Page 61 of Ashes of Us
The fallout over the trail was intense and immediate.
Emilia, wanting to know what happened between Amy and Lucy, started asking in the family group chats before they even left the courtroom and had the full story from one of Jasper's cousins, who was still in contact with Geri's youngest daughter before they finished their celebration brunch at IHOP.
“Oh, you guys need to hear this!” Emilia grinned and leaned back in her chair, wiping her mouth as she scrolled her phone back to the start of the conversation.
“According to Rachel, who heard it directly from Anita - those are Jasper's cousins, but Anita is Geri's youngest daughter and Geri is Amy's best friend, co-conspirator and Cecil's sister who chose Amy's side in their separation.” She explained to Alex, David and Maverick in response to their confused expressions.
“Don't worry about the who's who, just know this is as close to the source for the information as I can get without a listening device in Amy's kitchen.” When they nodded, she continued.
“According to Anita, most of this falls on her mother, who never approved of Danica and has been whispering in Amy's ear since Jasper asked Danica to marry him.
She's the one who's been insisting that Danica had to be sleeping with her boss, because why else would he pay for her university, then hire her as his executive assistant, etc., etc.” She rolled her eyes, shaking her head.
“Because, as it usually is with people of her belief system, you can't possibly love someone and want the best for them unless there's some transaction if you're not family or married, but I digress.
Anyway, she's spent the better part of the last five years putting doubts in Amy's head, who would then take them to Jasper, who would defend Danica and shut her up... until the next time she hung out with Geri.”
Danica scoffed softly. She wasn't surprised at all about Geri, the woman was barely a factor in her life, but of course, she felt like she needed to stick her nose in everyone's business.
Danica met her, decided she didn't like her and had been polite but indifferent and distant to the woman whenever they were in the same room, ignoring her not-so-subtle digs and passive-aggressive remarks.
Still, Danica had to admit that it gave her a certain feeling of power to know that a woman she barely acknowledged existed had been so focused on her that she practically had squatter's rights in Geri's brain.
“Of course it was Geri. Remember when she kept insinuating I was a lesbian and using Jasper as my beard?”
Emilia burst into laughter and nodded. “Oh god, that was priceless.” She snorted and chuckled again, this time at the guy's confusion.
“She spent all of Christmas Day one year making snide comments about Danica like ‘Marriage hasn't really changed her lifestyle , has it?’ ‘She's playing the part well enough, I suppose,’ and my personal favourite.
‘I just think it's beautiful how accepting he is of her truth, whatever that may be.’ All because Danica was excited about the new drill press that Jasper got her.”
“Seriously?” Alex raised his eyebrow, looking at Danica in surprise. “You guys let her get away with that?”
Danica shook her head as she sipped her orange juice.
“Jasper kept giving me this pleading look, like 'please just ignore her, don't make a scene.
' Which I did, until she commented at dinner about ‘some people marry for love, others for optics’ or some crap along those lines.
I was over it, so I responded with, 'That's a pretty wild theory. Personal experience?”
“She left right after dinner in a huff.” Emilia giggled as the others snorted at the image of Danica matching the passive-aggressive attitude of the other woman to shut her up.
“So, to get back to all this, over the years, Geri slowly poisoned Amy against Danica, which was made easier when Jasper started to put distance between him and his mom. When Lucy showed up at her door the day after the accident and spun a whole story about how after Jasper picked her up that night, she convinced him to accept the child, and that Jasper was considering leaving Danica so he could be in his child’s life, she latched on to it in her grief and what she said in court was true, the fact that she actually approached Danica and asked for the sperm was why she believed her. ”
“Anyway, on the way home the night before, after hearing the clips from the dash cam, Amy confronted Lucy about her lies, and instead of coming clean, Lucy doubled down and kept insisting Jasper wanted to leave you and have the child with her. At that point, Amy seemed to realize there was something wrong with her and told her she had to get out of her house immediately before she called the cops, which, of course, scared Lucy into leaving. Apparently she left everything behind, though, never even took her clothes.” Emilia raised her eyebrow and scrolled down a bit more.
“And apparently, Amy's lawyer lost his shit on her this morning when she showed up without Lucy and told him she had kicked her out.”
“I bet he did.” David leaned forward, pushing his plate to one side as he folded his arms. “If the judge had thought he deliberately didn't produce his own subpoenaed witness because it would have made him look bad, then he could have reported him to the bar for discipline, not to mention he's already in trouble with the higher-ups in his firm for taking the case without doing the proper research into everything.”
Maverick nodded. “Yeah, when I was looking into Amy and Lucy, I found out the reason it took a full week to file the injunction was because they couldn't find a lawyer willing to take the case.”
“Makes sense.” David agreed. “I wouldn't have touched it with a ten-foot pole and heavy-duty gloves. As a matter of fact, if Trista hadn't been so adamant that this was a home run, I wouldn't have agreed to take it on.”
Alex frowned. “Why not?” Danica felt his hand rest on her lower back in an almost protective manner. “Why did it have to be a home run case for you to take it?”
“Well, first of all, I'm retiring at the end of the year, and I've been mostly coasting, taking easy cases that won't get dragged out over a long period,” David admitted, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
“And second, the most famous case that was similar to this one happened in Florida in 1998 and wasn't resolved until 2005.
It went through the Florida Supreme Court, the U.S.
Supreme Court and had political interference before it was all resolved and the poor woman was allowed to die, so you'll have to forgive me for being a little apprehensive to take it on.”
“Oh! I remember that.” Alex nodded in understanding, his hand dropping from Danica's back. “It was different, though, right? She was still alive, just severely brain-damaged with no hope of recovery.”
“It was different, but still, this could have gone a lot differently if just one piece of evidence was mishandled or if there had been even the slightest doubt that Jasper wanted to have the baby.
I had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he didn't want the child with Lucy, and if it weren't for those recordings from the dash cam, it would have all been mostly hearsay.” David explained.
“That's why I suggested Danica hire Maverick to look into things.
He was a damn good detective in New York, and he's probably one of the best private investigators in New England.” Danica grinned as Maverick's face went red at David's praise and raised her glass.
“I'll drink to that.”
Maverick shook his head and smiled, his blush growing deeper as everyone raised their glasses to him.
“It was honestly a pleasure. I'm just glad it all worked out for you, Danica, and I expect you to keep in touch, keep me updated on Indie and all that.” He cleared his throat and shifted, still looking a little uncomfortable.
“Speaking of the therapy dogs, how did it go at the K9 Comfort Foundation yesterday, Em?”
Danica smirked and shared a look with Alex and David as he shifted the subject away from himself but turned her attention to Emilia. She had meant to ask and felt a little guilty that she had forgotten with everything going on.
“It was incredibly well.” Emilia gushed.
“They were so professional, but also very empathic and understanding of our situation. They said once we get the official diagnosis, there is an organization that helps families of special needs kids get the funding for a support dog, because holy crap, they are expensive.”
“Yeah, I know.” Maverick nodded solemnly. “It's a lot for an animal that isn't covered by and doesn't have the same rights under the ADA as a service animal, but having seen how Gracie interacts with Watson and Indie, I think it's the right choice.”
“Wait.” Danica frowned in confusion. “ESAs aren't covered under the ADA? What does that mean?”
“Emotional Support Animals aren't covered under the Americans with Disability Act,” Emilia explained, looking a little miffed by it.
“So, if a place doesn't allow pets, they don't have to let in an ESA, while a Service Dog, like a seeing eye dog, is considered to be a medical necessity and can't be refused.”
“And, while it's kind of died off now, back when ESAs were more of a novelty, a lot of people were just saying their very untrained pet was an ESA to try to get special treatment.” Maverick expanded on the explanation.
“It's set back the process of getting them approved under the ADA quite a bit, although they are covered under the Fair Housing Act.
Still, eight grand or more is a lot of money for a specially trained dog that you can't bring with you to school or work without special permission. I was lucky that my benefits with the NYPD covered most of the costs, and it was a little different for me. I adopted Watson from a Bassett Hound Rescue and brought him to the Foundation to have him trained to be both a PTSD Service Dog and an ESA.”
“Watson wasn't from the Foundation?” Emilia practically pounced on him with that information. “They just trained him?”
Maverick nodded, chuckling at her excitement.
“Yeah, I've always loved Basset Hounds and wanted one since I was a kid, but with my job as a PI, I needed him trained for specific tasks, like providing support on demand to people who are upset when I talk to them.
He helps break the ice or gives me a reason to talk to people whom I have to approach for information without letting them know why I'm there.
I also had him trained to aid in search and rescue in cases of lost or missing individuals.
Honestly, in the end, it wasn't that much cheaper for me to do it that way.”
Danica stayed quiet while they discussed the ESAs and legalities, David jumping in to offer his two cents from the law's side, pulling out her phone to look up the Foundation's website.
“You're going to pay for Gracie's dog, aren't you?” Alex's low grumble from beside her ear made her jump a little, and she looked up to see him looking at her phone.
“I'm going to donate to the organization, and if it helps lower their costs a little, is that such a bad thing?” Danica muttered back, keeping one eye on Emilia and Maverick as she found the Executive Director's contact information and saved it to her phone.
Paying for Jasper's hospital bills, his funeral, and for David and Maverick's services would definitely deplete the inheritance she had gotten from Alexander, but the rent she was going to charge Cecil for the house would cover her rent at the condo, and the small life insurance policy she had on Jasper through her benefits at the hotel would help with the funeral and some of the medical costs.
“Not at all.” Alex nodded in agreement, looking impressed. “So, what are you going to do with your late husband's baby batter freeze pop?”
Danica stared at him for a minute, shocked at the way he referred to her husband's sperm, and then started to laugh. “Oh, God, that's so gross. Don't call it that.”
“Yes, please don't call it that.” Emilia wrinkled her nose and pushed her plate away as David and Maverick hid their laughter behind their hands. “But what are you going to do? You guys were trying for a baby; do you want to attempt the IVF process?”
“Are you kidding?” Danica began to cough, choking on her orange juice at the thought of going through the process and pregnancy alone.
“And have Amy spend the rest of her life trying to establish some right to the child?
No thanks. Besides, I wanted a baby with Jasper; if he's not here to be a dad, then I don't want to do it without him.
As soon as I get the ruling in writing, I'll be going to Fenway Fertility and Wellness Clinic and watching them destroy it.”
“Well, Amy has thirty days to appeal, and then you can do what you want,” David assured her. “I doubt they'll try, or even let an appeal get past being filed, unless they find new evidence that blows a hole in our argument, which I really, really doubt they will.”