33. Quinn
33
quinn
Quinn: SIBLINGS! I’m sending out the bat signal.
Simon: Oh my God! I’m included!
Quinn: Fuck yeah, you are. There’s a problem. And I need all of you.
Maeve: What’s the matter?
Ainsley: Is everything okay with Grace?
Quinn: Physically yes, so no one worry about that. But, there’s a situation that has come up that I need all the Banks siblings and significant others help with.
Simon: What’s the matter, Quinn? How deep are you in? I knew one day I’d be bailing you out of jail.
Quinn: No bail money needed. Yet.
Ainsley: Quinn, you’re scaring me.
Quinn: It’s too much to text but here’s the short version: Porter’s bitch of a mother is in town and served him with papers to take custody of Grace.
Simon: Oh, absolutely the fuck not.
Stella: I’ll start digging for dirt on her. I’ll have a full file by the morning.
Maeve: We’ll be there first thing.
Ainsley: Quinn, try and get some sleep tonight. But please know, we’re not going to let anything happen to Grace, or you and Porter.
“So what are your siblings going to do?” Porter asks as we walk out of the house first thing the next morning. “I feel like if one of them was an attorney, that would help more than Simon’s bounce house guy.”
“I’m not exactly sure, but Maeve likes to joke that each of us have a duty if a body needs buried.”
“Quinn, I love you and your determination right now, but what the hell does that have to do with our situation?”
She gives me a comforting smile before kissing my cheek as we make our way across the parking lot. “Everything. Because we’re going to bury Bonnie. And when we’re done, she’s going to regret ever stepping foot back in Rolling Hills.”
Porter and I didn’t sleep a wink last night, though we both pretended to. Grace stayed the night with Wes and Betsy, and they’re going to keep her until at least this meeting is done. The house was too quiet, and I couldn’t turn off my brain. Because while I don’t think a judge would seriously grant custody to that nut job, the possibility is there.
And that’s where my mind started fucking with me.
Because if we go before a judge, I know what I’m going to need to do. I’m going to have to step back and leave Porter.
I know my record doesn’t have any convictions, but it isn’t exactly clean either. Especially in the court of public opinion. There’s also the evidence of social media posts that will live forever about the teacher who told a group of mothers to go fuck themselves.
And I might be a different person, an employee of a school and not the prankster I once was, but I know I probably can’t help Porter’s case.
Which is when it hit me, roughly around four-thirteen in the morning, that if it came down to it, I was going to remove myself out of Porter’s life. Even if just for the time being, to make sure he stayed with Grace. I’m not going to be the reason he doesn’t keep that little girl.
Now I can only hope that it doesn’t come down to that.
“Your siblings are already here?”
I shake myself out of my intrusive thoughts to see that there are four cars parked out front of The Joint, and all my siblings, along with Logan and Emmett, are waiting at the door.
“You had to know I wasn’t going to be here on time,” I joke, hugging each one of them because I’m so freaking grateful they’re here.
“We’d hoped that being with Porter now would make you punctual.”
He groans as he unlocks the door. “If anything, she’s rubbing off on me.”
There’s laughter as we walk into The Joint, but it quickly dies down as we take our seats around the big table in the middle of the bar.
“I brought coffee,” Simon says, passing around cups with our names on them. “If there’s an emergency that calls for a late-night text and an early morning meeting, we need to be caffeinated.”
“God love your wife for knowing that the diner needed a coffee station,” I say, taking a big sip of the iced caramel goodness.
“She’s sorry she couldn’t make it this morning, but if she needs to do anything, just give her the signal.”
“Coffee is enough,” Porter says. “Though honestly, I don’t know what any of you can do. This…this is a messy situation that I hate getting anyone else involved in.”
“Messy?” Stella says, her eyes getting excited. “The Banks family is very good at messy.”
“How about you tell us why we’re all here,” Maeve says, getting things in order. “And then let’s see how many favors we need to call in.”
Porter doesn’t say anything, instead just shows everyone the papers he was delivered yesterday.
“Are these what I think they are?” Maeve asks as Logan and Simon start pouring through them.
“A petition for custody of Grace? That would be correct.”
For the next few minutes, Porter and I fill them in on Bonnie’s sudden appearance and enough backstory to what’s relevant for now. He also tells them all about Missy, more details about the day Grace was left, and the letter she included that he still has.
“Wow! What a bitch! How dare she come in and think she’s going to take Grace away from you two!”
“Exactly!” I tip my finger to Ainsley, completely agreeing with her assessment of the Bonnie situation. “She is a bitch.”
“She really just came here and demanded custody?” Stella asks. “Has she even contacted you since Missy left Grace here?”
“Not once,” Porter says. “And honestly, I don’t know how she even knew Missy brought her here. From what it sounded like, Missy’s cut her out of her life.”
“Can’t say I blame her,” Ainsley mutters.
“Cut out of life or not, bitch or not, this is a problem,” Maeve says. “This is probably me being a little too glass-half-empty, but she is your mother and Grace’s grandmother. You can’t assume a court is going to give you Grace, letter or not.”
Everyone falls to a silence while I notice Logan and Simon taking a look at the papers that were served.
“Are they legit?” I ask. “For all I know she downloaded copies online and paid some kid to deliver them.”
Logan looks it over again before taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. “I’m not a lawyer, but I’ve seen enough legal papers over my life to be able to decipher the real ones versus the fakes. From my barely trained eye, they look legitimate.”
“Do you have a lawyer?” Simon asks. “I know a few who handle family law.”
Porter nods. “Yes, I have one. The only problem is that when I called him last night, he told me he’s out of town for two weeks. So he can’t even look over anything until then. And…I don’t know, I just hate waiting on the unknown.”
“And that wait will pale in comparison to how slow the courts move,” Maeve adds. “Then, there will be hearings and home checks, not to mention finding Missy to actually get her to sign off on dissolving her rights. This could take years.”
I feel my face fall and my shoulders slouch, the word “years” ringing through my head. I knew this wouldn’t be a wam-bam-thank-you-ma’am kind of case, but I didn’t expect multiple birthdays to go by.
No. It’s what you need to do. For Porter. For Grace. For the family we can be.
“What’s the matter?”
I look over to Porter, who has gotten really good on catching onto the split seconds where I lose my facade. “Everything’s fine.”
His eyebrows shoot up. Sometimes I hate that he’s not like most men who don’t realize that “fine” doesn’t mean “fine.”
“Quinn…”
“No, really, we can talk about it later.”
“Don’t let her,” Maeve interrupts. “She’ll put you off forever, always change the subject, and before you know it, everyone has forgotten the conversation until years later.”
I narrow my eyes at my sister. “It’s conversations like this I didn’t miss when I lived in Phoenix.”
She shrugs, clearly not caring. “Tough shit. Plus, if you can’t talk openly here, where can you?”
I look around the table, each set of eyes on me having so much love and warmth in them. Maeve’s right. This is a safe space. Doesn’t make what I’m about to say any easier.
“If this goes to a trial, or whatever hearings we’ll need to have in front of a judge, I’m going to step back from your life.”
Porter’s face drops. Ainsley gasps. I’m pretty sure if I could see Maeve and Stella, their eyes would be popping out of their head.
“Excuse me? You’re going to do what?”
“This is why I didn’t want to talk about it here,” I say. “But if you have to go in front of a judge, and he has to come interview people in your life, I know what my reputation is in this town. It’s not going to be hard for a lawyer to say that you’re living with a woman who’s unpredictable. I know there are social media posts that will never die. I…I just don’t want to be a liability to you. I won’t be one. So if I need to take myself out of that picture for you to keep Grace, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
There’s a silence as my words hang in the air. No one moves. I don’t think anyone is breathing. That’s until Porter breaks the silence.
“No.”
“Porter. It wasn’t a yes or no.”
“Oh, but it is.”
I shake my head. “Porter, I?—”
His finger is in front of my mouth before I can get out another syllable. “Now it’s your turn to listen. I love that you would do that for us. But under no uncertain terms am I going to do this without you. You’re a part of us, and if some judge is going to take some past bad decisions and bitchy social media posts and make that the reason that Grace isn’t with us? Then we didn’t get good enough lawyers.”
“Oh, you’ll have good lawyers,” Simon chimes in. “So don’t worry about that.”
“See? Simon’s got a guy. So whatever thought you had about needing to play the martyr? I love that you would do that, but get it out of your beautiful head. We’re a team. You and me. We’re a family now, and no one, not my mother, not a judge, not anyone, is going to take that away from us.”
Porter pulls me in, stealing a kiss that I feel all over my body. It lasts for more than a few seconds, which is when I remember my family is watching this.
“Well then,” Stella says as I pull back, a little out of breath. “I didn’t know you had that in you, Porter.”
He turns to Stella, giving her a playful wink. “The tricks go far up my sleeve.”
“All right, enough,” Simon says as my sisters are all smiles. “Enough of whatever that was and let’s get back to finding a solution. Hopefully one that doesn’t need courts. If I do remember correctly, this family is pretty savvy into making bad people dig their own graves.”
The five of us share a smile, remembering back to what we did to Stella's ex-fiancé. And though I wasn't a part of it, I know that Maeve's ex got his comeuppance last year with a little bit of Banks dramatics.
“Let’s think about this. Why would a person want a baby out of the blue?” Ainsley asks. And without hesitation, Logan and Simon answer simultaneously.
“Money.”
“Really?” That doesn’t seem right. “I've been through Grace's diaper bag a few times. She's not carrying stacks of hundreds in there, if that’s what she’s after.”
“Not like that,” Simon says. “But I’m going to guess that Bonnie doesn’t have a job, or if she does, it’s probably not a high-paying one.”
“Confirmed!” Stella shouts, as she spreads out printed papers on the bar. “I found all of this on her social media. She likes to make angry posts about how everyone is working against her, including her last job that she says fired her for no reason. I doubt that’s true. Also, she’s really not happy with a few businesses in her town. Judging by her tone, I feel like she’s the woman who always wants to speak to the manager.”
“Sounds about right,” Porter says.
Simon picks up the custody papers again and lays them back on the table. “My guess? She wants Grace for the assistance she’d get. And that tax credit she’ll get will look pretty good. If this would work, Grace is her pay day.”
Porter’s face starts turning red, his anger about to bubble over.
“Fuck!” he yells, pounding the table. “It’s always been about money with her. I’d bet the bar that’s her play.”
“Are you sure?” Ainsley asks. “I know it’s a motivation for a lot of people, but using a child for money? That’s so cruel.”
“Actually, now that y’all say it, it makes sense,” I say. “Yesterday when she was here, she made a few comments about not getting her fair share in the divorce from Porter’s dad. And the way that she was looking around this bar? It was like she was eyeballing every inch of it. But it wasn’t for nostalgia purposes. She had a look in her eye. Maybe a little revenge. But something was definitely up.”
“Okay, let’s go with this theory that it’s about the money,” Maeve says. “We’re well aware that everyone can be bought. The question is, what’s her price?”
“More specifically, what will make sure she never comes after Grace again,” I add.
All eyes turn to Porter. Unfortunately, at this point, he’s the one who’s going to have the answers.
“My dad,” he says. “She always thought she got the short end of the stick. That he loved this bar more than he loved her. He might be dead, but if she got the last laugh, she’d go away. Forever.”
“Well then, we need to make sure that happens,” I say.
Porter turns to me, slightly confused. “And how are we going to do that? I don’t want to pay her a fucking dime.”
“Are you sure?” Logan offers. “If it makes her go away, I’ll write you a check now.”
“I can’t ask you to do that,” Porter says. “But we have to figure out a way that makes her think she’s getting money, but in reality?—”
“That’s it!” I yell, suddenly for the first time in a day feeling like the gray cloud isn’t sitting over our heads. “I’ve got it.”
“Oh shit,” Maeve mumbles.
“What?” Logan asks her.
“She just got the idea for a stunt, and by the twinkle in her eye, it’s a doozy.”
“Damn right I do. If we pull this off, it could go down in history.”
I look down to Porter. “Do you trust me?”
He smiles. “With my life.”
“Good,” I say, rubbing my hands together. “Because we’re about to get our little girl for good.”