Fairplay, Denver Cereal Volume 6

by Claudia Hall Christian

  “I’d advise you to take the wire transfer,” Vere the lawyer interrupted Sandy.

  “Fine,” something-so-nasty-you-throw-the-shoe-away-rather-than-clean-it-off said. “I’ll take the wire transfer.”

  “Do you have the custody papers here?” Aden pressed.

  “Yes,” the lawyer said. “I have the transfer of benefit documents.”

  “What about the house?” Sandy asked. “Sissy and Charlie’s possessions are there. I want their baby books. I know Sissy wants her ballerina videos and…”

  “The Westminster home closed last month,” Vere the lawyer said. “Everything in the house was auctioned off prior to the sale.”

  “You told Sissy we were all going to move back into Dad’s house when you’d already sold it?” Sandy asked. “After I paid to keep it out of foreclosure?”

  The unit-that-gave-birth-to-Sissy refused to look at Sandy.

  “I can’t comment on what was or was not said,” Vere the lawyer said. “I can tell you that I have liquidated all of Patricia Delgado’s assets.”

  “Including Sissy and Charlie’s college fund?” Sandy was so outraged she could barely keep from screaming.

  “That’s correct,” Vere the lawyer said.

  Dr. Stupid tried to look smug. When Sandy shot her a steely glance, the idiot collapsed into herself.

  “I’m the only contributor to that fund,” Sandy said. “Outside of random gifts from friends of my Dad’s, the funds were one hundred percent saved by me!”

  “Be that as it may,” Vere the lawyer said. “As their guardian, their mother was the legal trustee of the funds.”

  “I’ve heard enough,” Aden said. “What do we need to do to terminate this matter once and for all?”

  “Transfer the funds and sign the papers,” Vere the lawyer said.

  “It’s Saturday,” Sandy said. “The transfer won’t go through until Monday.”

  “You will have to sign the papers on Monday,” Vere the lawyer said.

  “Unless you’d like to hear from my attorneys, you will accept the transfer confirmation,” Aden said.

  “I don’t trust them,” the rotting-vermin said.

  Sandy opened her mouth to say something but Aden responded before anything came out. He took out his cell phone and placed a call.

  “Hey Max,” Aden said. “I need some help. I’m here in Tucson. Yeah, I thought you’d remember.”

  Sandy heard the tenor of Max Hargreaves’s voice through the phone.

  “I need to file a complaint against an attorney in Tucson,” Aden said. “Oh great, anyone you recommend is fine. Sure, the president of the Arizona bar would be fabulous.”

  “Just a moment,” Vere the lawyer said.

  “I’m on the phone,” Aden said to him. “I’m sorry. We worked with your associate on those custody papers and the transfer of benefits from the Police Union. I don’t have her number. Oh, you can do that? Great. Do you mind faxing them to this… facility? Right, the number I gave you. Wonderful. Thanks.”

  Aden held out his Blackberry to Sandy. She shook her head and took out her iPhone. Seth was still very sick; he would only answer if it was from her phone.

  “How much?” Just the sound of Seth’s voice was grounding. Sandy’s eyes threatened tears.

  “Five hundred thousand,” Sandy said.

  “Go,” Seth said.

  “I need the account number,” Sandy said.

  Vere the lawyer scrambled through his briefcase. It took him a few minutes before he located the files. He pressed a piece of paper across the table to Sandy. Sandy rattled the numbers to Seth.

  “Give me a minute,” Seth said. “Is it horrible?”

  “She wants the gold,” Sandy said.

  “Not on the phone,” Seth said. “Can you hold up until you’re home?”

  “Sure. You?” Sandy closed her eyes to the room to absorb the sanity on the other end of the line.

  “I’m home,” Seth said. “Ava’s here. Maresol’s trying to force feed me my favorite foods. Woe is me. Dale’s taken care of all of my duties – lawn, pool, maintenance. The boy even fixed that damned screen door. I’m living the life.”

  He laughed. The laughter caused some kind of movement and he groaned.

  “I can hear that,” Sandy smiled.

  “Here’s the confirmation,” Seth rattled off a string of numbers.

  “Sorry I don’t have a pen,” Sandy motioned to Aden and he gave her the space pen he kept in his pocket. “Ok, go ahead.”

  There was a knock at the door. An attendant held a stack of papers. The attorney took them and closed the door. Standing near the door, he read through them.

  “These won’t be necessary,” Vere the lawyer said.

  “We prefer to use our own forms,” Aden said

  Aden held his hand out for the forms. When the lawyer hesitated, Aden stood to his full height. His muscles flexed slightly. The slight lawyer gave him the papers.

  “Alice has an additional requirement,” Vere the lawyer said.

  “Seth, hang on,” Sandy said into the phone. She looked across to the lawyer. “What?”

  “These are confidential agreements,” Vere the lawyer said. “The entire agreement is contingent on complete and total confidentiality.”

  “You were right, Seth,” Sandy said into the phone. “Great. Thanks.”

  Sandy ended her call.

  “What just happened?” the reeking-multi-celled-organism said.

  “We cancelled the wire transfer,” Sandy said.

  “But it went through!” the fetid-mess said. “You have a confirmation number!”

  “I don’t really understand it,” Sandy said. “But I guess with a wire transfer of this size, you have to go through a couple of steps.”

  Sandy raised an eyebrow and folded her arms over her rage-filled heart. Vere the lawyer pressed the confidentiality agreement across the table to Sandy. Dr. Stupid perked up.

  “I’m sure you can understand, Sandy,” Dr. Stupid said. “It’s important that Mitzi and Charles don’t know anything about our conversation. It would be devastating to their self esteem. Alice doesn’t mean to harm them. She’s trying to do what’s best for them. And you must agree; they are better off with you and your husband.”

  “You know what’s been great for Charlie’s self esteem?” Sandy asked. “He’s been sober for three months. He picked up his 90-day chip a couple of days ago. He was going to give it to his remaining biological parent.”

  “Sissy’s been invited to the New York ballet again. She was the only child selected from Denver,” Aden said. “Only, she decided not to go last week because Alice promised her they would live together in Westminster.”

  “I’m not signing any confidentiality statement,” Sandy got up from her seat. “Thank you for your time. We have everything we need to pursue parental rights termination in the courts. Aden?”

  Aden went through the faxed papers and pulled out a notice of filing.

  “These papers were filed yesterday afternoon in Colorado Superior Court,” Aden said.

  “What?” the rotten-to-the-core thing jumped to her feet. “You can’t do that.”

  “We already have,” Aden said. “Mitch Delgado’s Union Rep transferred his benefits to us. The order will go through on Monday.”

  “You did all of this before you arrived?” Dr. Stupid actually looked shocked. Sandy furrowed her eyebrows at the woman. No one was really that stupid. Were they?

  “When we were unable to get in touch with… whatever-her-name-is-now yesterday,” Aden said. “Of course, we didn’t think of the college funds. Is there anything else we should know about?”

  “Either way, your parental rights are gone,” Sandy said. “Either take our offer of five hundred thousand dollars transferred today with confirmation and release of custody and slink away to whatever hole you think is best or push it and get nothing.”

  “But… but…” Moisture appeared in the pond-scum-masquerading-as-a-
woman’s eyes.

  “Ok,” Sandy nodded to Dr. Stupid. To Vere the lawyer, she said, ”I believe you’ll be hearing from us.”

  Aden followed Sandy to the door. Their backs were to the table when they heard:

  “All right,” a mumbling female-voice-came-from-the-mold.

  “Sign here,” Aden said.

  He put the termination of parental rights in front of the thing-formerly-known-as-Patty. She scrawled a signature.

  “You both need to sign as witnesses,” Aden said. “I don’t want to hear a word about duress or coercion.”

  “But you are coercing me!” the bleating-single-celled-organism said. “If I don’t do what you say…”

  Sandy smiled and walked out of the room. Aden followed her. They made it to the parking lot before Dr. Stupid caught up with them. She gave them the signed copy of the termination of parental rights including their signatures documenting that the papers were signed by agreement. Standing next to their rental car, Sandy called Seth. Without saying another word, Sandy gave Dr. Stupid a piece of paper with the transfer confirmation on it.

  “You really must understand…” Dr. Stupid started.

  “I hope you have a good attorney,” Sandy said. “That Vere isn’t going to be one for much longer.”

  Sandy got into the rental car and locked the door. Aden got into the driver’s seat. While Sandy took a picture of the document with her iPhone, Aden turned and drove out of the parking lot and down the street. She had just emailed a copy of the document to Seth when a series of fast moving Tucson Police cruisers wailed in their direction. Aden pulled over to give them space.

  “How are you?” Aden asked.

  “Not good,” Sandy said. “You didn’t seem surprised that she was involved in… you know.”

  “I always thought she must have known,” Aden said. “I couldn’t figure out what she got from it. I mean, outside of her child support, she didn’t seem to have gained a thing.”

  “She must have received some of the gold,” Sandy said.

  “How much gold do you have?” Aden asked.

  “Eight two-gallon jars full,” Sandy said.

  “Why don’t I know about it?”

  “I got them right after you got back from prison.”

  “Got them?” Aden asked.

  “I dug them up from my father’s lot,” Sandy said. “I got them before they started building. You were working and getting your teeth done.”

  “And afterwards?” Aden asked.

  “I don’t know,” Sandy said. “I didn’t mean to lie. We’ve had a lot of other things going on.”

  “How does Seth know?” Aden asked.

  “I told him,” Sandy said. “He was at the Castle to see the bodies Jacob found. He came by the studio to check on me and I showed them to him. He had them cleaned, counted, valued, and stored. They are in some vault someplace. Are you offended?”

  “I feel like I should be offended,” Aden said. “But you’re right. If you had told me about them that week, I wouldn’t have remembered. Didn’t we get married that week?”

  “I dug up the gold in the morning and we got married that night,” Sandy said. “I think that’s why I didn’t tell you. I haven’t thought about them.”

  “We are very rich,” Aden said.

  “Well…” Sandy said. “I wanted to use them to make a foundation to help other kids who are like me.”

  Aden smiled.

  “What?” Sandy asked.

  “Pete told me you wanted to form a foundation,” Aden said. “I wondered if you’d given up the idea or…”

  “Jeez,” Sandy said. “My plate’s been a little full!”

  Aden laughed and pulled into the resort. They drove in silence until he parked in their spot.

  “How are we going to tell Sissy and Charlie?” Sandy asked.

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and FIFTY-NINE

  Love her

  Saturday afternoon – 12:45 P.M.

  City Park, Denver

  “Mr. Colin?” Katy asked to Paddie’s Dad.

  They had spent the morning playing at the City Park playground and were headed over to H2O Odyssey, the splash fountain, to cool off. Katy held Paddie’s Daddy Colin’s hand and Paddie held his other hand.

  “Yes Katy?” Colin asked. “Do you want any more sandwich?”

  Katy shook her head. They walked along the asphalt path for a few more minutes.

  “Mr. Colin?” Katy asked again.

  “Yes Katy?” Realizing this was the second time she’d tried to get his attention, Colin knelt down to the small child. “What’s going on?”

  “You remember when you told me to tell you if anyone was following us?” Katy asked. She leaned into him to whisper. “Someone is following us right now.”

  “I asked some of my friends to keep an eye on us,” Colin ruffled Katy’s hair and stood up. They walked up the big hill near the box canyon of the DeBoer waterway.

  “Daddy?” Paddy said when they reached the edge of the grass. The laughter and screams from the children playing in the splash fountain echoed off Museum of Nature and Science’s glass wall and through the grassy bowl where they were standing. Colin’s eyes scanned the activity.

  “Daddy?” Paddie tugged Colin’s hand to get his attention. Colin looked down at him. “Katy knows your friends.”

  Colin’s eyes blinked for a minute before he realized what Paddie was saying. Colin’s head jerked to Katy. Katy nodded.

  “You’re saying someone else is following us,” Colin said.

  Katy nodded.

  “Who?” Colin’s head turned around to look from adult to adult. Not seeing anything suspicious, he looked down at Katy. She pointed to a man standing behind the glass at the Museum of Nature and Science. “Anyone else?”

  Katy nodded. She held up her hand to indicate there were five other people following them.

  “What’s their plan?” Colin asked.

  “They are going to try to take us at the water feature,” Paddie said. “We’re going to fight them off.”

  “You know about this?” Colin asked Paddie.

  “Katy told me last night,” Paddie gave his father a sweet smile.

  “Where was I?” Colin asked under his breath.

  “Don’t worry, Daddy,” Paddie said. “We’re prepared.”

  Colin looked down at his brave four year old son and shook his head ruefully. Little Paddie and his psychic friend Katy were a force to be reckoned with. What was the world going to do when they got even a little bit older? What was he going to do? He smiled to himself.

  “Can we go now?” Paddie asked.

  “You have to make your phone calls anyway,” Katy smiled at him.

  “You know where…” Colin started. “Oh never mind. You know everything anyway. Be careful.”

  Paddie held out his hand for Katy. Katy grabbed his hand. In a way their mothers would never have allowed, they ran into the fountain wearing all of their clothing.

  “Wait!” Colin yelled. “Your clothes!”

  They were already sopping wet. Paddie danced into the middle and dared Katy to join him. Screeching with joy, she danced through the jets to him. With his eyes focused on their antics, his voice turned to steel while he called in reinforcements.

  ~~~~~~~~

  Saturday afternoon – 1:45 P.M.

  Tucson, Arizona

  “Are you disappointed we can’t go to a fancy lunch?” Valerie asked Sissy.

  They were walking down the hall to Aden and Sandy’s big suite where Delphie and Anjelika were taking care of Rachel. Noelle walked just ahead of them. Jill, Heather and Tanesha were following behind. Honey was at her room door. She was going to change for the pool and meet them in the suite.

  “Not really,” Sissy said. “I mean a fancy lunch with a movie star would be fun but those photographers are…”

  Sissy flared her nose in disgust.

  “Crazy,” Valerie said. “I know. They’re hoping I’ll have the baby right the
re so they can film the whole thing.”

  Sissy laughed.

  “What did that man mean by asking if the baby was Wes’s baby?” Noelle asked. “Who’s Wes?”

  “A jerk,” Valerie said. “He says crazy things to get attention and to make Mike mad. He’s had three girlfriends since we broke up and all he talks about is me.”

  “Talk about crazy!” Sissy rolled her eyes.

  “I know!” Noelle said.

  Valerie smiled. There was nothing more refreshing than the insanity and drama of these two girls. Their mood swings made Hollywood’s drama seem sedate. Sissy gasped and put her hand over her mouth.

  “Is Mr. Mike mad?” Sissy’s eyes filled with horror.

  “No,” Valerie laughed. “He was there when we got pregnant. He knows who her father is.”

  “Oh,” Sissy blushed. “Right.”

  Giggling, Noelle opened the door to the suite and held it for the other women. Delphie was sitting on the couch feeding Rachel. Anjelika was setting up lunch. The women had ordered a feast of fresh fruit, salad, and tasty breads. Noelle ran to check out the festival of chocolate with chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate cake, chocolate cream pie and even a cooler of chocolate ice cream. Sissy joined Noelle to admire the desserts.

  “We should have lunch first,” Sissy said trying to be the older sister.

  “Why?” Noelle asked.

  “Go ahead girls,” Anjelika said. “We can always get more.”

  “See!” Noelle said. “We can always get more!”

  Sissy hugged Noelle with joy and Anjelika laughed.

  “Can I hold Rachel?” Sissy asked.

  “Do you know how to feed her?” Delphie asked.

  “Oh,” Sissy blushed. “No.”

  “I’ll show you,” Delphie patted the couch next to where she was sitting. Sissy sat down. “You hold her like this. Right. Hold her neck.”

  Rachel looked up at Sissy with her lovely eyes. Sissy felt a rush of love for the little creature in her arms. Wanting her bottle, Rachel fussed. Delphie put the bottle in her mouth and put her hand on the bottle.

  “She’s a little too young to hold the bottle,” Delphie said. “But we want her to learn.”