He was gone so that meant I could look over these contracts. My daughter was going to be a lawyer so I wanted to discuss the documents with her. I went to my carryon bag a fished them out.
There was a surrogacy contract, a child support agreement, and a child custody agreement. There were a lot of pages and I skimmed them trying to understand what I was reading.
I called Kennedy and waited for her to pick up. After I explained to her what was going on she wanted the details in the contracts. I took a screenshot and sent them to her. I waited patiently while she silently went over documents.
“Ma.”
“Yeah.”
“There’s a lot here.”
“Is that good or bad.”
“Well, he’s giving you full custody so that’s good. You’ll get yearly child support in a lump sum of a quarter of a million dollars for twenty-one years. You get a new house that you pick and he pays for that. Is has to be in the three to six million dollar range in the state of Illinois.”
“He knows I don’t want to leave this area. I’m not pulling Aaron out of school. But why so expensive?”
“Your name will be on the deed of the house. It will be yours even though he’s buying it.”
“Wow.”
“It says he will pay for all travel visits to see the child. Which will include you, the child and a nanny if you come to him. He pays for the nanny too. He also pays for the yearly lease on a brand new car with top safety features for twenty-one years. It’s a really good contract. It sets you up for life. You’ll end up with over five million total and a house. It looks really generous. There are minor things like security but that’s in the event the child’s identity is revealed. He’s paying for all security too. You get to pick the surrogate. You get to name this kid too. He’s letting you run the entire baby show.”
“Do you think I should do it?”
“Do you want a baby with this guy?”
“I think I do. I love him. He would be a great father.”
“We already know you’re a great mother. These contracts cover a lot but he’s not saying you can’t work or anything misogynistic.”
“That’s good.”
“Ma, I know that I’m not having any kids. I’m serious about a career in law. You won’t have a grandchild from me in a very long time.”
“What’s a long time?”
“Ten years maybe more. My career is important to me.” I knew she was telling the truth. Kennedy had always been ambitious. She always wanted to be an attorney.
“So that’s basically saying do it or not?”
“I would say no to this whole thing if you were doing it for the money. But you’re not that kind of person. You love this guy. You are flying all over the country to be with him. He’s flying to Naperville to be with you. I know you think you’re too old but you’re not. You can do this with your eyes closed.”
A pep talk from my firstborn, I needed that.
There was a knock on the hotel room door.
“Hey, Kennedy someone is knocking at the door. I’m going to call you back.”
“Okay please remember the six-hour time difference."
“I will. thanks for the reminder. I love you.”
“Love you too.” I waited for her to hang up first.
There was another knock on the hotel room door. I walked out of the bedroom and toward the door. I opened the door. I probably should’ve looked through the peephole. What if it was a rabid fan? It wasn’t.
Rude Winston was standing there looking like he’d just opened his eyes from a nap.
“Hey.” He grumbled.
“Jagger isn’t here.”
“I know he’s at Abbey Road. Can I holler at you for a bit?”
I rolled my eyes but walked across the room. Winston followed but didn’t come to close. The door closed behind him.
“What’s up?” I crossed my arms in front of me.
“I wanted to give you a sincere apology for what happened with the actress, Tara. It wasn’t a proper prank. I was being a wanker.”
“Ah yeah, you were.”
“Yes, I was being an arse.”
I wanted to censor my words and decided to just say how I felt. “I don’t know why you don’t like me.”
“It’s not that I don’t like you.”
“It sure feels that way.”
“It’s not at all. I felt threatened by you.”
I was confused. Who the hell is threatened by a book editor? Was I going to pummel him with paperback young adult dystopian novels?
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“I was jealous. Jagger is happy. He writes his best music because of you. He talks about you like you’re the Queen of England. I wanted to knock him off his bloody pedestal. He’s happy and I wasn’t here for it.”
“You’re his fucking brother you should want to see him happy.”
“Do you understand? I was jealous. I thought you were going to swoop in and take him away. I thought you were going to give him a reason to break up the group. This group is like a noose around his neck. I don’t have anything but Toxic Shock. All I have is this bloody group. This is my entire life.”
“I don’t want Jagger to do anything he doesn’t want to do. Toxic Shock is a separate thing. I’m just his girlfriend. I don’t tell Jagger what to do. I didn’t even know who the hell you all were a few months ago. This music has nothing to do with me. I’m not a part of this damn group.”
“No, that’s not true. You are a huge part of this group. He’s kicked the drugs. He doesn’t even drink anymore. Most of the songs on the album were written about you, to you. You inspire him. You have a lot of power. You have to know that. I felt threatened by it.”
“Do you currently feel this way. I haven’t
