Stranded with My Stepbrother Chapter 98

\-Jacey-

When the door swung open, I was in the middle of my sixth sobbing jag. Caleb came straight to my side, kneeling beside my chair and hugging my waist.

“You were gone so long,” I whispered, putting my wadded-up Kleenex down so I could hug him back properly. “Why were you gone so long?”

“They wanted to go over all of my crimes so that there was nothing Chalmers could appeal.” His voice was muffled against my clothes. “Baby, are you okay?”

It was a stupid question. I was not okay, and we both already knew that. “Will isn’t mine. I don’t know if we can fight for custody of him,” I said, my voice trembling.

He was quiet, and that was a good indicator to me that something else was terribly, terribly wrong. “Caleb?”

“Let me just hug you for a minute,” he sighed, squeezing me tighter.

Terribly, terribly wrong. “Okay,” I reluctantly agreed.

“I’ll let you two have the room.” I’d forgotten Officer Alexander was even there.

I gave him a watery, but grateful, smile. “Thank you.”

He nodded and left.

I stroked Caleb’s hair, wondering what the awful news was going to be, becoming more terrified as the minutes stretched on. “Caleb?” I finally said again.

“Masterson made a deal.” He rocked back on his knees and took my hands. “He’ll take twenty-five years in prison.”

“But that’s good news,” I replied. “That’s wonderful news, actually.”

He swallowed. “In return… he keeps custody of Will.”

My heart stopped. “No.”

“That’s what I said. They’re doing a maternity and paternity test through the government this time to make sure, but Judge Powell is really considering it. He even told me to keep my nose out of it,” he said miserably.

“Oh God.” The horror in my belly made me sick to my stomach, and I had to push Caleb away so I could get to the garbage can and throw up.

He came over and held back my hair while I emptied what little I’d been able to eat that day into the trash. “I’m going to ask Jake if we can get a lawyer or something and fight this.”

I wiped my mouth. “Ask him now,” I croaked. “Ask him right now.”

“Okay.” He rubbed my back for a moment then went to the door and called for Officer Alexander.

I sank to my knees on the floor.

Officer Alexander came in and looked down at me with concern, coming over to help me up, but I waved him off.

“What’s going on?” he asked Caleb.

Caleb explained what had happened in the courtroom. “Is there any way we can get a lawyer and fight this?”

Officer Alexander looked pained. “It’d be a hard sell. You’d need a really good lawyer, and you don’t have any of your own money.”

He was right. We were at the mercy of the very government that was going to put Will beyond our reach. “Oh God,” I whispered again.

Caleb’s chin jutted out mutinously. “There has to be something we can do. Maybe if this case gets really famous, or we go to the papers, or…”

“You want him to try harder to kill you? Plus, I think this one’s getting sealed, and you’re both going to have to sign non-disclosure agreements along with the jury. What they’ve been telling the public is that Masterson is in trouble for insider trading,” Officer Alexander said.

“Yeah. Of people,” Caleb responded bitterly.

“You know that. I know that. But if you tell the public, you’re going to lose what little protection you have.” Officer Alexander sounded glum. “I’m so sorry, you two, but I think you’re going to have to give this one up.”

I struggled to my feet, abandoning the garbage can. Caleb rushed over to help me. “‘This one’?” I hissed. “There is no ‘this one.’ This is my son. I don’t care if he’s biologically mine or not. I carried him in my body. He’s a baby in the hands of that… that…”

“Monster,” Caleb provided.

“Yes, that monster!” I agreed. “He’s innocent. He doesn’t deserve to grow up in that asshole’s claws!”

“I hear what you’re saying,” Officer Alexander replied slowly. “And Lord knows I agree with you, but there’s nothing we can do, Jacey. Nothing. Do you understand? I want you to tell me you understand before we go back out there. You can’t make a scene.”

My hands balled into fists. “If they don’t want a scene, they shouldn’t be trying to take Will away from us.”

He moved to block the door. “You can’t go out there like this. I need you to sit and think about what you’re doing first. Really think about it. If, after an hour, you’re still set on doing what I think you’re going to do, then I’ll let you out, and you can do whatever you want. But I really want you to think about this first.”

I stormed toward him, but Caleb caught my arm. “Let’s give it an hour, Jacey. We can come up with a good plan of attack.”

“A good plan of attack,” I echoed. I glowered at Officer Alexander, but what Caleb was saying made sense. It would be best to go in with some sort of plan.

Caleb sat down and pulled me into his lap. He rubbed my back, and my rage began to recede. Slightly. “I love you, baby.”

“I love you, too. But don’t call me ‘baby’ right now,” I said.

He nodded. “Okay.”

For the longest time, we were both silent, the cogs in our heads turning as we thought over the situation.

“We could—” Caleb began uncertainly.

“Maybe—?” I said at the same time.

“You go first,” Caleb encouraged me.

“No, you. My idea is stupid,” I mumbled.

“Mine, too,” Caleb sighed. “Shit.”

Officer Alexander just leaned quietly against the door, waiting for us to come to the same conclusion he had half an hour ago.

However, I was not willing to give up. “We could steal him?” I suggested. “Just slip onto the estate and take him.”

“With all the cameras?” Caleb reminded me in frustration.

Oh. Right. The cameras. How could I forget?! My desperate mind was now trying to discount reality. “Maybe…”

There was a knock on the door. “Caleb? Jacey? The bailiff needs to come in and get cheek swabs from both of you,” the Attorney General said through the door.

I wasn’t a huge fan of hers right now and was about to tell her where she could go with her cheek swabs, but then, it occurred to me it wouldn’t be beyond Masterson to just torture us this way as long as he could. Maybe I was Will’s mother after all. “Okay,” I murmured.

Officer Alexander stepped away from the door, and it swung in. The bailiff, wearing vinyl gloves, was carrying two test packets with him.

“I want you to know, even if this test comes back that I’m not the mother, we’re fighting for custody of Will,” I said to the Attorney General just before the bailiff rubbed a cotton swab against the inside of my cheek.

“That won’t be happening, Jacey. I’m sorry.” She did sound truly regretful, but it just made my blood boil.

“I don’t need you to be sorry. This isn’t right! He’s just a baby,” I argued.

The bailiff finished swabbing Caleb’s cheek before he chimed in. “We want Will. It’ll be the best environment for him to grow up with us.”

“What? Grow up always on the run? Are you sure about that?” she asked.

She might as well have stabbed me in the back. “What?”

“That’s the argument I will use against your custody plea, if you can even get a lawyer to sponsor one,” she said. “You two don’t have a stable environment for a baby.”

“Oh, and Masterson does?” Caleb seethed.

“More stable than you, unfortunately,” the Attorney General sighed. “Not that we won’t be keeping a very close watch. One wrong move, and that child is going into the system. I wrote it into the agreement.”

I looked at Caleb. “Foster care?”

“As wholesome as that sounds, maybe you just give him to us now, and we call it even,” Caleb said. “We’ve got more than a few complaints about corruption in government agencies.”

“Good luck with that. Look, I really am on your side. This plea bargain is a good thing. Twenty-five years isn’t a short prison sentence, and maybe in that amount of time, he’ll be able to reflect on his actions. Hell, I don’t know, maybe he’ll find Jesus. What I do know is Masterson can provide for Will like you can’t. Education. Resources…”

“Love?” I spat.

The Attorney General winced. “He probably loves Will in his own, twisted way.”

“Because that’s a healthy growing environment.” I shook my head. “You’re selling Will’s happiness and future to put a man in jail for twenty-five years. That’s not okay.”

“It has to be okay. I’m thinking of the futures of thousands of children Masterson is taking away by throwing them in a shipping crate and selling them into the worst kind of slavery,” she said. “I have to think about the greater good.”

“I’ll be sure to tell Will that you said that someday,” Caleb snorted.

After a long sigh, she said, “I will get the agreement amended to state that, if and when, Masterson screws things up taking care of Will, that Will must be delivered into your care. But that’s the best I can do. In return, you need to let this go, and sign non-disclosure agreements.”

Caleb looked at me. “That’s… actually a pretty good deal.”

“What?” I replied, shocked by his agreeing with her.

“Think about it. It won’t take more than a month for Masterson to fuck up. Then we get Will free and clear,” Caleb said.

I did think about it and decided he was right. “We want to see it in writing first, though,” I told the Attorney General cautiously.

“I thought you might.” She stepped toward the door. “Give me about an hour and a half. That should give us all time to get things settled. We’re rushing your DNA tests as we speak.”

“Good,” I said.

When she left, Officer Alexander closed the door behind her, and I leaned against Caleb, just watching the minute hand on the clock over the door tick around and around.

“He has to be mine,” I whispered. “He just has to be. Masterson is playing an awful joke.”

“It doesn’t matter either way,” Caleb said firmly, stroking my arm. “He’s ours. That’s final. It doesn’t matter what the DNA tests say.”

I nodded. He was right. Will was ours either way.

An hour and a half, then two hours passed. I was gripping Caleb’s thighs by the time there was another knock at the door.

The Attorney General looked exhausted, and she wouldn’t make eye contact with either of us. “The results came back…”

“And?” I asked, my guts knotted with dread.

“Neither one of you is biologically related to Will III. I’m sorry,” she said. “But you do have to hold up your end.”

My throat closed. My eyes stung with tears. I would have sobbed if I could get one past my restricted airway.

Caleb wrapped his arms around me and held me tightly. “It’ll be a month at most,” he said to me. “There’s no way that man could raise a cactus, much less a child, no matter who he hires.”

I tried to catch my breath. The world was spinning. The only things holding me together were Caleb’s strong arms. “But… he… we…”

“Just a month at most,” he reassured me. “Then he’ll be with us, and no one can say boo about it.”

Uncertainty coiled in my chest, but I decided Caleb was right. This was the best way forward. It might be the only way forward.

“Where are the non-disclosure agreements?” I finally sighed.

The Attorney General set them in front of us. “You won’t regret this,” she said.

Her words sounded ominous rather than reassuring. I read the agreement carefully, and so did Caleb, just to make sure we weren’t signing away any rights we wanted to keep.

Then, dragging in a deep breath, I initialed, initialed, and signed my name at the bottom.