#1 Love

by T Gephart

  But I had no argument—well formed or otherwise—and no evidence either. Except for the feeling in my gut, and the look on Don’s face when I’d said it.

  “What are you talking about, Maya?” He tried to laugh it off, looking at Alex for support. “I just met you a few weeks ago, and didn’t you say your family is in Nevada? How could I have met any of them, I have never left the state.”

  “You didn’t have to, you came to our house in Encino.”

  Don eyed the door nervously, looking like he wanted to run. But he didn’t. I assumed it was because his body looked like it probably hadn’t done cardio in at least a decade, but he may have decided just to do the right thing. After all, it had been ten long years, and his life didn’t look like it’d been a bed of roses.

  The weight of his secrets was visible on his face, and if I didn’t know better, it was something he’d been expecting for a long, long time.

  “He’s threatened me. Alex. Both our families.” I pushed a little further. “He’ll hurt everyone. If you have any compassion in your heart, you’ll tell us if you know something. Because I assure you, I will spend every single minute investigating until I know the truth.”

  I could tell his resolve was wearing thin, his heavyset eyes opening and closing as he wrestled with whatever it was that had been tormenting him.

  My back straightened, my determination, settling in. “I won’t stop. I’ll find out even if I have to take you down with him, Don. You have a chance to finally do the right thing.”

  “Maya, people depend on me. I didn’t take a cent of that money.”

  His plea had been enough to get Alex’s attention, who up to that point had been in the dark. “You were involved with Glenn Zaveri?”

  “I didn’t take the money.” Don held up his hands, attempting to prove he wasn’t a criminal. “All I did was keep the ledger, the names, the money, and where it all went. Only person I ever met with was Glenn and he paid me cash, I wasn’t on the payroll.”

  “So you knew?” I gasped in disbelief. “You knew all those people were going to lose their money and you did nothing?”

  “Maya, what could I have done? Go to the cops? I’d have been implicated. I’ve spent the rest of my life trying to do right. Look at all the people we’ve helped, I am not a bad person,” he protested, trying to convince us that he’d paid his penance.

  Not likely.

  I was fairly sure the FBI would feel differently too.

  “You still have the information? The ledger, the names, the accounts?” I asked, hoping he did. Even if he didn’t, I bet my father assumed he did.

  He nodded, scrubbing his face with his hand. “Yes. It’s in a safety deposit box. When you came to work here, I thought it might have been a set up. Thought maybe your dad was trying to get it back. So I did some digging.”

  Well that was a revelation I wasn’t expecting.

  “You investigated me?” I stared back in shock.

  His head bobbed. “Yeah, worked out you were the same Maya Zaveri and waited to see what you would do. Then he called me. Hadn’t heard from the man since he left and I could tell he was nervous. Kept asking me about what Alex was doing working for me and if I’d met you. I guess he got nervous or something, figured I’d hand over the ledger. Anyway, I still wasn’t sure if you were in on it so I told him that if he wanted the cash, he was going to have to come get it himself and not send his kid.”

  He was the link, the reason my father would risk his freedom.

  Wrongly believing I was after his money and I was trying to get it from Don.

  “You spoke to him?” Emotions—ALL of them—surged through me as I waited for his answer.

  “Yeah, but it didn’t go well, and he didn’t tell me where he was. Look, if you do this, Maya. Every single case I’ve worked will be called into question. Your work might come under scrutiny too, same with Alex. You willing to risk all of that for something neither of us can change?”

  And that was it.

  The leverage.

  “I’d rather never work another case than perpetuate the lie.” It wasn’t even a choice.

  While Alex convinced Don that the best thing to do was turn himself in, I called Roman and the police. It wasn’t a good feeling watching Don be led away in cuffs, knowing that because we’d done the right thing, hundreds of other people were going to suffer. The legal clinic, his practice, and all the people he helped were suddenly abandoned. But as shitty as it sounded, you didn’t get to pick and choose which laws you got to follow. Don was an accessory at the very least, and quite possibly an accomplice.

  Through the night, Roman, Stefan, Mike, Alex and myself sifted through what we knew, and what we’d managed to get from Don before the FBI took him away. It wasn’t easy and called for a lot of speculation but we felt confident we had it at least half right. It would take time before we got the full scope of the story but I didn’t need an FBI investigation to know that my father had gotten greedy and nervous.

  When he’d fled with Dina, he hadn’t had time to take the ledger, taking with him only the million he had in cash stashed in a gym bag in our basement. It had been confirmed when Roman was able to get his hands on Dina’s interview. We didn’t ask questions how he was able to get evidence; just thankful we had at least some of her testimony.

  The real money was hidden in offshore accounts, but my dad, too cocky to keep the numbers, had left them behind in his rush to leave. Which meant most of his money—and evidence to provide an ironclad connection to so many felonies he would never see the light of day—was still sitting in the possession of one Donald M. Lamb. And he hadn’t done anything with it because he was worried about repercussions from either my dad or the law.

  Dear old Dad had probably assumed Don had turned, testified and the money had been seized by the authorities; it’s what should have happened but didn’t. Instead, it was right where he’d left it—my father completely unaware it was still in play until his phone call.

  The irony was that my dad hadn’t even been after the money—probably reasoning it was long gone. Instead he got worried about the connection, something he discovered around the same time he found out that Alex and I were dating. Which Astrid so helpfully provided.

  #ThanksALotAstrid

  #NotSoHotWhenYouBringTheDevilBackIntoMyLife

  Then we assumed he did what every felon on the run does when he finds out his daughter is shacked up with a decent man whose last name is famous. Yep, the internet had a lot to answer for. All he had to do was Google Alex and see his name listed with Don’s legal clinic. Donating his time and expertise since college, Alex’s name was on the website and in their records.

  I’d have loved to seen his face while he built up his version of reality.

  Of course, it had been wrong but ego will convince you of almost anything.

  Then like the jackpot, he got two for the price of one; information and then money.

  Not sure if he still would have extorted money from me simply because I was with Alex or if he was worried I was going to get my hands on the evidence. It was something we may never know. But one thing was for sure, in all those years he was willing to risk everything and manipulate anyone for greed.

  Either way, he either had to run for the rest of his life—without his precious money—or wait until the authorities found him in whatever snake hole he’d been hiding. And at least part of the money was recovered—sitting in the Cayman’s just like Roman suspected—able to give some of the people compensation.

  The legal mess was intense too, but that was something for the California bar to sort out. Thankfully because Alex had been unaware of the connection and the clinic had been legitimate, it was unlikely any of his cases would be threatened. It was a very small consolation.

  It was late by the time we got back to Alex’s house, both of us clumsily stripping down and climbing into bed. We didn’t make love, preferring to hold each other and trading soft kisses that I wanted to last forever.<
br />
  “I love you,” Alex whispered in the dark. “We were always meant to be together.”

  “Such a shame it took us this long to work out,” I whispered back.

  His lips brushed against my forehead. “I don’t care how long it took, I’m just glad I didn’t lose you. I’m never taking that risk again.”

  “You won’t lose me.” My hands moved against his back, getting as close as I could to him. “But just so you know, my mother is probably going to freak when I tell her I’m moving to New York. Probably the only thing that is going to calm her down will be that she knows I’ll be with you.”

  Alex laughed. “Well how about we make her really happy and tell her you’ll be my wife.”

  My heart shuttered, skipping a few beats like the wiring was all wrong. We had joked before, but I wasn’t sure if that was one of them. “Are you serious?”

  Both myself and my heart couldn’t take the risk. I needed to know.

  His hand cupped my chin, raising it so I could just make him out in the shadows. “I’m going to give you a proper proposal but I’ve waited my whole life for you, Maya. I’m not going to waste another second.”

  “Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “Yes now, and yes for forever.”

  He kissed me softly, slowly, drawing it out because he knew it drove me crazy.

  “Good, going to make those plans for world domination a hell of a lot easier with you as my wife.”

  My smile spread across my lips in the darkness. “We’ve been training for this our whole lives.”

  “I SWEAR IF YOU HADN’T married the man, I’d have married him myself.” Jackie pulled me in for a hug, welcoming me back having just arrived from our honeymoon.

  “She means because she is grateful for him bringing you home to us.” Lisa elbowed Jackie before taking her turn at hugging me. “And we are eternally grateful.”

  “No, I mean because he is hot and insanely good in a courtroom.” Jackie smirked. “Are you sure there aren’t any more of him laying around waiting to be snatched up. Older, younger, as long as they’re legal, I’m not fussy.”

  “Sorry, I got the last one.” I tapped her hand, trying to sound sorry. “Better luck next time.”

  Alex and I had picked out an engagement ring the first week we’d been in New York. Then, because he liked to torture me, he waited a whole two weeks before he proposed again and let me wear it. I might have waited a few minutes before saying “yes” for the second time, because I liked to torture him too.

  I closed the chapter on Prim and my apartment, paying out the remaining months in full, which finalized the end of my lease without me breaking my contract. Prim was only too happy for the money, and I’m sure she had no trouble finding a replacement tenant. The jizz in the pool was now their problem. And Palmer and Loft had reluctantly accepted my resignation. It had been bittersweet leaving, sad to say goodbye to my two new friends, but excited for new possibilities.

  We’d found an apartment in the East Village, and Alex’s new firm suddenly had a vacancy for a new associate. I had a hunch Alex had lobbied on my behalf to get me an interview, but it had been my resume and enthusiasm which had landed me the job. Not only was I being mentored by a partner but I’d also earned their respect. And because it was New York, no one gave a rat’s ass about my last name or my family connection.

  As Alex had anticipated, news of a wedding made it easier for my mother to adjust to me leaving yet again. And a year later, she got to walk me down the aisle herself as I married the man of my dreams. I think between my mother and Kate, Kleenex saw a spike in share prices. And—Lord help us all—they’d already started an extended family group chat thread that gave me hives every time I saw the bubble with a billion unread messages.

  Life was perfect, or as close to it as it got.

  “Fine.” Jackie sighed dramatically. “I’ll take that guy, who worked with you when you were being a traitor, Stefan.”

  I laughed, my short stint in California still not forgiven. “He’s still going out with Astrid, it’s looking serious too. Not anything I’d have predicted.”

  Astrid and Stefan were an anomaly, but somehow it worked. He dug her “influencing” and she loved his attention, and somewhere along the line, the two of them actually started liking each other. She’d even posted pictures of herself on Instagram wearing conservative Chanel suits, her subtle hint that she was done with her partying lifestyle.

  We still saw them whenever we visited Los Angeles, and they’d both been at our wedding, along with Mike who was still stead fast in his resolve not to date lawyers. His current girlfriend was a schoolteacher from Torrance.

  “Maya isn’t here to help you find a boyfriend, we’re here to celebrate her triumphant return from her honeymoon. Tell us all about Europe, did you love it?” Lisa yanked on my arm.

  “Every country was stunning, the food, the people—I just couldn’t pick a favorite. But I’m really glad to not to have to live out of a suitcase anymore, and it feels good to be back and know I’m not going to be moving around for a while.”

  It had been a really long time since I’d put down any permanent roots, but finally I desperately wanted to. It hadn’t been in the city I’d anticipated, but sometimes life has a way of changing things and giving you more than you asked. And regardless of where we lived, it was absolutely with the right person.

  The girls and I shared breakfast mimosas and pastries at an adorable little café we’d discovered not far from where I lived. It was different to L.A., but I was slowly starting to fall in love with the city.

  We chatted a little more about my trip, and then I enjoyed finding out what I’d missed out on during the three weeks while I was gone. I’d never get tired of listening to their craziness, and really glad my change in plans had enabled me to see them almost every day for lunch. Their firm was less than a block from ours.

  It had been an hour into our celebratory brunch that my phone buzzed with an incoming message, Alex, telling me he needed to talk as soon as possible.

  “Are you kidding me?” Jackie pointed accusingly at my phone. “He had you alone for three freaking weeks. Screwing each other’s brains out in different romantic cities. It’s enough to make me sick.”

  She made fake gagging noises while Lisa and I both laughed.

  “It might be important.” I played with my phone, a little embarrassed at how much I’d missed him. It had only been a few hours, but truly I was pathetic. Not sure in what world I’d believed I could have ever been away from him—completely and utterly delusional.

  Lisa’s eyes flicked with concern as they dropped to my phone. “You think it’s about your dad?”

  “Oh shit, Maya. I’m sorry.” Jackie’s hand grabbed mine. “I was joking.”

  “Don’t,” I warned them, smiling at my dear friends whom I loved so much. “Don’t you dare apologize for being you.”

  While Dina had provided information for the FBI’s inquiry, my dad had remained elusive. Not sure why anyone was surprised, running out on his family after he made a mess, was his thing. About a month after he called me, they thought they’d tracked him down to a small town on the Californian/Mexican border but he’d already left and been a ghost since.

  The authorities had assumed news of my wedding might have flushed him out but I knew that it wouldn’t. I was only useful to him when he had something to gain, and that ship had sailed when Don Lamb was arrested and charged. With all of Glenn Zaveri’s dirty secrets, along with the money trail, handed over to the authorities, the only thing left for him to lose was his freedom. But whether we’d ever hear from him again remained to be seen. It would have been awesome for him to be found, to have tied it up in a lovely bow. But life doesn’t always work out like that, and ends sometimes have to stay unraveled.

  A beat passed, neither Jackie or Lisa saying anything before I cracked. “I mean it. Besides, if anything it’s me who should be concerned for you. I’m married to the hot guy who’s insanely good
in a courtroom and working at an amazing firm in New York. As far as fairytales, I’m pretty much living it.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” A smile crept across Jackie’s lips. “Rub our noses in it why don’t you, and you might as well just call him if you’re going to sit there and be smug.” And with that, any tension about my father or my past disappeared.

  “Sounds like good advice.” I picked up my phone and did what I’d been dying to do, my heartbeat still skipping a beat whenever I heard his voice.

  Or saw him.

  Or kissed him.

  Seriously, I had major issues.

  “Having fun?” He chuckled, his voice sending a shiver down my spine.

  I bit my lip, trying hard not to smile like a lunatic. “Yes, so what’s so important you need to speak to me?”

  “Can’t I just miss my wife and want to hear her sexy voice?”

  My skin heated, even when he wasn’t in the room, he could make me blush. “Yes, but I know you and I know that isn’t the reason.”

  He took a breath, and it worried me for about a second.

  And then I remembered, no time, no distance, no catastrophe, could ever take him away from me. We would always find our way back.

  “Okay, so Mike called. They have finally set the date to reopen the legal clinic in Lynwood. And he wanted to know if we’d go back for the grand opening. I know we just got back but—”

  “Tell him yes.” I answered without hesitation.

  It hadn’t been immediately, but Mike and Stefan had taken up the fight and gotten the legal clinic back up and running. With the backing of my old firm—Palmer and Loft—and Astrid’s social influence, they were not only able to help, but upgrade from the old hotel function room and set up a dedicated building. It would be staffed by volunteers with funding through fundraising efforts. And even though our contribution wouldn’t be huge, we promised to go out at least once a month and help when we could. It also gave me an extra excuse to see my many nieces and nephews and extremely large extended family.