She did her best to ignore the way he leaned across her, pressing his chest too intimately against her shoulder while passing Jennifer a document. “I believe you want to take a look at this, Mrs. Cooper.”
Cassie twisted to better examine it, but try as she might she couldn’t decipher it.
“Oh my God.” Jennifer’s quiet exclamation shattered through the veil of cordiality. “Where did that bastard get this?”
Cassie snatched the document. Before she could finish scanning it, Jennifer shot out of her chair.
“It’s not true! My brother was never arrested for those charges. It was all a grotesque rumor.”
Setting her hand on Jennifer’s wrist, Cassie guided her back into the tall-backed dark blue chair. “Let me handle this, Jen.” She read through the document again, processing a hand-written account of how her brother, a teacher in New Mexico, had molested a nine-year-old girl in his fourth grade class. The writing was imperfect, that of a child’s. Stapled to the front page was a newspaper clipping that detailed the allegations and announced Mr. Fisher’s termination.
Cassie lifted her gaze to Brad’s. It was all she could do to keep her voice level. This he should have prepared her for. “What theatrics are you pulling now? Whether the allegations are true or not, Mr. Fisher is a New Mexico resident. It’s irrelevant to any custodial arrangements between the Coopers.”
Brad leaned back in his chair and folded his hands in his lap. “Perhaps your client would like to explain the correlation. Or,” he gestured at the telephone, “we could ask Anna to come in today too.”
What the hell? Cassie chewed on the inside of her cheek, desperately trying to keep an explosion under control.
“No!” Jennifer cried. “Anna will not be dragged through this any more than her father already has done.”
Again, Cassie patted her client’s arm. The ongoing feud between Jennifer and Miles had nearly traumatized the poor little girl who couldn’t understand why her father changed the locks and gave a twenty-year-old college student the new key. Why her daddy didn’t come home to see her. Why he made her mother cry.
She inclined her head toward the conference room door. “Jennifer, could you give Mr. Steele and me a moment, please?”
Jennifer rose, unsteadily. With a curt nod, she fled the room, dabbing at the corners of her eyes. When the heavy wooden door closed firmly behind her, Cassie, stared at Brad. “What the hell are you doing? Did you think you could just waltz in here and bully everyone into Miles’ demands? You son of a bitch, you owed me the forewarning.”
Brad’s cool resolve faded and a dark frown settled on his brow. “You mean to tell me you really don’t know?”
“Don’t know what?” As her voice rose, Cassie rose out of her chair. She leaned on the conference table, bracing her weight on her hands to hide their furious trembling. “This isn’t a courtroom, Brad. You don’t get to call fantastic witnesses who drop convenient bombs.”
“Wait.” Brad held up both hands. “Just wait a damned minute.”
“For what? You to concoct some other slimeball excuse?”
“Hey.” He stood as well, leaning forward to meet her across the table. “I’m not a slimeball. I legitimately thought you knew and you were avoiding the discussion. How the hell was I supposed to know your client didn’t tell you?”
“Maybe you could ask.” Cassie waived a dismissive hand, arguing wouldn’t accomplish anything. “Regardless, what does this have to do with their custody arrangements?”
A genuinely pained expression crossed Brad’s face as he lowered himself into his chair again. He ran both hands through his hair before meeting Cassie’s stare. “Anna’s brother spent the last few winter session breaks with Jennifer and Miles. Anna told her father he came into her room one night.”
As the air fled Cassie’s lungs, she dropped into her seat. Holy shit. Jennifer hadn’t mentioned this. She struggled for her composure, tried to separate instinctive emotion from her role as Jennifer’s attorney. When she spoke, her voice held a hard edge. “Do you know for certain Anna said this, or is it something Miles made up?”