“I’m really glad the truth is out there,” she says.
I feel a pang of guilt that I’ve never told her everything, especially about our dad, but it’s best this way.
Sleep eventually comes.
My phone wakes me up, and I answer it before I’m fully conscious.
“Sorry, I woke you up, didn’t I?” Tully says.
I sit up. My hair is going everywhere, and mascara spots my pillowcase in a way that highlights last night’s emotional state.
“No,” I lie and laugh.
“Yes, I did. You sound like you’re still horizontal.”
“I’m sitting up.”
“Maybe just now when you heard my voice,” he teases.
“If we’re going to argue, I can just go back to sleep now,” I tease back.
It feels good.
“Wait—don’t go.” I can hear the smile in his voice, and it makes my heart swell. “Let’s start over. Good morning. How are you? Did you sleep?”
“Some. You?”
“Same.”
I wrap my free arm around my knees and sit in the gray morning light of my apartment. The fiddle leaf fig I’ve been nursing back from the brink for four months catches the early sun from the windowsill, and I focus on that.
“I called my lawyer, Marcus,” Tully says.
My stomach tightens.
“Just to start asking questions,” he continues. “Nothing is going to happen without you knowing about it first.” He sounds much calmer than last night.
“Okay. Thank you.”
“I’d like you to meet Marcus. He’s the best I know. And he’s a vault. Nobody will know you’ve talked to him.”
I think about all the times Daniel has gotten the upper hand. If there were a way to make him stop…
“Daniel can’t find out,” I say. “Not unless we’ve got a way to bring him down.”
“Marcus doesn’t move until we say so. He’s not going to blow anything up. He’s just going to look into him.”
We’re quiet for a moment.
“I know I said I needed time, but…I spoke to Noah last night, and it really helped. I don’t want to waste any more time, Lola. Do you think we can do this together?”
“I’d really like that,” I say.
He sighs. “Me too. Thank you. I-I have a charity functionthis weekend in St. Paul. I know it’s short notice, but…it’ll be fun and…would you be able to come? We can talk to Marcus in person, and the truth is…I want you there.”
I’m not sure if Daniel will be at this event or not, but either way, it probably wouldn’t take long for Daniel to hear that I was at an event with Tully. Maybe Marcus will have suggestions on how to keep the situation from escalating.
“I’d need to make a couple of calls and see if I can move a few things around,” I say.
