She stood to leave.“Point of order, Counselor.There’sneverbeen a day like today.”
After dropping that truth bomb, she left the room and closed the door behind her.
Julian took the time to text Denny to say he’d heard that Isla’s husband was ill and that he hoped she was doing okay.
Then he forced himself to give work his full attention, beginning with a call to Carson about how he was making out with finding Cresley’s ex.
“Hey, man, I was just going to call you.This guy Beckett is a piece of work.”
“How so?”
“He’s actively dealing something… Not sure if it’s meth or coke or possibly heroin, but he’s not even trying to be sly about it.He’s just going about his business like it’s totally legal and nothing to see here.”
“Jeez.”
“He’s also keeping tabs on her and the kid.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s watching the school and the house, following her when she leaves.You know, the usual stalker stuff.I’ll send you a full report by the end of the day, but you need to get this guy into court ASAP and slap him with an RO.”
“Your thoughts mirror mine.Thanks, Carson.”
“You got it.”
Julian ended that call and sent Jackson a message, asking him to schedule an emergency hearing in Cresley’s case.
Then he called her and got her voicemail.“Hey, it’s Julian Remington.I have some updates for you, one of which is that Marlon is following you, so I have to urge you to be cautious.Don’t let on that you see him, and if you feel unsafe in any way, contact the police right away.Give me a call when you can.Thanks.”
He hated having to leave a message like that on her voicemail, but he wanted her to know as soon as possible what Marlon was doing.
His phone vibrated with a text from Denny.Dude… he’s got a brain tumor that’s going to kill him.Soon.Isla is shocked, of course, and sad that he didn’t listen to her and others who urged him to seek medical care.He called the parents he hadn’t spoken to in years, and they’re taking him home on hospice.Effed-up situation all around.
Julian read the text twice, trying to process what Denny was telling him.
It was the reason for the behavior that’d ruined his marriage and cost him his job and his relationship with his parents.
What the hell kind of tumor caused all that chaos?
A few minutes on Google taught him about benign meningiomas that often formed on the frontal lobes, causing changes in personality, irregular social behavior and loss of inhibitions, among other things.If left untreated, they could become life-threatening.
He had no way to know if that’s what Gabriel had, but it must be something like that if he’d had it so long and was now going to die from it.
He felt sick for Isla and her poor kids.What a heartbreaking situation for them.
Julian realized he was rubbing the area over his heart, which ached for her.While she finally had an explanation, it had come with a terminal diagnosis.
Mattie buzzed his desk phone to tell him his client had arrived for their nine o’clock meeting in conference room four.
“I’ll be right there.”He tried to shake off the emotional turmoil, reminding himself that Isla’s tragedy had nothing to do with him.They barely knew each other.
Perhaps this was the sign he’d needed to rein this thing in before it got further out of control.He was a big believer in signs from the universe and had rarely ignored one as blatant as this one.There was a reason he’d steered clear of romantic complications his whole life, and this situation had become as complicated as it could get.
He stood, stretched, grabbed his notes for the client meeting and took his coffee with him when he left the office, nodding to Mattie as he made his way to the conference room to get on with his day.
Isla had been awakeall night, reliving every minute with Gabriel from the day they met to the devastating hospital visit.Even though everything made sense now, it didn’t change anything for her or the kids.Their lives had been nearly destroyed by a battle they hadn’t even known they were fighting.If only he’d listened to her years ago and sought medical attention for the wild personality swings, everything could’ve been different for them.
Maybe he’d known it was something awful, and that’s why he’d ignored the troubling symptoms.
