Page 5 of Mending Fate

“No, just that I have primary custody.”

“Here’s the problem, Mr. McCrae.” She dropped her pencil onto the pad, and I couldn’t help but think she was buying herself a little time before breaking some bad news to me. “Custody is…tricky. Unless there’s proof of neglect or abuse on behalf of either parent, even a detailed custody agreement is only as good as someone is willing to go to court on it.”

“Are you saying Keli can simply leave with my daughter?”

“No, but…” She straightened. “It’s custodial interference, and you can file with family court.”

This entire trip had been a waste of time.

“There’s a lot I can’t do,” she continued, “but that doesn’t mean you’re powerless. My hands are tied in ways yours aren’t. You have resources available to you, and I – unofficially – encourage you to use them.”

I stared at her, unsure if I was hearing her correctly. It sounded as if she was telling me to go outside the law.

“Understand me, Mr. McCrae, I am not suggesting you do something violent or foolish. But then, you don’t strike me as a violent or foolish man.” She stood up. “You strike me as the sort of man who will make strategic, intelligent choices to achieve your end goal.”

I couldn’t mask the surprise that I felt at her declaration. She knew who I was, but she didn’t know me personally. How could she know I was smart enough to know what to do to get my daughter back?

“Do you have a recent picture?” she asked. “Of either of them or both of them? I’d like to give my people faces to look for. I may not be able to put out an Amber Alert or get a judge to issue an arrest warrant, but I can have eyes looking for them as everyone’s on their daily business.”

If I’d been less worried and upset, my gratitude would’ve been greater, but as it was, I managed athank youas I pulled up a picture of the two of them together from our time with my family. She used my phone to send the picture to herself before handing it back.

“If anything changes, let me know.”

Her offer was genuine, but that wouldn’t do anything for me right now. She was right. I needed to reach out.

I drove back home, more because I didn’t have a specific place to go than any other reason. Perhaps Keli would do the right thing and realize that she was only hurting herself by keeping Evanne away from me. If she did, the house was where she’d go.

I didn’t believe she would do that, just as I didn’t believe she was still in Seattle. Where she went was unimportant. The McCrae, Carideo, and Gracen families had a reach that went far beyond the city in which I made my home.

I had calls to make.

I didn’t want to alarm my family, but they had to know, firstly because they loved Evanne as much as I did, and secondly, because they would never forgive me if I didn’t ask them to use what was theirs to find her.

Making the calls also served another purpose. It allowed me to talk out what had happened and gather suggestions about what to do and ideas for where Keli could have gone. I hadn’t realized until after I’d answered their questions, however, just how little I knew about the life Keli had made after we’d broken up. A life that my daughter had shared for eight years.

I had listened to everything Evanne had said about school and her room and the fun things she’d done. I’d ignored anything to do with Keli. I hadn’t wanted to know anything about her, and it was only now I realized what a monumental mistake that was.

Today had been full of those.

Today, however, wasn’t the day to dwell on those mistakes. There’d be plenty of time for that later.

I spent the next few hours pacing, writing down possibilities, making calls.

I didn’t simply need tofindKeli and Evanne. Once they were found, I needed a plan in place to get Evanne home and keep her safe. I hadn’t wanted to keep Keli from her, but Keli had proven that she couldn’t be trusted. The situation needed to be handled rather than delayed any longer. Putting it off was what had led to this point in the first place.

The law firm that exclusively handled all of my family’s personal and business matters had lacked a family law expert, but I’d been given a recommendation. Percival Scarpa. The man was not only a highly admired legal mind, but one with integrity. After explaining my situation to him, he agreed to take my case, and we spent over an hour talking.

When our conversation was over, I felt better about that part of things, but I still had no idea how to find Evanne or Keli. Hiring private investigators seemed like the right move, and I had more than enough money for it, but I knew that the wrong ones could do more damage than good. I couldn’t risk making another mistake.

The sound of the front door opening caught my attention, and my heart leaped. Not many people knew the security codes. However, it wasn’t Keli or Evanne that I found coming down the hall. Red hair and vivid green eyes. A scar on the left side of his face. A familiar face. And a welcomed one.

“Eoin.”

He gave me one of those half-hug, half-handshake things that we’d always done. “Finding my niece seems like a better use of my time than bumming around our parents’ house, feeling sorry for myself.”

I’d never been so happy to see my little brother in my life.

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