Chapter 10

Kya

On the way inside the lawyer’s building, Sadie stopped and checked her reflection in the door. “We clean up nicely, don’t we?”

I glanced at myself, smoothed down my blouse, and fluffed my hair. I’d worn simple boots and jeans with a silky blouse while Sadie had donned a skirt and heels. Her top was much more conservative, but her bleached blond hair was enough to keep her edgy reputation as a rock diva intact. “Yes, we do. Too bad we won’t win this case on looks alone.” Whit White looked like a slimeball with beady eyes and a sly smile.

Sadie squared her shoulders and tucked her handbag under her arm as she opened the door. “Let’s just hope he hired some loser for his lawyer. Someone who’s like him.”

Even though Sadie seemed sold on this person, I hoped our lawyer was someone who could make Whit White squirm.

We walked to the front desk, and Sadie approached the receptionist as I glanced around the room. The place was drab, and it looked like everything in the room could be packed up in about ten minutes for a quick getaway. Then I noticed there was a box on the floor behind the desk. They seemed to be just moving in. Perhaps they’d gotten a new office?

“Holy shit. You’re Sadie from Sabbath Sundae.”

“Every day of my life,” said Sadie.

“I’m so sorry. My mom didn’t warn me she had such awesome clients. I have both of your albums, by the way. I’ve been a fan since your song. Liar broke the charts. Wow, Kya Campbell.”

“Hello,” I said giving her a warm smile.

Sadie looked over her shoulder and grinned. Being recognized never got old but always seemed to happen at the strangest moments. “Yeah, we’re here for our appointment.”

The girl gestured to the office door. “You can go on in.” She looked like she had only been out of high school for a year at most and was dressed too casual for an office environment. Things already seemed off, but I followed Sadie back.

She opened a door, and a short, mousy-haired woman stood up from behind a desk that was surrounded by boxes and waved us over. “Come on in. I’m sorry we have such a mess around here. My daughter, Darci, she’s the one out front. We just moved across town, so I got this office closer to home.”

That explained the young girl behind the desk. The woman extended her hand. “I’m Susan Costanzo.”

Sadie slapped on a big smile and reached for her hand. “I’m Sadie Boyd, and this is Kya Campbell.”

“It’s so good to meet you. Please, have a seat, and we’ll get down to business.”

Once we’d all settled, Susan pushed some papers around on her desk, and after what seemed like ten minutes of searching, she finally found our file. “Here we are. I’ll be so glad when this move is over.” She went quiet for a moment while she read over her papers. “Okay, so from our phone call, Sadie, I know you two are seeking a lawyer on a suit you’re bringing against your manager?”

“Yes. I mean, we’re hoping you can help us.”

“I’ll do my best. Let me look over my notes. So, you claim that your manager, whom you’ve had for five years, has been embezzling money and booking false shows?”

Sadie eased back in her chair. “Yes. He’s costing us quite a bit of our money, and we hope to get it back.”

“This says you believe he’s been falsifying documents as well?” She raked her hair back and rested her chin on her hand.

“Yeah. We found out he took some money for a deposit and then when that event fell through, he never put the money back. After bitching for him to let us see the books, we finally got to and found three occasions where he’d done that, and the most recent, he tried to put back after we asked to see.”

“The others had been so long ago, we think he hoped we wouldn’t see them, but I did a thorough check. I also found where he claimed to be paying a roadie for a year and a half after he quit working for us, and more recently, we found a name of another employee he paid who doesn’t even exist. When I asked him about it, he tried to make an excuse, said the person had made a few threats, and it was hush money. But we haven’t had any problems with any of our staff. In fact, the only issues that ever come up are because of him.”

“And since you were in such a long contract, you never could get out of it.”

“We tried to fire him, but he came at us with talk that we would have to compensate his salary, and none of us wanted to do that.”

“Sounds like he’s been a real pain in the ass. The good news is, your contract is expiring in a month, so you won’t have to deal with his shit anymore. This should be a cut and dry case as long as we can show our ducks are all in a row, so if you want me on it, I’m going to need your help. He’s going to try and drag you through the mud since he’ll soon be out of the picture and won’t have anything to lose.”

I glanced at Sadie and shrugged. “He’s already threatened that.”

She nodded in agreement. “Yes, he has, many times. It’s his go-to threat. He doesn’t have anything truthful on us.”

“Are you sure? I mean, don’t take this wrong, but you’re in an edgy business. There’s drug abuse, drinking, sex, and parties.”

“Yes, and that’s what he’s banking on. But we’ve never been your stereotypical band. We have a strong, drug-free family of rockers who do this for the passion of creating music and celebrating the art.”

Susan looked like she didn’t buy my story. “Nothing, not a sex tape, not a drug addiction, no alcoholism?”

I would hold firm on it. “Nothing that would warrant a scandal. I’m not going to say there isn’t pot smoked here and there, a little drinking, but we fired people, including Whit’s girlfriend, for being a pain in the ass who would give us a bad reputation.”

She held up her finger. “Ah, so he has a motive. You fired his girl. And she could have secrets, could she not?”

“No, not on us. We fired her before we signed with him, but I can see how she’ll try and be a problem.”

“Yeah, you can count on it, and all he has to do is get her to say things happened.”

“But that’s slander. We could sue, right?”

“You have to prove it to be untrue when it happens, and let me tell you, it will happen. I just want you to be prepared.”

“We’re ready for a fight,” I said. “I have a daughter to worry about, and this asshole stole enough from me that I could pay for her college.” It wasn’t like I didn’t have money for her college, but that was beside the point. I wanted the best for my daughter, and I shouldn’t have to stand by while some greedy asshole stole my hard-earned money.

“I don’t blame you. I’d feel the same way if someone took money from me and my daughter.” She leaned in and gave me a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. Hire me, and we’ll make this man pay.” She sat back in her seat and then grabbed her pen to make a few notes.

Sadie turned and gave me a nudge. “Do you think we need to look any further?”

I didn’t want to waste time finding anyone else, and she seemed to be on the same page as me, and being a single mother, which I assumed from her earlier talk of moving across town with her daughter, she seemed to understand my situation. “I think we’d like for you to represent us.”

“Excellent,” said Susan as she smiled and reached forward to shake our hands. “Now, I’ll need the copies of the financial records and whatever other paper trail he’s left, and once the suit is officially filed later today, we’ll schedule a meeting with him and his lawyer when he gets one.”

“He may have already. We’ve let him know he needs to and that we intended on taking him to court.”

“Then you can bet he has one in his pocket. Don’t worry. With my experience, you’re in good hands. I’m going to recover your money if he still has it.”

My shoulders dropped, and I turned and looked at Sadie. “You mean we could win and not get a dime?”

Susan shrugged. “Happens every day. You have to go into cases like these prepared for that.”

“I see.” I already felt defeated, but I had to consider that even if I didn’t get a dime, I would at least have proven he was the thief we thought he was, and maybe if he ever tried to sign another act, they could learn from our mistakes and not hire the douchebag.

We ended the meeting, and as we walked out of the building after signing a couple of autographs for her daughter, Sadie flashed me a confident smile. “We’re going to kick Whit’s ass.”

“I don’t know. It seems like an awfully big risk. We’re gambling with our reputations for what? The chance that we might but most likely won’t get some money back? You heard her. Our contract is nearly over. We’ll be done with him soon enough anyway.”

“Yeah, but don’t you get it? If we can prove he was crooked all along, it could break the contract, and we could be free to make decisions not only about the existing material, but maybe he’d stop making money on it too.” She gave me a nudge. “Come on, Kya. Let’s go get a coffee or ice cream and celebrate.”

Coffee sounded great, but I didn’t have time. “I have to go pick up Addison.”

She pulled me in for a quick hug. “Cheer up, at least. We’re doing the right thing.”

I released a deep breath and adjusted my handbag on my shoulder as I pulled away. “I know. It’s just frustrating. It seems that fucker always wins.”

“He won’t. We’re going to kick him in the balls with this lawsuit. You’ll see.” She gave me a smile, and then as she started away, she turned back. “Call me. We’ll talk about it later.”

I went to my car and hoped we’d made the right decision as I headed to get Addie.

I slowly made my way around the pick-up line at her school, and when her teacher opened the door, she put in Addie’s bags, situating them in the floorboard, and then helped her climb into my Escalade. “Have a good day,” she said, after helping my daughter with her seat belt. Then, she closed the door, and we drove away.

I reached over to brush the hair from Addie’s face. Her ponytail had gotten messy through the day. “How was school?”

“Good. We got to use the smelly finger paint. Mine smelled like a banana.” She gave me a big smile. “Did you and Aunt Sadie make more songs today?”

“No. I’m taking a little time off from recording. I want to spend more time at home with my favorite girl.”

She smiled really big, her little face turning pink with a blush on her cheeks. “I like that idea, Mama. You have enough songs anyway for now.”

I sometimes wondered if I didn’t have enough songs for a lifetime. It wasn’t easy staying in the game with so much more I wanted out of life. I’d made some money, and with the investments I’d made, the savings I’d managed to put back, and the fact that I hadn’t gone too crazy with a fancy apartment I couldn’t afford or outrageous cars, we could live a while without me having to be away all the time if I wanted to take a permanent vacation.

But that would never happen. I’d be like Blitz, rockin’ out until I was in my fifties as long as people were still buying my music and coming to my shows. But maybe the lawsuit would end all of that, and then I wouldn’t have to worry about anything. I looked into Addie's eyes and knew those were things I couldn’t tell her. It was best she didn’t know.