“Except for the fact that you’re Sari’s father, and you never signed away your rights. You could potentially have a claim on her.”
“That’s a different story,” he said, “but it means Angel can’t take her away, correct?”
“Unless she has a good sob story and can prove the baby’s better off with her.”
“That’s terrible,” he said. “Can’t adoptive parents ever have the peace of mind of knowing someone can’t come back on them?”
“It is definitely a confusing issue,” Badger said. “Nothing’s clear-cut these days. It’s supposed to be finished, legal, all over, done with, but it never really is.”
“You realize none of this makes any sense.”
“It’ll make sense,” Badger said quietly. “Unfortunately it never makes sense until more shit happens.” On that note he hung up.
Weston put down his cell phone and turned to look at his daughter.
“Who was that?” Daniela asked from the kitchen.
He looked up to see her leaning against the doorway, chewing on her bottom lip.
“The DNA came back,” he said with a smile. “Sari is mine.”
A look of happy surprise washed across her face. “That is excellent news,” she said.
Sari looked over at him and gave him a toothy grin, then rolled back over, pushing at Shambhala with her feet as she lay on the floor.
“It is good news,” he said quietly with a big smile on his face. “I hadn’t realized how much I wondered until we got a confirmation.”
“I’m sorry you had to wonder,” she said. “Once Angel said you were the father, it never crossed my mind to think she might have been lying. Although, in retrospect, that wasn’t very astute of me.”
“Well, the reality is, she might not have known for sure,” he said. He hopped to his feet and said, “I’ll go into town and talk to the cops. I want to see if I can find out where Angel is staying, if she’s even in town, and see if I can get any more information on her brother and all that.”
“Did your friend have much to add?”
“Not much. Apparently Angel got into a spot of trouble in Vegas and ended up in drugs and eventually even prostitution. She went through a lot of jobs working at casinos. One lasted six months, and others were shorter.”
“Ouch,” Daniela said. “That would make for a tough eighteen months.”
“Very,” he said. “The problem is, we don’t know what kind of a downward spiral she’s come here with, and the truth is, we don’t want her here at all.”
“That’s for sure.”
He smiled. “I’ll take Shambhala with me.”
She hesitated and looked at Sari. “Okay. I’m still not all that comfortable with her here without you. Though it seems foolish to be uncertain because look at the two of them.”
“I won’t be too long anyway. We’ll get out of your hair for a bit.” He stopped as he headed toward the front door. “Do you want me to pick up anything while I’m out?”
She shook her head. “We’ll be fine,” she said. “I’ve got some work to do on my online business, and then I may have a nap with Sari. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”
“If you think of anything,” he said, “you can text me.”
She nodded.
He called Shambhala, who hopped to her feet and came running. He laughed. “You’re just as happy to get out and do something as I am, aren’t you, girl?” He opened the front door and walked out to his rental truck.
He had a lot to think about, and not the least of which was what the hell he would do with his future. When he had been considering his future before, he had only himself in mind, not a family, but now he had a daughter. No way in hell he would let her out of his life on a permanent basis. The question really was, what did he want, and was it fair to even consider something other than 100 percent?
Weston loaded Shambhala into the vehicle and headed back into town, his mind full. Not getting answers wasn’t good, and getting out of the house was more a case of staying busy. While he looked into these legal things, hopefully he could free up his mind and let all the thoughts and information flow through him.
He stopped in at the police station first.
The detective was there and looked surprised. “I told you that I didn’t have any updates,” he said.
“That may be,” Weston said, “but I have news that Angel was into prostitution and drugs pretty heavily down in Vegas. I also know Daniela is really worried Angel will try to take custody back.”
“I didn’t think that was possible,” the detective said. “I did send the paperwork to the legal department, but I haven’t heard back yet.”
“The adoption has been formally registered too,” Weston said. “I just wondered if there was any chance Angel could upset the applecart and get Sari back.”
“That I don’t know,” the detective said, then looked down at his files. “We haven’t found anything helpful so far.”
“So no forensic evidence?”
“Some, but that’s classified.”
Weston nodded. “Is the crime scene still locked up?”
“Why?”
“Because I’d like to take a look at the attorney’s office,” he said boldly. “I’ve done a lot of this kind of work in the past.”
The detective studied him for a long moment, then making a sudden decision, he stood, grabbed his keys and said, “I’ll meet you there.”
“Good,” Weston said, then strode out to his truck. Shambhala lay in the front seat, waiting for him. She barked in delight when he arrived, her tail wagging like crazy. He hopped in and reached over to give her a scratching.
“Let’s go, girl, and see if we can get into trouble somewhere else.” Starting the truck, he headed down the few blocks to the lawyer’s office. He walked the block and took photos of the other offices in the same area. By the time he walked back, the detective frowned at him.
“What did that do for
