Page 147 of Heart Strings & Hotlines
How it ends…
“Knock, knock. Can I come in?”
Kara’s door opens with a woosh that blows the hair back from my face.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” she says. Her cheeks are pale, and I can see the moisture on her forehead.
“Aw, sweetie. It’s okay to be nervous.”
“And I can’t get my hair right, my clothes aren’t fitting, and, and…I really might barf.”
I hold onto her biceps and scan her body. “Well, it looks as though you’ve grown when we weren’t paying attention.” Her pants sit at her shins, and she is definitely taller than me by a few inches.
She wrings her hands together in front of her stomach. It’s been six months since the disastrous award ceremony, and five months since our first court hearing with her father.
I hide a shiver, remembering that first court date when their father attempted to eviscerate this little girl. I’ve never been angrier at a judge in my entire life. We only found out later that he was Jonah’s golf buddy.
Kara is actually the one who mentioned it, and we were able to have her case switched to a new courtroom. Kara’s testimony, and the video Weston Westbrook sent Thane showcasing Jonah’s vitriol toward his daughter, are what gave Thane temporary full custody.
Little Weston definitely secured his spot at Wilder Minds with that one.
Since then, we’ve had multiple home visits and court-appointed mediators checking in on us with Kara whenever they got the urge.
Today, we’re making it official. We’ve asked the courts to terminate Jonah’s parental rights and allow us to legally adopt her. In just a few hours, we’ll find out if our request was granted—but from what all the attorneys have said, it’s as good as done.
Since Jonah is currently on house arrest for insider trading, we don’t foresee any issues anyway.
“Okay, I might have something that will work. I bought a dress online, and it’s too long for me. Want to try it on?”
“Yes, please. I should have just brought more clothes from home.” She crosses her arms over her chest and directs her anger toward the walk-in closet that is still full of clothes from when she lived in the penthouse with Thane before moving to Sweetbriar.
“It happens. You wear shorts all the time at home, so that’s probably why we didn’t notice the massive growth spurt. Why don’t you head into your bathroom and work on your hair, and I’ll go pull some stuff I bought yesterday while you were packing up at your father’s place. Sound good?”
“I should have just gone shopping with you. He destroyed everything that was mine after…”
“After the FBI got an anonymous tip.” Thane enters the room with the swagger of a Hollywood movie star.
“Are you really going to stand there and tell me that you had nothing to do with that?” Kara asks. At least her frown is curling into a smile now.
“Kara.” Thane uses an annoyed tone he’s been practicing, but it makes him sound like a drunk Matthew McConaughey, and not in a good way. It does make Kara snicker, so hopefully she’s feeling a little less pukey. “Whoever the tipster was would have had to do something highly illegal, like hack into not only Jonah’s business but also into multiple banks. Does that sound like something I’d do?”
The jackass doesn’t even try to hide his smirk.
“So, you’re telling me that our dad and Lottie’s dad both just happened to get busted within a week of each other?”
Thane’s anonymous tipster also shared that Sinclair Systems had been stealing from clients for over twenty years, and although no one has been directly charged yet, Sinclair Systems is essentially defunct.
Somehow, while handling all of that, he was also able to prove that my father had no right to any piece of my company. He was only slightly annoyed when I remembered I had started it on an older computer he didn’t have access to. Once I handed it over, he was able to locate the missing files he’d been searching for, and the lawsuit was dismissed three days later.
If he weren’t in bed with me every night, I’d question if he ever sleeps.
“Robin Hood appears to have been on our side this time, and now Wilder Minds and the Fitzgerald Group are benefiting from their dirty deeds.” Thane cocks his head to the side as he studies Kara. “What’s going on with your pants?”
“Ugh, Brad. Why do you have to be so blunt? Nothing fits, okay? I don’t know what to wear and today is a big day and I don’t know what?—”
“Kara.” He interrupts and waits until she’s caught her breath. “Clothing is an easy fix. We have plenty of time before we have to leave.” He focuses his attention on me next. “What size do you think she is now?”
“Ah, I don’t know, a two or a four tall in women’s? In juniors, maybe a five or a seven? She’s got long legs like you.”
