the penthouse with him."

Bennett started to stand.

"Sit down, dear," said Beatrice. "Let them in. I have wanted to see his face all morning."

I looked at the laptop, where a photo of me buying white socks still filled the screen.

"Leave it open," I said.

Bennett looked at me for a moment, and then he moved the laptop to the middle of the desk.

Gavin came in with a fresh shirt and a shaved face, trying to project total composure.

He wasn't composed at all.

His eyes were red at the edges, and his cuff was buttoned wrong.

The lawyer in the gray suit walked in behind him with a thick folder under his arm.

"Grandmother," Gavin said, very gently. "I'm sorry to do this in your house."

"You're not sorry. Please begin."

The lawyer cleared his throat.

"Mrs. Hargrove, my client has filed an emergency petition for temporary custody of his unborn child."

"Has he."

"The petition states that Miss Keene is unstable, that she has been living with another man, and that she hid her pregnancy from my client."

"Hid it," I said.

"The facts are in the folder."

He laid out a sheet of paper, and then a photograph of two people in a lit kitchen, taken from the dark garden.

My face was against Bennett's shirt.

"This was taken this morning, in this house, two days after the family gala," the lawyer said. "It speaks for itself."

"It does," said Beatrice. "It says that my grandson took a picture of his wife through a window."

Gavin's jaw moved.

"She's carrying my child, Gran. I have a right to protect it."

"From whom?"

"From people who would use her."

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