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“Ahh coffee with a catch? The birthday party?” She started loading her car with her home visit bag and other supplies.
“Yeah. I’m telling him the board of directors from your community clinic wants to do a dedication ceremony for his donation. Think you could back me up?”
“Lying to my patient? How unethical.” But she was smiling. “What time?”
“I’ll be there around eleven.”
Her phone buzzed again—Noah’s daily morning call. “That’s Noah. I need to take this.”
“Hey baby,” she answered, stepping away.
“Mom! Guess what? We’re going to see another pirate house today!”
“That’s amazing! Tell me everything when you get back—”
There was a scuffle, and suddenly Jason’s voice came through, cold and hard. “Listen here, Kelsey. I know you’ve been digging around in my business. My accounts. You really think that’s going to help your case?”
Her blood ran cold. “I haven’t been—”
“Don’t lie to me. Back off, or things will get very unpleasant. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“Is Noah there? Can he hear you threatening me?”
A pause. “Noah, say goodbye to your mother.”
“Mom?” Noah’s voice was small. “Is Uncle Jason mad at you?”
“No, honey, everything’s fine.” She kept her voice steady through sheer will. “Adults just disagree sometimes. You go have fun. You can tell me more about it tomorrow?”
“Okay. Love you.”
“Love you too, baby. So much.”
The call ended and Kelsey gripped the porch railing, fury burning through her veins. How dare he? Using Noah like that, trying to frighten him, to turn him…
Wait.
She hadn’t been investigating Jason’s finances. But obviously someone had. Someone with resources, with connections to be able to accomplish something like that.
“Mac?” she called out across the driveway where he waited for her to end the call, her voice carefully neutral. His easy smile faded when he saw her face, returning to his typical frown.
“Everything okay?”
“You tell me.” Kelsey set her coffee mug down with deliberate care. “Why is Jason Prescott accusing me of investigating his finances?”
Mac went still, as though he was choosing his words carefully. It was answer enough.
“What did you do?”
“Kels—”
“Don’t ‘Kels’ me. What did you do?” Her voice cracked slightly. “He just threatened me with Noah on the line. He’s trying to use this to turn my son against me.”
Mac’s expression darkened. “He what?”
“Answer the question, Mac.”
He crossed the driveway, not quite meeting her eyes. “I had our team look into his business dealings. There were… irregularities.”
