Maybe Never (Maybe #2) (8 page)

I don’t get to decide which feeling is strongest. Fate and Killian decide for me. Killian breaks eye contact as he turns away from me. I glance back to the street, and the light is now green. So, I drive away from Killian. I say a second good-bye, keeping the tears buried deep inside. I don’t know if I can bear to say good-bye again.
 

As I pull into my lawyer’s office, I realize I’m even later then I thought, and that just exacerbates the nerves in my body. I climb out of the car and push through the door to the large office building.
 

I press the button for the elevator. The elevator doors open, and I step in the elevator, my legs shaking. I feel like my life is going to change, no matter what happens in my lawyer’s office. I just hope I find out the truth, and he doesn’t just give me some bullshit lawyer answer. I have to know the truth. Whatever it is, I can face it. Or I’ll have to learn to face it. The doors open, and I step out of the elevator. I walk to suite A32 and open the door.
 

Mr. Greene is sitting at a table with a large stack of papers. He smiles at me when I enter.
 

“Good morning, Ms. Felton. I didn’t realize that ten a.m. is first thing in the morning.”
 

I smile back and take a seat across from him. “I apologize for being late, but I had a family emergency come up, and I had to deal with it right away.”
 

He raises an eyebrow at me. “Another family emergency?”
 

“Yes, if you can believe it. My life isn’t as simple and as easy as most people on the outside would think.”
 

He nods with a weak smile on his face. He doesn’t ask any further questions about why I was late to the appointment. “Let’s get started, shall we?”
 

I nod.
 

“You understand the charges that were filed against you?”
 

“Yes, I understand that the FBI think I colluded with my father and grandfather on money laundering and fraud charges in order to make and keep more money from the Felton Corporation.”

He nods. “That’s right. Those are serious charges and carry a minimum of ten years if you were to be convicted.”
 

I nod along as he talks. I already know all of this.
 

“The main reason they believe you were involved is because your signature is on some of the papers that demonstrate you were involved in fraudulent activities, and they believe that shows your guilt.”

“I’m not guilty though. I haven’t been involved in anything.”
 

He smiles. “I don’t care if you were involved or not. What I care about is proving that you weren’t. Your signature is not enough to indict you on any charges. They have no other evidence against you. Despite having several undercover agents interacting with you, none of them ever heard you discuss anything criminal with your father or grandfather.”
 

“Then, why am I being charged?”

“They thought you would be naive enough and so scared of going to jail that you would take the plea deal immediately. When you initially turned it down, I think they went into shock. They hadn’t expected that from you.”
 

“I’m not taking a plea when I didn’t do anything.”
 

His smile brightens. “I was hoping you would say that. As you know, I am representing both you and your grandfather. If you take the plea and testify against him, I will have to hand you off to another member of my firm.”
 

“Do you think I should take the plea deal?”
 

He shakes his head. “No. I truly don’t think they will even bring charges against you. I think they are bluffing. But I understand if you want to discuss the plea deal with another lawyer to confirm what I’m suggesting since it benefits another client of mine.”
 

I nod. “I will discuss it with another lawyer to be sure it is in my best interest not to take the plea, but even if it’s not, I’m not sure I could testify against my grandfather. And even if I could, there is nothing I could testify to.”
 

“Good. Now that we have that settled, I think the best thing to do going forward is to continue to plead not guilty and see if they take us to trial. I don’t think they will, but if they do, I expect the trial to be short. The only evidence they have against you is that they think the signature is yours. I’m sure we will be able to find experts who can verify the signature is forged and that you didn’t sign any of the papers that link you to money laundering. We can also show evidence that you are a naive young woman who doesn’t have any experience in business and that your family was trying to pass control of the company off to your future husband, not you. It would be easier to make a case against the undercover FBI agent, showing that he was somehow involved in the operation, than it would be against you.” He laughs. “You won’t step foot back in a jail cell.”
 

I frown at him thinking of me as a naive young woman, but I am though. I’ve proven to be naive time and time again and look where it has gotten me. I won’t allow it to happen again. I won’t keep being a scared, naive little girl.
 

“Do you have any questions about your case?”
 

“No. What about my grandfather’s case? What are the odds that he will end up in jail?” I want to ask if he really did what they claim, but I don’t. I’m too afraid to hear the answer.
 

“As you already know, the charges against him are more severe. He’ll end up going to trial, but I have faith that I can get him off cleanly or get them to allow us to plead down to a lesser charge where he will serve very little jail time.”
 

I stare off into space for a second, thinking about his words. His voice was less forceful, less sure of himself, when he was talking about my grandfather’s case than when he had talked about mine. I glance back at him, and he’s not looking at me. He’s shuffling papers on his desk.
 

“You think my grandfather did it? You think he’s guilty?”

He frowns. “It doesn’t matter what I think. I don’t get to form such opinions about my clients. I just try to defend them to the best of my ability. I’m very good. Even with the evidence stacked against your grandfather, I still think I will be able to get him off without him touching foot inside a prison cell or at most a few short years.”

I narrow my eyes at him.
 

“I really shouldn’t say anything more about your grandfather’s case. You will have to speak with him.”
 

“I will.” I have to find out the truth, and the only man I can find out the truth from is my grandfather. I have a million more questions that need to be answered, and I have all afternoon to have them answered, but the person who will really be able to answer them is my grandfather. So, when I’m done here, that’s where I’ll go—to get the answers to the only questions that matter.
 

The drive to the hospital is long. Granddad is being released from the hospital and custody of the jail tomorrow, but I can’t wait that long to find out answers. I didn’t find out the answers I was looking for from my lawyer, but I will find out the answers from Granddad. He doesn’t lie. He’s always blunt, and he tells the truth. He might not think whatever he did was wrong, but I don’t think he will lie to me.
 

When I get to his hospital door, I’m shocked to see an armed officer standing guard outside his room, like he’s a threat to society. Like he’d grab a gun and start shooting everyone around him if the officer weren’t standing outside his room. The fact is, he’s an eighty-five-year-old man who just suffered a heart attack and major heart surgery, and he is lucky enough to still be alive and breathing instead of being buried six feet under by now.
 

I walk up to the officer, not sure if he will let me see Granddad. Maybe I can’t talk to him until after he is released from both the hospital and police custody.

“I’m here to see Lee Felton. He’s my grandfather.”
 

“ID,” he says.
 

I dig my ID out of my purse and hand it to him.
 

He carefully looks over it before handing it back to me. “You can go in, but I need you to leave all your belongings with me. And I need to pat you down before you enter.”
 

I nod and hand the man my belongings. He proceeds to pat me down and then holds the door open to my grandfather’s hospital room that is now also his prison.
 

“You have one hour. He is being released tomorrow morning on bail, so if you need to talk more with him, you can do that then.”
 

I nod and enter the room. The hospital room looks exactly the same as the last time I was here. There is just one marked difference. One of his arms is handcuffed to the bedrail. He can’t even get out of bed on his own, but the officer decided to handcuff him anyway.
 

I run over to his side.
 

“Granddad,” I say hesitantly as he lies in the bed, seemingly asleep. I should let him rest if he is sleeping, but this can’t wait. I need to know. I need to know as much as I can.
 

His eyes slowly open, and then he smiles when he sees it’s me and not a nurse or doctor or police officer.
 

“Kinsley, I’m so glad you came. I heard they released you last night, but I wasn’t sure if you would want to see me.”
 

I take his frail hand in mine. “Of course I want to see you. You’re my grandfather. I love you. You’re the only family I have left.”
 

He raises an eyebrow.
 

“I don’t count Mother. I dropped her off in rehab this morning anyway. She needs to get better.”
 

He pats my hand. “I’m glad you did that. She does need help.”
 

“What about you? How are you doing?”
 

He shrugs. “I’ve been better.”
 

“They told me you are getting out of here tomorrow morning.”
 

He nods but doesn’t say anything more. He’s not freely going to talk to me about this. He’s not going to tell me what the hell we were both arrested for without me asking first.
 

“What is going on? What happened? Why were we both arrested?”
 

He looks out the window of his hospital room without answering me. I give him a second to gather his thoughts, but I soon realize that is not what he is doing. He’s avoiding me, not answering me, which surprises me. I thought, once I asked, he would answer, just like always, but I guess being faced with spending the rest of your life in jail changes a man.
 

“Granddad, did you and Dad do what they say you did? Did you lie and cheat to grow the company? Did you commit fraud and money laundering to build the company?”
 

Granddad’s head whips to look at me. His face is red, and his nostrils are flared. “Hell no, we didn’t do any of those things! I can’t believe you would even ask me such a thing. You think your own grandfather would commit such crimes? Your own father?”
 

“No,” I say firmly. “I don’t want to believe that what they say is true. I
don’t
believe what they say is true. I just need to hear you tell me the truth. I need to know why I’m facing charges of crimes I didn’t commit, why you are facing charges if you didn’t commit the crimes either.”
 

He takes a deep breath, and his face softens, the shade of red turning to a pale pink. I hand him a cup of water from the bedside table, and he slowly sips it. It further helps to calm his face.
 

“Why?” I ask again when he seems calmer. “Even our lawyer thinks you and Dad did this. What proof do the FBI have?”
 

“Five years ago, when you were arrested and they found the drugs had come from one of our casinos, the FBI began investigating the company. They thought the company might be tied to a drug ring or something. It wasn’t, but it made them very suspicious, suspicious enough to plant undercover agents in the company, except we didn’t know that. We thought, when the FBI stopped talking to us about a year after your incident was over, that they had found us innocent.

“Killian, the FBI agent they planted, never found anything. After five years, he never found anything, but the FBI couldn’t give up after spending five years investigating us. Killian framed us because his superiors had told him to. Killian had things to prove after he’d made a mistake that should have put him in jail.”

“What mistake?”

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is, you stay away from him. He’s the enemy, not me. He’s the criminal.”
 

I nod. I believe the man sitting in front of me that I have known my whole life versus a man who has lied to me.

“Good.”

I watch my grandfather’s movements the whole time he is talking, trying to decide if he is telling the truth or not. I don’t know if he is telling the truth, but I feel like he is. I feel like he has to be because I know my father. My father wouldn’t have done something like this, and there is no way my grandfather could have done something like this without my father knowing.
 

“Don’t worry about the company, Granddad. I just want you to focus on getting better and staying out of jail.”
 

Granddad frowns, and I know he is going to protest.
 

“I still don’t think you are strong enough or capable of running the company—”
 

I narrow my eyes at him. “You don’t exactly have a choice. Killian was a terrible choice. You chose to give half of the company to the one man who had been working against you. Tony is a worse choice. There is no one else in a high enough position who can run it. At this point, it’s me or nobody. I can do this. I’ve made no worse decisions than you have.”