Page 66 of Until Nalia

“I don’t know.” I swallow, thinking about it. “When everything happened with Sharon, my dad mentioned he had a lawyer I could use.”

“How about you call your dad and get that number?”

“He’s probably working.”

“I guarantee you that he’s not going to care that you’re interrupting his workday with this situation.” Of course, he’s right, my dad won’t care, but I hate dragging him into this. “Come on.” He helps me off his lap. “Let's go get your phone.”

Not even thirty minutes after getting off the phone with my dad, he and my mom are standing in my living room, then ten minutes after that, my parents and I are on our way to the lawyer’s office, with Logan promising to pick up the kids from school.

The conversation with the lawyer isn’t an easy one, but I feel somewhat better after talking with Ruthie Stevens, a woman who has been a child custody attorney for over thirty years. After explaining the situation to her she reassured me that Sharon could not just take guardianship away from me without just cause, and that given her current circumstances, it wouldn’t be easy for her to fight me even if she wanted to.

Still, we make plans to start working on putting some things in place just in case, including filing the paperwork to terminate Sharon’s parental and visitation rights. Not because I want to keep her from Zuri or keep Zuri from her, but because if she claims that the reason Zuri is not e-mailing her back is because I’m not allowing Zuri to contact her, that could lead to me actually losing my guardianship and Zuri being placed elsewhere. It’s not the solution I want, but at the end of the day, I want to protect Zuri. And I will drain myself dry to do that.

Nineteen

LOGAN

“You have a lot of tattoos,” Coop says, staring at Nalia’s dad with a wide-eyed look on his face. An expression that hasn’t changed much since Nalia and her parents showed up with pizza about thirty minutes ago.

“Coop, seriously?” Billie sends her brother a disapproving look.

“What?” He frowns at her.

“Don’t be rude.”

“I’m not being rude, it’s just the truth, he has a lot of tattoos.”

“He’s not wrong, I do have a lot of tattoos,” Nico tells her, taking a huge bite of pizza.

Fighting back the laughter I feel in the back of my throat, I look over at Nalia sitting next to me at the dining table and watch her hide her smile with the crust of the pizza in her hand. I’m relieved to see her smile and so relaxed after witnessing her breakdown this afternoon. More, I’m relieved that she was able to speak with a lawyer and get some reassurance that things will be okay.

“So, Billie, Nalia was telling me that you’re performing in your high school musical,” Sophie says, and Billie looks over at Nalia with a hint of surprise then looks at Sophie.

“Yeah, we’re putting on Clue.”

“Like the board game?” Sophie asks her.

“Kind of, yeah, but it’s also funny.”

“And it’s a musical,” Coop mutters, and his sister glares at him.

“What? You sing all the time.”

“She has an amazing voice,” Nalia tells her mom softly, and Billie looks at her as she continues. “Her and her friend Cat were practicing on Sunday while they helped us with the kids and their science projects, and I was blown away by how good she is.”

“Thanks.” Billie ducks her head.

“So what role are you playing in the show?” Sophie asks her.

“Miss Scarlett.”

“That sounds like a very important role.”

“Yeah, kinda.” She shrugs, and Sophie smiles, then asks in a whisper.

“Are you the killer?”

“I can’t tell you.” Billie laughs. “You’ll have to come with Nalia and find out.”