“The best news is we drew the same judge who heard his claims against David when Cal and Mr. Fox went after him with trumped-up charges.
“The last I saw of their interaction makes me hope that the judge has a long memory,” Ms. Dixon shared.
We decided that we would hold off on releasing anything further to the press until tomorrow’s hearing. If the judge bought the ‘he can’t run because he’s a dog’ argument, we didn’t want to waste anyone’s time. Frank was doing a release tonight to all the local news outlets, notifying them that Thomas Fox planned to challenge Duke’s right to be a candidate. The hope was that even if Mr. Fox won, he would look like the jerk we thought he was. Frank also thought that if we won in court, it would be a great way to launch Duke’s campaign.
◊◊◊
Peggy came in with the boys, and they both wanted me to pick them up. Peggy shook her head at their antics to get my attention.
“Before you got home, we met their sister, Carol. I guess we gave her too much attention, and the boys are feeling left out,” she shared.
I didn’t buy it; they just wanted their daddy time. I didn’t think there would be any issues because they were used to Greg’s kids being around. I made a point to ensure all the little ones felt loved. Sometimes Nate, being Greg’s youngest, needed some alone time with his Unca David.
Fritz motioned for us to go to the conference room to talk. My grandmother was huddled with Ian and Ms. Dixon, strategizing. I suspected Fritz wanted to talk about what happened yesterday. My suspicions were confirmed when Paul and Chuck came in, and Cassidy followed my parents into the room. Once everyone was seated, Fritz turned to Paul to fill us in.
“The police have confirmed that Lucas Marks doesn’t exist. The working theory is that he was trying to hack the computer in the hopes of either gaining information he could use to steal your identity or access bank-account information.”
“David, I had no idea,” Peggy said.
My mom looked guilty. I knew she hadn’t warned Peggy like Dad had said she would. I could see that Fritz was about to question Peggy about not knowing, so I stopped it before she knew she’d been left out of the loop.
“We had some suspicions, but nothing concrete. Next time, we’ll make sure you know,” I said.
Fritz figured out what I’d done, but he wasn’t going to let it go.
“David’s right. We dropped the ball and should have told you,” he said as he looked at my mom. “In the future, I’ll make sure that I brief you if we have any suspicions.”
Peggy seemed confused.
“Are you telling me that he didn’t pass your background check?”
She was bright enough to figure out that we’d done just that.
“Yes,” Fritz confirmed. “We couldn’t find anything on Lucas. It was like he just appeared. That raised some red flags, but we didn’t follow through and warn you.”
“That was my fault,” Mom finally admitted. “I knew that you were just starting to get to know him and didn’t want to put any doubts in your mind if it was nothing. Fritz has had long talks with Rob and me about the sort of stuff we need to guard against with David’s celebrity. I didn’t want to believe that someone might try to go through you to get to him.”
Peggy didn’t seem happy, and I didn’t blame her one bit. The reality of my life had hit a second girl I was close to this weekend. I remembered my talk with Teddy Wesleyan and how horrified I’d been that his first instinct was that people were after his family’s money. I remembered a good quote from a book we read in my English Literature class. The book was
I sighed and looked Peggy in the eyes.
“This part of my life sucks donkey dicks.”
“David Allen Dawson!” Dad barked.
Peggy cracked a smile.
“I think you read my mind.”
I suddenly had a headache coming on and rubbed my forehead above the bridge of my nose.
“Peggy, I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to pack Little David up and run for the hills. There are some days I wish I would’ve listened to my uncle and not done my first movie. My life hasn’t been normal since.”
“Does this mean that I’ll have to get a background check on every guy I want to go out with?” she asked.
“If you plan to have him around the house or Coby,” Fritz said.
Peggy looked at me, and I nodded. They’d browbeat me until I saw the logic in it. I paid Fritz and his team a bloody fortune, and it would be just stupid if I didn’t let them do their job.
“Wouldn’t you rather know he’s a good guy before he meets your son?” Cassidy asked.
I would have to kiss Cassidy later for that question. I should have remembered that argument because it worked on me. What it did was change the focus from a person thinking ‘I can figure this out for myself’ to reminding that person that someone else relied on their decisions. I knew Peggy would do anything to protect her son, as would I.
