At this point, I couldn’t give a flying fuck how this so-called hearing turned out. They could demand a hundred million from me, and I would gladly pay it and walk away. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore when the person I loved the most wanted nothing to do with me. I didn’t blame her. Not one bit. She didn’t deserve any of this. I was almost glad she hadn’t come back into the courtroom and be subjected to all of this bullshit.

I looked around the room, wanting to get this shit over and done with, much like my life. “Shall we proceed?” I raised my hand for them to go forward.

“Ms. Schaffer, you claimed you only knew who Mr. Mandrake was when you were offered the job, is that correct.” She nodded. Francisco took out a phone, which I noticed was Emmalin’s phone. Why the fuck did he have her phone? I tried getting his attention but he ignored me.

“Ms. Schaffer, do you know an Opal Wells?”

Claudia’s expression went stone cold, and for the first time she looked nervous. “She’s my grandmother.”

Francisco nodded. “Have you had any recent contact with her?”

Claudia shifted uncomfortably. “No, we weren’t that close.”

“Hmm” Francisco looked back down at the phone, as he flipped through the screen. “You claimed you went to college at Yale, but you didn’t.” Before she could speak, Francisco did. “You lied on your resume about Yale; you went to Kansas State University. Isn’t that correct?”

She whispered to her lawyer who then spoke up to the arbitrator. “What does this have to do with the settlement?”

“I’ll get there in just a moment, if you’ll allow me to finish.”

The arbitrator looked from him to Claudia. “Proceed.”

“Thank you, sir. You said you went to Yale and graduated in the top three percent of your class. That’s quite an impressive number for someone that has never been to Yale, but who instead went to Kansas State.”

“What exactly is your point?” He turned to the arbitrator. “Who hasn’t lied on a resume, to get something better for themselves? If there was a chance for better compensation, I’m sure anyone here would do the same thing.”

Francisco ignored him and kept talking. “You also said you had no knowledge of Mr. Mandrake until you were hired.” He turned the phone around. “Can you tell me, is this your room at your grandmother’s?” Francisco peered back at the phone again. “I’m assuming it is, there’s your name and pictures of you spread around the room. An old band photo. Looks like you played the Tuba. Great instrument.” Claudia didn’t say anything as he held the phone to her. “Something I also noticed were the other pictures on your walls.” He handed the phone to her lawyer, who flipped through them, brow crinkling.

“Your wall is covered in photos of Mr. Mandrake.”

“Anyone could’ve put those there.”

“You’re absolutely right, if that were true.” He reached for a folder and held the contents to me after showing them to the opposing attorney. “Mr. Mandrake, this is a picture of you in formal attire, correct?”

I frowned. “Yes, but that’s…”

He took the folder away. “Ms. Schaffer. This is a picture of Mr. Mandrake, and it shows you standing next to him.” He pulled out another picture. “Only that’s not you in that picture, is it?” He held up the exact same picture of me and Emmalin. “Now unless you and Mrs. Mandrake shop at the same place and you make yourself up to look exactly like her, I believe that’s your head photoshopped on to Mrs. Mandrake’s body, and quite poorly I might add, next to Grayson Mandrake.”

She looked up, fear apparent in her eyes. All that confident and demure attitude she had earlier was now gone. Francisco leaned his hip against the table. “Tell us, how you did it Ms. Schaffer. That night in Paris. You spiked his drink, touched him very inappropriately while he was out, and stole his sperm, didn’t you?”

Her eyes shot back and forth between me and Francisco. “It’s okay, you can say it. Rohypnol, right? I mean, how else would you be able to get someone who is 6’4 to be taken down like that.” He turned to the arbitrator. “I just want to add, that we’ll also be filing charges for sexual assault against Ms. Schaffer.” Claudia’s eyes grew wide and she stood up, knocking over her glass of water.

“I wanted a baby!” Tears were streaming down her face now. “I wanted a baby, and I wanted him to fall in love with me.”

The arbitrator looking shocked, at everything presented before him, started to speak, but Claudia ran out the room. Her attorney looking equally shocked ran after her. I turned toward both Francisco and Syed, and then looked down at the papers. Nothing more needed to be said. Everything was right here. Even if Claudia and her lawyers wanted to attempt to even try to take this to actual court, the whole thing would be moot. We exchanged a few more words with the arbitrator about what was going to happen now. Francisco still wanted to push the assault charges. At this point I didn’t even care, I just wanted this to be done.

I took several deep breaths before I stood up. It was over. It was all over.

I walked out and a rush of reporters started gathering around us. I stood to the side as Francisco and Syed fielded all the questions. I looked over, saw Jack against the wall, and went over to him.

He extended his hand. “Jack. Not that I’m questioning your skills, but how’d you discover all of that?”

He slowly shook his head and smiled. “I didn’t. I helped.” I gave him a questioning look. “Emmalin came to me a few weeks ago. She noticed the pin Claudia wore on her lapel. We zoomed in, and saw it was a purple wildcat. We continued from there. She flew to Kansas yesterday and met with the grandmother.”

My eyes narrowed. “You let her go alone? What if something had happened?”

Jack stepped closer. “But, it didn’t.” He pointed his finger at me. “You need to learn to trust. Emmalin is smart. She loves you.” He turned and walked away. I checked the time. Three hours. Three hours for all of this. I started to leave when I spotted the white envelope I had given Emmalin on a nearby bench. I hesitantly grabbed it and pulled the papers out. I flipped through all the pages where she was to sign. She didn’t. I placed the envelope back in my inner pocket, and headed home.

Meredith was home with Flick. When I walked in, I immediately beelined to where my sister was standing with my daughter in her arms and hugged them both. “You didn’t have to do that,” I murmured to her.

She played with Flick’s hair. “I know. But I wanted to.” She looked around. “Where’s Emmalin?”

“She wasn’t at the courthouse when I left…but I have a feeling I know where she is.” I kissed the top of Flick’s head. “I hate to ask you to watch her for me, but…”

“Grayson, if you don’t get the hell out of here, I will hold Emersyn hostage. Take as long as you need.”

I gave my sister another hug, grabbed what I needed, and left.