Chapter 4

By the time I reached the prison gate, I was shaking all over, barely able to stay on my feet.

My cousin came rushing out to meet me.

"He's stable for now. There's a doctor treating him inside, but the real problem is that his mood's all over the place. If he gets hit with another five years on a false charge, I don't know if he can..."

Every drop of blood in my body went cold.

There was no time to find another lawyer. I swallowed my pride and called Vicky.

"My father's been framed again. You already know the whole case. Please, just represent him in court this once, I'm begging you..."

Her voice came back ice-cold.

"The second something goes wrong, you run to me for help. Didn't you say you could find a lawyer without me? And here I thought you'd finally learned to stand on your own. Guess not."

My fingers were trembling. I was practically pleading with her.

"Just this once. I'll owe you for it."

There was a long silence on the other end before she spoke again.

"It's not that I don't care. But what if your father really did embezzle that money? I can't afford him dragging us into it."

The call cut off.

The dial tone droning in my ear snuffed out the last bit of hope I had left.

I sank down onto the curb and started dialing, one number after another.

I called every law firm in the city.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Fletcher."

"We don't know enough about the case. Getting up to speed would take at least a week, and there's no way we'd be ready in time for the hearing."

Right as I was about to fall apart completely, a message from Vicky popped up on my phone.

[Send me your location. I'll come find you right now.]

I was overjoyed in an instant.

I sent my location and turned down every lawyer who'd reached out to help.

I kept praying, over and over, that the case would still go through.

Three hours passed. Vicky never showed.

I called twice. Both calls were rejected.

Then a message came through.

[Peaches bit Derek. I'm taking him to get his rabies shots. I can't make it right now.]

My mind went blank.

Another message followed right after.

[I'll send you a few good lawyers to look into. Reach out to them.]

A string of phone numbers came through, and then nothing more.

The blood in my veins turned to ice.

That was when word came from inside the prison.

"Mr. Fletcher suffered a sudden heart attack. He passed away despite our best efforts to save him. Please accept our condolences."

My father's aged face lay still under a white sheet.

The breath caught in my chest, and I dropped to my knees.

In that moment, the sobs I'd been holding back tore out of me all at once.

The one family I had left in the world was gone too.

I wiped my eyes, pulled out the divorce agreement Vicky had already signed, and added my own signature.

Then I blocked every way she had of reaching me.

…

It wasn't until Vicky was back at her office that she remembered her father-in-law's case.

She called her assistant in.

"Pull up my father-in-law's case file. I want to see if there's any way to get it overturned."

The assistant lowered her head, stammering.

"He couldn't handle the pressure of being falsely accused. The surgery to save him failed. He passed away."

Vicky shot to her feet.

"There's one more thing," the assistant said, holding out a surgical form. "This is something your husband left for you."

The moment she looked at it, the color drained from her face.