Chapter 30
THIRTY
Deacon
My phone vibrates with a message.
Bridgeview Robert:
Ms. Fairfax has just left the premises.
I look at the time, it’s just after five in the morning. Savannah should be up, but that doesn’t mean she is, and I will not be the one to wake a sleeping baby by calling or texting.
Me:
Thank you, Robert.
I fold up and stretch a bit, piss, and brush my teeth. Then I tap lightly on the door, just enough that Claudia will hear it if she’s up, but it won’t wake her.
I wait longer than needed, then turn and head back to bed when the door opens.
Smiling, I turn back and see her, looking … not too impressed. This confuses me. She’s usually very relaxed when she is nursing.
“Are you okay?” I ask cautiously.
“I’m upset with you.” Savannah starts kicking, grabs the blanket covering them, pulls it down, and smiles as soon as she sees me, completely abandoning her nursing to begin babbling and squeaking at me.
Claudia’s jaw not only untightens, but gapes when Savannah reaches for me, laughing.
“Good morning, little one.” At least one of them is happy to see me. “Doc?” I breathe out, feeling those things I feel when I see Savannah intensifying.
“Yeah,” she says and allows me to take her, but there’s pain in her voice.
“Talk to me, Claudia, what is it?”
“You—”
“You saw the engagement photos online.” I nod. “That’s not going to change a damn thing for you or Savannah.”
“The what?” She asks.
“Dingy and Shaw’s daughter got engaged.” She shakes her head in confusion.
“In Seattle, Aldridge showed up.” Savannah babbles and laughs, and I try to stay in the moment with Claudia and manage to, but damn.
“Costello left me in a box to watch the game, knowing Shaw would probably do what men like him do and confront me.” Savannah slaps her hand over my mouth.
I smile at her but keep explaining the relevance.
“I gave him papers, told him I have information on him and his daughter, and that it would be in their best interest for him to have Dingy sign revoking his rights.” I nod to Savannah as she jabbers on.
“He’s forcing my hand, Doc, and now I have a choice to make. ”
“What choices?” She asks, hugging herself.
“Aldridge doesn’t give a damn who his daughter marries, as long as their image isn’t tarnished. I told him I’d leak the information I have on him and his daughter if those papers weren’t back in Midtown before a ring was on her finger. Also told him I would press assault charges against Dingy.”
“You threatened him?” She asks.
“Wasn’t a threat, Claudia. I gave him a choice. He made the wrong one.”
“What information?”
“Do you really want to know?” I ask.
“I will find out if it goes to the press anyway.”
Savannah turns to her and smiles, then holds her hands out to her mother.
“I’ve done some reading, and maybe we should wait to discuss this after you finish feeding her. Stress hormones transfer in breast milk, right?”
“You’re a professional athlete in the prime of your freaking life and reading about breast milk?” She shakes her head. “That’s—"
“Important, not to mention it’s your breast milk, which comes from your breasts. So yes.” I say as I hear my phone chime, the phone I left behind.
I go back, grab it, and head back in. I love watching her feed Savannah, and not for any sort of nefarious reason; it’s who she is as a woman and a mother.
“Is everything okay?” She asks as I sit down. I shake my head, confused. “The phone?”
“Shit,” I say as I look at the screen. “It’s Costello.” I tap the screen and clench my jaw as I read the information he’s giving me.
“Is everything —”
“Teams good,” skirting around the issue and leaning back, processing what I just read as I pull my shit together and ask, “Tell me what I missed while I was gone.”
She arches a brow. “Paul had me swing by the Brownstone.”
“Yeah? How’s it going?”
“Are you really going to pretend you didn’t know about that, too?” I just look at her. “You ask me to trust you, Deacon.”
“I’ll never give you a reason not to.”
“You took him to the lawyer.” She scowls.
“The fool was going to take public transportation, and since he’s been attending games, everyone knows the old man’s alive.”
“So, you didn’t know about the papers?”
“Yeah, you needed the lease for Vale, and—”
“It wasn’t a lease,” she whispers.
“I’m confused, Claudia, I thought—”
“He tricked me into signing,” She closes her eyes and exhales, then opens them, and I swear she’s tearing up. “The house is now in my name.”
I open my mouth a few times, but I’m at a loss for words.
“He doesn’t want Patsy’s nephew to have it.
” I nod, still… holy shit. “He was in the foster care system; did you know that?” I shake my head.
“He met Patsy when they crashed a birthday party for her sister, whose birthday was the same day Nalani moved in.” A tear slides down her face, “Her sister’s name was Claudette. ”
“That’s—”
“A lot,” she says, lifting Savannah to burp her.
“No, Claudia, that’s incredible.”
I move to sit beside her and pull her against me, hugging her, but making sure not to sandwich Savannah, whose eyes are starting to close. She does that, wakes up wild, eats, and falls asleep, which gives Claudia time to get ready for work.
“You need to get ready?” I ask.
“She needs to burp.” She sniffs.
“Second lines ready to jump in,” I say as I take Savannah.
“You’re first line, Deacon,” she says as she walks away.
“I don’t care what line I’m in, as long as I’m still in the game,” I say quietly as I kiss Savannah’s head.
Claudia comes out, fresh from the shower, her thick dark hair tied up and dry. It’s her routine. She showers and washes her hair at night, and then showers again in the morning. I love how damn good she smells all the time.
She looks at the clock on the wall and it’s only six. “You should still be asleep.”
“Didn’t sleep well last night,” I say as she sits down and looks at Savannah lying against my chest.
“Okay, talk to me.”
I tell her what I have, the shit on Aldrich and his affairs, and shit on Emma, who publicly wants to play off that she’s some saint.
“Would you really be able to?” she shakes her head. “You can’t do that.”
I pull my phone out, scroll through my saved files, and hit play on a voice memo I started recording when Aldridge stepped into the suite.
She sits stunned.
“Did I want to play that hand? No. Will I? Yes.” She sighs and takes Savannah off my chest and holds her close as she leans back and looks up at the ceiling.
“That’s not all, Costello’s message? Emma Shaw can’t have children.” Her eyes open wide, and she looks at me. “Aldridge called him. Told him to leash me,” I hold up the phone and show her the message that ends in, I told him to suck my dick.
“Why couldn’t he just stay away?”
“He’s not going to win, you have a career, a house, a—”
“He’s getting married, he’s going to look more stable than—”
I can’t help but smile. “Then we will first.”
“This is fucking brilliant,” Dean rubs his hands together as Claudia and I sit at the conference table in his office.
“Dean,” Drew snaps, and whispers to Claudia, “I’m so sorry he’s such a child.” Drew turns and looks at him. “A meddling adult-sized man-child.”
She was quiet when I laid out my plan; she simply agreed or said no.
“When my family’s happy, I’m happy,” Dean says, still looking far too excited for what’s about to go down.
Claudia clears her throat, “I don’t like confrontation, but this is warranted.”
“Mr. Shaw is online and ready for you, Mr. Costello.”
“You remember the play?” Dean asks me.
“Yes,” I wrote the damn book, I think.
Claudia and Drew stand up and head over to the side of the room, out of view, and sit beside Hugo Vale.
“Savannah on three,” Dean whispers. “One, two,”
I play along, and together we say, “Savannah,” and tap fists.
Then Dean says, “Put him through.”
The Second Aldridge Shaw's face appears on the conference room screen, and he scowls in my direction. “This was supposed to be between you and me, Costello.”
“This was never between you and me. This should have never even been between you and Moretti. In fact, this was done a year ago when Doctor Holloway discovered she was pregnant and did the right thing by telling your future son-in-law, and he called her a gold digger. She offered him an out; he took it. And now here we are.”
“If that woman had not posted a picture of herself and that child of hers, my daughter would have never known. She was baiting, looking for attention, and now that attention-seeking puck bunny fucking has it.”
I lean forward, blood boiling, “She was posting a picture of her and her daughter on her private social media page for her friends to see. I find it hard to believe that your daughter and Claudia have ever known each other. So how exactly did she find this picture?”
“Internet stalking,” Costello states, and looks at the screen. “So, either Dingy told her, or she’s in need of therapy.” He smirks. “I know a great shrink. We hired her.”
“You hired that woman?”
“She’s got a job, owns a home, and has a support system here in New York.
And before I decide to hang up on you, I'm going to give you another fucking warning, Shaw, Claudia's daughter is not that child, and the fact that you want to play step granddaddy to her, I would highly suggest you not only change the way you address her but the fucking way you say it.”
“What does that even mean?” he asks.
“I'm gonna guess the venom in your tone is what that's supposed to mean,” Dean interjects.
“I am sure they can come up with a visitation schedule that will benefit both. We've looked into some real estate in Manhattan. Emma has offered to work with Miss Holloway to ensure—”
“An engagement does not give your daughter any legal right to visitation. So, I highly suggest you save your fucking money.”
“Claudia—”
“So, you do know her name,” I seethe.