By the time Maeve goes down for a nap, my shaking has stopped, but I’ve worked up a good head of righteous indignation. That woman will not get this baby. Not while I have breath.
As I always do when I feel at loose ends and don’t know what to do, I call Grandma. I haven’t talked to her since I left for the camp because cell reception there was so spotty. I fill her in on what has been going on and on my visit from Enid Hamilton.
“Oh yes, I know her type,” Grandma says and it’s like I can hear her slowly shaking her head through the phone. “She’s not happy and she’s gonna make sure no one else is, either. Probably never even been happy.”
“If you’re trying to make me feel bad for her, it’s not working. She’s trying to take Maeve away from her daddy! And it’s just for revenge!”
“Oh, I can feel badly for her and still think she’s wrong. When you get old like me you’ll understand that everybody has suffering. It’s just different in how it comes out.”
“But what do I do?” I am not really interested in introspection right now.
“Honey, I don’t know. She’s rich and powerful, but so is he. It’s going to be like the gods on Olympus fighting, I’ll wager.”
“Only unlike the gods, Corbin actually cares what happens to his human daughter. I’m worried that he’ll give her up to keep from dragging her through a battle. His parents will definitely get involved, and then, like you say, it’s going to be thunderbolts and curses.”
“Sounds like you need to find a way to keep her from going ahead with the suit. I reckon she won’t listen to reason?”
“I can’t imagine that she would. Seriously Gran, she was like a Disney villain.”
“And they never win, do they? But real life’s not always like that. How might she be persuaded…”
It hits me. “Blackmail! Of course! I have to find something on her, someone that evil has a past, right?”
Grandma sighs. “That is not what I mean, Vanessa, and you know it.”
“You’re a genius, Gran, thanks! I have to call Asia. I’ll talk to you later.”
Sure, Asia hasn’t used her journalism degree since she graduated, but I know she learned how to snoop. Uncovering the mismanagement of fraternity funds isn’t quite in the same league as bringing down one of the wealthiest families in the US, but there’s gotta be some overlap, right?
Asia, who has been kind of bored this summer, is completely stoked.
"Oooo, girl, I am going to get all up in her business!"
“You’ve got to be sneaky–these people are richer than you can even imagine.”
“I saw that house, remember? I can imagine.”
"Then keep in mind that this is the throw-away house they never use. And that the Hamiltons might be even richer than the Pierces. I mean RICH. Like rich people look at them and go ’Damn, that guy is rich.’"
“Daaaamn.”
“Right.”
"Okay, I’m gonna be both Woodward and Bernstein. I’m on it."
And oddly, I feel better. I don’t really have hope that it’ll come to anything, but just having done something makes me feel better.
Corbin doesn’t join us in the pool and he texts to say he won’t make dinner, either. I hope he has a whole team of lawyers and maybe even detectives working on this. I’ve already gone to bed when I hear my door open and Corbin slips inside.
“Hey,” I whisper.
“Oh, sorry. I thought about just going to my own room so I didn’t wake you, but…I really wanted to at least be near you, since I didn’t see you all day.”
“It’s okay, I’m glad you did.” I pull back the covers so he can slide in. “How’s it going?”
"Not great. They have an excellent case because I did abandon her. We can get Marta and Connie to testify as to my character. And you, if you’re willing."
“Of course! Enid Hamilton came by today.”
"What?!" Corbin sits up abruptly and looks at me. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“Because she was here very briefly and you were clearly busy. It was okay. She was a monster, but I handled it.” I tell him about my encounter with Cruella.
He flops back onto the bed. “God, what a bitch. She can’t take Maeve. My parents are willing to counter-sue for custody if it looks like the Hamiltons will make headway. I’d just move back to Boston then, I guess.” He is quiet for a moment. “I should just give her back to my parents. The Hamiltons could go ahead and sue, but my parents would be able to do the counter suit and prove that they’ve been raising her all along and are what she knows best. Jarvis says that would probably work.”
“Is that what you want?” I ask quietly, hoping I know the answer already.
He sighs and his voice is tight when he answers. “Of course not. I want to stay here and raise my daughter. I want to see her catch bugs in the kitchen garden. I want to get her a pony and go to her lacrosse games unless she hates lacrosse, too, and then I’ll just go to her plays or whatever. I want to see her grow up whole, not ruined by those horrible people. I don’t want her to grow up bitter and cruel like her mother.”
“Then you need to fight for her.”
“I know. I just don’t want it to drag on so that I’m always in court, always angry, always wondering if this is the last day I get to spend with her. You know that even if the judge forces them to allow me visitation, they’ll do everything they can to make me stop coming.”
“But you won’t. You won’t let them win.” It’s not a question. He shouldn’t doubt himself.
"No. I’ll take every moment I’m given. But I want them all." He sighs again and mutters, “Dammit.”
“What if we could get the Hamiltons to drop the suit?”
"That would be ideal, of course, but I’m not sure how we would do that. Jarvis has been snooping around to get some dirt, but so far they’re just your standard kind of evil billionaires. They’re not doing society any good, but there’s nothing that would embarrass them to have made public. I mean, people just assume we’re all up to no good, so it’s got to be really shocking."
“I’ve asked Asia to dig around. She used to be a journalist,” I leave out the part that it was for our college paper, “and she loves that kind of detective work. I mean, it’s unlikely she’ll find anything Jarvis can’t, but it’s worth a shot.”
Corbin kisses my forehead tenderly. “Thank you for helping. Even if it comes to nothing, it means
a lot to me that you tried.”
I’m not sure how long it takes Corbin to fall asleep, but I’m awake for another hour at least, trying not to cry. All this money, and it can’t get him the one thing he really wants.
For two days, I get periodic texts from Asia, things like These people are good at staying hidden and I’m not as good at this as I thought. The hope that had been welling up in my heart starts to leak away.
Then I get one that says Is Enid’s maiden name Brooks? and Corbin says it is.
After that, the tone of the texts changes to Oh shit, I think this is big and You were right, she is evil. Then she says, I think we’d better have a meeting, with Corbin and the lawyer. This has gone beyond cub reporter stuff.
“What could she have found?” I ask Corbin when he finally collapses into bed that night.
“I don’t know,” he says, shaking his head against the pillow. "Jarvis hasn’t found anything that even hints at that level of activity."
“I wonder if it’s something Enid did, since she asked about her maiden name.”
“It’d have to be ancient history. They’ve been married since the very early 70s, I’m sure.”
"As long as either the statute of limitations isn’t up or it’s super embarrassing, maybe it won’t matter how long ago it was."
“Yeah. I wonder…”
“Maybe she used to be a man.”
“Nah, too trendy now, she’d be a hero instead of a monster.”
“Maybe she’s a Nazi war criminal in hiding.”
“That would explain a lot, but I think the timing is off.”
“Maybe she killed JFK.”
“I bet that’s it.” His voice is thick with the need to sleep, so I keep the rest of my theories to myself. But secretly? I think she’s a vampire.
We convene in Corbin’s office two days later. Asia’s about to pop wanting to spill the beans, but she won’t tell me anything ahead of time.
“So,” she begins, once Corbin, Wayne Jarvis, and I are settled in at the table, “Back in the mid-eighties, there was this huge money laundering scandal…”