For fuck’s sake.
That just couldn’t be true.Their children had barely survived their first rodeo with those two, who’d torn each other—and the nine of them—apart over a decade of battle that’d led them both to be the kind of family lawyers who tried their best to never let that happen to their clients.
Ironic, right?
They’d done everything wrong in their own divorce, which had cost them both millions of dollars and untold agony for everyone involved, but they worked hard to keep that from happening to strangers who were clients.
Julian cracked open a beer and sat on a stool at the island, thrust back in time to an era he tried to never think about lest he be derailed by emotions he’d spent years in therapy putting behind him.As the eldest of the nine siblings, he’d been on the front lines, often absorbing painful hits in an attempt to protect his precious brothers and sisters.He’d done whatever he could to keep them sealed off from the worst of it, often at his own expense.
He regretted nothing, but if his parents were back together…
The very thought of it filled him with unreasonable rage that he’d kept hidden from the others at dinner.He’d been so shocked by Kaidan’s comments that he’d ceased to function for a few minutes as she spelled out the somewhat irrefutable evidence that something was up.
He honestly didn’t want to know, but he also didn’t want to be blindsided if it was true.
He checked his phone for the first time in two hours to find a flurry of texts from his concerned siblings, each of them looking to him for guidance on how to handle this latest chapter in their family’s sordid history.
If only he had the answers they were looking for.
He responded to each of them with the same thing.Let’s not worry about something that may or may not be true.Reminder that we’re not children anymore and don’t have to be dragged into anything that goes down between them.
That was probably why he’d reacted the way he had to Isla.He’d gone there in a state of shock and had been comforted by her kind, sweet demeanor.
That’s all it was.
It’d been a lot lately, between running into Aimee, the culmination of several intense cases, the scene with Stacey and now hearing his parents might be reconciling.No wonder his reaction to a simple conversation with a woman was way out of character.
Women didn’t get to him.He didn’t allow that to happen.Ever.And his close friend’s younger sister?As lovely as she was, she wouldn’t be the exception to his rules.
He’d send her the playlists he’d promised her, and that would be that.
ChapterEleven
In the morning, Julian was driving to the office when he took a call from Cresley Dane, who wanted to know whether he’d heard back from her son’s father.
“Nothing yet.”
“That son of a bitch.”
“This happens a lot when they realize the other party has retained counsel and is getting serious about dealing with them.They tend to go to ground.”
“What can we do to smoke him out?I’m terrified he’ll release something to try to damage me.”
“If he does that, we’ll make him very sorry.”
“The scandal alone would cost me lucrative contracts, Julian.We can’t let him smear me.It’d be the worst-possible time.”
“Let me talk to my brother Carson, our lead investigator, and see what he suggests.I’ll get back to you in an hour or two?”
“Thank you so much.”
“I know it’s hard but try not to worry too much.The fact that he knows you’ve got an attorney on the case makes him less likely to do something stupid that could end up costing him a lot of money as well as any prayer of seeing his son.”
“I wish he cared about seeing his son, but he doesn’t.He’s after money.It’s no coincidence that he resurfaced right after my new deal was announced.He wants his piece of the pie.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen.I’ll talk to Carson, and one of us will get right back to you, okay?”
“Thanks, Julian.I feel better after talking to you.”
