“Tinsley and I need to work, and the office is out. At home, they’ll keep interrupting us.”
“Okay, I can have them come to the office and take me to lunch. I’ll send them shopping after. Would that work?”
“Yes, but don’t bring up the sailboat. Dad’s still dying to buy it, and Mom’s holding firm since there isn’t a boat slip available anywhere near them.”
“No problem there.” Claire is grunting and breathing heavily. “I got you covered.”
“Are you sure you’re alone?”
“Yes.” She’s not happy I’ve asked. “My boot was stuck in the back of my closet. Grow up. I’d tell you to go get laid, but I don’t want to unleash you on Tinsley, yet.”
Oops. Too late.
“Alright. I’m off to see Fiona this morning and will catch up with Tinsley and Cameron. I’ll leave Mom and Dad to you.”
“Thanks. You owe me.”
“Me? You’re the one who invited them.”
“Whatever. Bye.”
My sister is something else sometimes. “Bye.”
When we arrive at Fiona’s building, Greg parks in a no-parking zone and walks me upstairs to her office.
The receptionist greets me, her cleavage once again on display. She’s a sexual harassment suit waiting to happen.
She invites me to follow her to a conference room. “Can I get you anything?” she mewls.
“I’m good.” Does she act like this all the time or just with me?
I wait patiently for Fiona, which is saying something since it takes her close to twenty minutes to join me.
She embraces me and gives me an air kiss on the cheek. “Sorry about the delay.”
“I want to countersue her for harassment,” I begin.
Fiona sighs and pushes a piece of paper at me. I look down, and it says I’m a ninety-two percent match to be the father to Heather McCoy’s child.
“This is impossible!” I murmur.
“We can ask for a blood test after the baby is born, but for now, she’s asking you to pay all medical bills and her rent.”
I study the paper and its aligned genetic markings. “This must be a scam. How is this possible?”
Fiona shakes her head.
“So, what happens if I pay what will probably be close to fifty thousand dollars and it’s not mine, making this whole thing a scam?”
“You can sue her for that.”
“She probably doesn’t have a pot to pee in. This is bullshit. No. If a test after the baby’s birth confirms I’m the father, I will take responsibility. But that isn’t my baby. I was never with that woman.”
“How can you be sure?” Fiona asks.
I’m stunned. That was a complete kick in the chops. “Perhaps I’ve been a bit reckless with my personal life, but I know where I was that weekend. And the day she’s talking about, I wasn’t with her.”
Fiona nods. “That’s good news. I want to see your calendar. Did you have sex that weekend?”
“Yes, but in Las Vegas. And with a woman I see on occasion when we aren’t dating others. It can’t get out.” I click two buttons on my phone and email the contact to her. “This Heather McCoy says I was with her on October fifteenth. I was playing poker in Vegas at a hush-hush game with Nate Lancaster. That was the weekend his wife went missing. I would think that’s more than enough to at least delay until the baby is born.”
“How did you get to Vegas?”
“I flew in with Walker Clifton and Jackson Graham on Jackson’s plane.”
“Will Jackson verify this?”
“He’d better.” I scroll through my contacts and dial his office.
“Hello, Jackson Graham’s office,” a woman states efficiently.
“This is Landon Walsh. Can you see if Jackson has two minutes for me?”
“One moment, please.”
“Hey, loser,” Jackson’s voice bellows through the phone.
“Hey. I’m here with my attorney. Can you tell her when I flew with you to Vegas last fall?”
“Sure. Is everything okay?”
“It will be as soon as you verify.”
“Okay, give me just a second… Here it is. We went to Vegas in October from the twelfth to the eighteenth. That was the weekend Cecelia went missing.”
“Thanks. That’s what I needed to hear. I have a psycho saying I was somewhere else.”
“Let me know if you need more info from me. I can pull the flight manifests and give a sworn statement—Clifton too. I’m sure having a United States Attorney swear on your behalf would help, too.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.”
We disconnect, and I look at Fiona. “So, I have Jackson Graham and probably Walker Clifton swearing I was in Vegas.”
“But you could have flown back,” Fiona reasons.
“Why? For some nameless piece of ass? If I’d wanted that, I could have gotten it in Vegas. Why fly back? Honestly, I was in a tournament with these guys. It ran all afternoon and into the evening. Twelve big-name people will verify that I was there, plus the Las Vegas Police were all in our shit over that weekend. I was there, and the woman I sent you will verify that I spent the nights with her. So no, I’m not paying for some other guy’s baby.”
Fiona taps her pen on the glass table. “Let me pull all this together. We can fight this. The problem is that the paternity test is conclusive.”
“Could it have been faked? I wasn’t there. I’ve never been with that woman.” I debate a moment, and then I pull a file from my phone and forward it to her.
“What is this?”
“It’s a list of every woman I’ve been with in the last three years. Of course, these are the names they gave me.”
“You think some of the names are wrong?”
I nod. “The last entry for Amanda is actually Tinsley Pratt, the new partner at Disruptive Technologies.”
“Why did you put her down as Amanda?”
