The Lydia who left the law office was a much-subdued version of the girl Elsie had always known. But she was still determined to go to her audition. They wished her luck and watched her drive off.
***
“It’s done.”
“Thank you, Andy.” Will gripped his phone, so relieved to put the whole thing behind him. With his car repainted and his porch cleaned off, he could hopefully forget about it.
“I checked on Jeff Wickham’s case. He also got a plea deal. Who has time for anything else? But his fine is higher and he’ll be on probation for a year.”
“Not much of a plea deal, if you ask me.”
Andy laughed. “Well, he didn’t have me as his lawyer.”
“Send me your bill and don’t hold back.” Will leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the desk. If Gianna saw him she’d tsk and make him put his feet down, but she’d gone to lunch with friends.
“I’ll bill you for every second.”
Will laughed and was about to hang up when Andy said, “I do have a question if you don’t mind me asking.”
Dang, he’d been hoping to avoid this. “I may plead the fifth.”
“Understandably. So, Lydia has no criminal record, but she didn’t seem particularly sorry or fond of you. Why are you helping her? Is it one of the sisters?”
Will’s feet dropped to the floor. “How do you know she has sisters?”
“They were with her today. I liked them much better than my client, I’ll tell you that. I think they used up all the sense in the family before Lydia came along.”
“Which sisters?” He couldn’t just assume it was Elsie and Jane, though they seemed the most likely.
“Uh, Jane and Alice, I think.”
“Do you mean Elsie?”
“Yes, that was it.” There was a pause, while Andy chuckled. “Interested in Elsie?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“She was very curious about Lydia’s benefactor.”
“But you didn’t tell her.”
“I promised I wouldn’t. As far as I know, Lydia’s kept her promise not to say anything either.”
Will relaxed. “Thank you, Andy.”
He hung up and mulled the situation over. Will had told himself this was about convincing Lydia he wasn’t a bad guy, but just the mention of Elsie had him unnerved. He still cared about her. He still wished things had been different. And if he was being honest, the real reason he’d bailed out Lydia was because if he didn’t, it would have likely fallen to Elsie’s shoulders. He was happy he’d spared her that, even if she’d never know it was him.
***
“I can do this.” Elsie rolled her shoulders back and stared at her phone. She’d decided showing up on Will’s doorstep would be a bit much, even if she knew where he lived. She could call that lawyer and ask him nicely for the address, but considering her sister had vandalized the place, she doubted he’d want to give her information on Will.
But she couldn’t let the whole thing go without doing something. She’d falsely accused him of wronging Jeff, and then her own sister had taken it about five hundred steps further. Even if he abruptly hung up on her, she needed him to know how sorry she was. He deserved that much.
She scrolled down to Will’s number, which she only had from a group text with Charlie and Jane, and pressed it, closing her eyes tightly shut while it rang. Leaving a message would be nice. In fact, after three rings she started preparing one in her mind.
“Hello?”
The sound of his voice sent her heartbeat into overdrive. Her throat dried up and she swallowed hard.
