After Isla signed the retainer agreement and went to collect the kids, Denny said, “I need a minute alone before we go.”
Julian reached for the signed retainer.Mattie would see to listing Isla as a client in their internal database so no one else in the firm would agree to represent her husband.“I’ll ask Mattie to show Isla and the kids my dad’s fish tank.”
“Thanks.”
To the kids, he said, “Do you guys want to see my dad’s super cool fish tank?”
“Yes!”Theo exclaimed.
They abandoned the toys on the floor and ran over to their mom, who held out her arms to them.She scooped them up in a practiced move that impressed Julian, who had almost no experience with little ones except for his siblings.But he hadn’t been solely responsible for them when they were younger and couldn’t recall ever scooping up two of them in one smooth move the way Isla had.
He opened the office door.“Mattie, Isla and the kids would like to see Dad’s fish.Would you mind taking them?”
“You got it.Follow Ms.Mattie, and I’ll show you the way.”
“Thank you.”
“What’s going on?”Isla asked Denny when she realized he wasn’t going with them.
“Band business.I just need a minute.”
“Don’t talk about me.”
“Please… Don’t be so full of yourself.”
She gave him the exasperated look that sisters had been giving brothers for all of time and carried the kids out of Julian’s office.
“She’s not taking any of your shit,” Julian said to his friend when they were alone.“I love that.”
“Everything I’ve ever done has been to try to protect her.You believe me, right?”
“I do.”
“When our parents died… I had no clue what to do with a young girl who’d lost the most important people in her life while trying to manage my own shock and grief.I came home from Colorado and became her legal guardian, which was more complicated than you might think.”
“I can’t imagine what that would’ve been like.”
“It was tough.She had to do what I told her to, and I tried to be reasonable, but I had no clue what I was doing, and we fought.A lot.Especially as she got older and wanted more independence.We muddled through, you know?One day at a time, as they say, but it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.When she met Gabriel, she was immediately gone over him, but he always made me uncomfortable.There was just something… off.I don’t know how to explain it, but I was adamantly opposed to her marrying him, which was the first time we were seriously at odds since our parents died.We didn’t speak for months.”
“That must’ve been rough.”
“It was the worst, and it happened right around the time I was leaving Revenge Tour, which was also horrible.”The breakup of Denny’s first real band had been a nightmare that’d cost him three close friends.
“I remember that.”
Denny ran his fingers through his mop of hair.“That’s why I kept the money hidden from Isla.I had zero faith in her husband.”
Julian thought about the divorce he’d brokered five years earlier for Denny and his ex-wife, Kath, in which the money from his parents had been treated as community property, since he and his wife had used some of it to buy a house, among other things.Denny had been the executor of their parents’ estate as well as Isla’s legal guardian until she turned eighteen.All the money that was left to them would’ve gone to him to manage for both of them.
“I’ve never told Isla about the money because at first I didn’t trust her not to burn through it during her rebellious stage, and then I didn’t trust Gabriel not to go through it like a madman, the way he apparently has with all their other money.I’m afraid she’ll hate me for not telling her before now.”
“You said she knew you didn’t want her to marry Gabriel.Maybe she’ll understand why you didn’t tell her about the money.”
“She won’t.She’ll never speak to me again.”
“You’re her family.You and the kids.She won’t turn her back on you if you tell her you kept this from her to protect her.”
“I don’t know what to do.It’s been eating me up inside for a long time because I knew they struggled financially, but I had no idea that things were this bad with him.She always told me everything was fine, the kids were great, things were good.I was so afraid of Gabriel looting the whole thing, which is the only reason I never told her about it.I helped her out with college, paid the upfront costs on their apartment.I did what I could to help them without giving away to him that there was more.”
