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Damn, Rollins, when you fall, you fall hard.
How could I not, though?
"You just couldn't stay away, huh?" I teased her. She gave me a slight smile and stepped into the office and closed the door behind her.
"You might say that," she said. Alarm bells went off in my head that she was so quickly giving into the flirtation. It was not like her. Where was her scathing retort? Where was her biting response? Something was up.
"You know, it might take me just a little bit longer to get going after last night, but give me a few minutes, and I'll be ready for ya," I told her with a smile, hoping against hope that whatever it was she came to talk to me about was something simple, even though something in me knew deep down that it wasn't.
That worry I had seen in her eyes before was even worse now, and it was exacerbated by the fact that she kept biting her lip. Reagan Miles did not get nervous. Why the fuck was she so nervous? "Why are you looking like that?" I asked her.
"Like what?"
"Like you're about to deliver really bad news. That's usually my job."
"It's not bad news, per se. It's just a little bit of a hiccup," she assured me.
"Okay, well then, spit it out, what's this hiccup?" I asked, moving closer to her. I couldn't help but notice that she didn't move back.
She stood her ground and looked into my eyes when she said, "Another relative has stepped forward for Wolfie."
I didn't know why that felt like such a punch to the gut. It was the very thing I had asked for not that long ago. Yet, somehow, it felt like a violation.
I shook my head. "Okay…okay," I sputtered out, still processing what I'd just heard. "Well, then, just tell them that I changed my mind—that it was just the shock that made me ask for that. They've got to understand that. But Wolfie—he's happy, I'm happy, and we're making this work."
I saw her swallow hard before she continued, "I made that clear, but this woman is not taking no easily."
I shook my head in disbelief. "Who is this person? Where were they when Ronnie was still alive?"
Reagan laid it out for me. "Her name is Linda Baker. She is one of Veronica's aunts on her mother's side. She admits that she didn't see her all that often, but she claims it was because of the Rollins family's interference. She says that otherwise, she would've been close to her niece."
"Bullshit," I spat out. "The Rollins don't mess with stuff like that. If it doesn't concern day drinking, stocks, or the country club, they don't give a shit. They don't trouble themselves with meddling into other people's family lives, obviously, since none of them even reached out to me since Ronnie has passed and Wolfie has been with me."
Reagan nodded. "I suspected that from what she had said in the past. But she's got a pretty good story cooked up about how she was kept away from her niece and that she would've been there for if she'd been able to. She said she wants to make it up to her with her child."
I collapsed into my office chair and rubbed a frustrated hand over my face. It felt like somebody had just dumped a bucket of ice water all over me. "Well, you're a smart cookie, do you think she's telling the truth?"
Reagan shook her head and then took the seat across from me. "I had a long conversation with her and her lawyer this morning. When she was done talking about how she's been kept away from Veronica, she spent most of her time talking about Wolfie's estate and the monthly allowance that's given to his guardian to see to his needs."
"His estate? He's a little boy, who gives a crap about his estate? That's for him when he's an adult. And that allowance they give, I haven't even touched that. I was just going to throw it into a bank account for him to do what he wanted with when he was of age."
"I remembered you saying that, and that's something that I will bring up when we meet with the judge," she assured me.
I launched forward in my seat. "We're going to have to meet with a judge? This is ridiculous, Reagan."
"I know," she said. "But as long as Miss Baker pursues custody, we're going to have to iron it out with the judge. There's also a likely possibility that child protective services will be called in to evaluate who will be a better match for Wolfie," she explained.
"Child protective services? Is this lady going to try to prove that I'm, like, an unfit parent or something?"
"That looks to be her strategy so far," Reagan admitted. "But Adam, I don't want you stressing over this. For one thing, she hardly has a leg to stand on. From what I can tell, she has only been around Veronica a handful of times, and they were not close at all. At this point, it doesn't really matter whether that was due to family interference or not. What matters is that Veronica and her husband chose you to be Wolfgang's guardian, and that was for a reason. We just have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were in the right mindset to choose you."
I shook my head. "I know I said to look for somebody…God, if I could go back and punch past Adam in the face for saying that," I muttered.
Reagan leaned forward and placed her hand gently on my knee. "Don't do that to yourself. It was and still is a crazy situation. You were in shock. But the important thing is that Wolfie gets what he needs. Now, we know without a shadow of a doubt that he needs to be with you. So, we're just going to show the court that he's thriving where he's at and that it would just do more harm to take him from a place that he's gotten comfortable with. I realize this is uncomfortable and inconvenient, but I want you to know I'm throwing everything I got at this. It's not just me working on this case now. I pulled in my senior law counsel, and they have dealt with cases much more bizarre than this. They'll be able to give some good insight on everything that we need to prepare for."
The warmth of her touch on my knee comforted me almost immediately. But not even Reagan would be able to comfort me enough to calm the tornado of emotions swirling inside me. I felt a lump forming in my throat. "This is my fault. This is my fault for wishing for somebody else to take care of him. I brought this on us."
Reagan looked at me with watery eyes, and then, to my surprise, she got up from her chair. She came over and sat on my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck, looking down into my face meaningfully. "You've got to quit doing that. It's nobody's fault. It's just a snag, admittedly an ugly one, but one that we will get through. But listen, you're going to have to find a way to put a good face on this before you see Wolfie. He's already having a hard enough time, and if he senses that you're this stressed out…" she trailed off.
