Chapter 19: My Father's Checkbook
My father drove up from Key West the same night.
He was seventy-four now. His heart was weaker. He wasn't supposed to drive more than an hour at a time.
He drove eight hours straight.
He walked into my kitchen at one in the morning, set his reading glasses on the table, and said, "Show me."
I showed him.
He read every page in silence.
When he was finished, he took out a checkbook.
"Whatever it costs," he said.
"Dad—"
"Whatever it costs, Ryan. I'll sell the boatyard if I have to."
"It's not about money."
"Everything's about money when the other side has it."
I sat down across from him.
"I don't want to just win, Dad. If I fight this with a bigger checkbook, and I win, Zuri grows up knowing her real father tried to find her and we buried him in lawyers."
My father looked at me for a long time.
"So what do you want?"
"I want to know who's paying."
My father closed the checkbook.
"Then let's find out," he said.
The next morning, I called Darnell.
He picked up on the first ring. Like he'd been waiting.
"Mr. Callahan—"
"You told me you just wanted to see her."
Silence.
"You stood in front of me. You shook my hand."
"I did want to see her," Darnell said. His voice was rough. "I swear to you, I did."
"Then what the hell is this?"
"They told me it was the only way."
"Who's they?"
He let out a long breath.
"A woman came to see me. At the firehouse. Two weeks after I found out about Zuri. She said she was an advocate for biological fathers who'd been cut out of adoptions. She said she worked with a foundation that helped veterans."
My hand tightened on the phone.
"She said you'd never let me see Zuri. She said rich adoptive families close ranks and lawyer up. She showed me articles about the yacht. She said you left Zuri with a woman you didn't know so you could sleep. She said Zuri almost died because you weren't watching."
I closed my eyes.
Ask him why he was asleep.
"She said if I filed the petition, it would force you to the table," Darnell continued. "She said it was leverage. That I'd never actually get custody, that the judge would just give me visitation. She said the foundation would pay for everything."
"What was her name?"
"Renée. Renée Dupree."
My father, sitting across the table, went perfectly still.
"Ryan," he said quietly. "Give me the phone."
I handed it to him.
"Mr. Price," my father said. "This is Harold Callahan. Zuri's grandfather. I need to ask you something very carefully, son. This woman. Renée. Is she in her late forties? Blond? Has a little scar on her chin?"
A long pause.
"Yes, sir," Darnell said. "How did you—"
My father put the phone face down on the table.
May you like
His hand was trembling.
"Renée Dupree," he said, "is Celeste's sister."
