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.And Kelly, you are a sight for sore eyes, boy,come give your Grand Da a hug.""Does everyone call him Kelly?""Except you and the 'rents." Kel seemed tearyover my dad's greeting.Maybe losing them as parentalfigures wasn't something he needed right now.Despiteeverything, they were still as much a part of him as theother grandparents were."What the hel-heck do they call you?" So Iwouldn't make that same choice."Kelton Lee.You and Mo-Mo call me Kel, myfriends at school shortened my name to Kelly.And younever noticed.Some dad you turned out& " he wentvery pale."It's okay, Kelly, we all have to get used to it, and you've had longer than us," Mama said, taking hishand in hers."You're still our first grandbaby, no matterblood, or your current relationship with Liam.You'restill our boy and you always will be.""And I'm your boy too, right?" Declan wriggledout of my arms, I'd forgotten he was there and went tojump on Kel's back."Me and Kel are your best boys,right? And we get pumpkin pie early."Not to be left behind Grace slithered out of myarms and ran to latch on to Kel and the whole lot ofthem lumbered out to the kitchen leaving Seth and mealone in the living room."Well, that went better than Iexpected.""Told you.Liam, you're not the only one hurtinghere.It's going to take time.They love you and they'llstand by you, baby, but you've got to make a stand.And while we're on the subject, I need to talk to youabout something equally unpleasant.I was waiting for achance before you went into the hospital.I ah, I heardback from my colleague in San Francisco.""Shit, Seth, can't this wait? I'm not ready tothink about that with all this too." "It's waited three weeks already, but no, I wantto get this out of the way now.I need to call her and lether know what you want to do by tomorrow, there isn'tmuch time left.""Okay, so, what are we talking about? I have tofly out and press charges or something?""If that's what you want.It's an option.Shewants you to.And you should.He needs to be lockedup before he does it again.""Shit." I had to sit down before my knees gaveout.They were shaking so badly as it was."I don't thinkI can.I don't think I can look into his eyes and accusehim of& Seth.I can't do it."Seth sighed and dragged his briefcase from thesmall pile on the floor."I thought you might say that.""Do you travel with that thing? Tell me youdidn't haul it all the way to New York and back.Really,Seth? Really?" I tried to make his briefcase a joke.Iwanted to lift the tension between us.I wanted topretend this wasn't even a subject."Just shut up." He put an envelope in my hand,it was addressed to him and open.My fingers shook when I opened it."Option number one is go toCalifornia and press formal charges.She has enoughevidence to back up your charges without a rape kit.She served a warrant based on the disk alone.Shefound a contract you'd signed for that day.Dated priorto that day.Which contradicted what he himself said onthe disk.She subpoenaed other contracts signed by youand a handwriting analyst declared the last contract tobe a forgery.She is waiting for you to decide what youwant to do.Open the letter."I did, it was a check."I don't want the money,Seth.I told you I don't& " then I saw the extra digit."My god, is that ""Yes, it is.His deal.He made millions on thatvideo alone.But because you had no contract before itwas released, the deal is for ten percent of the profit.The video has been removed and can't ever be shownagain.The ADA can and will file charges for the forgedcontract without you.And that is where it stands.Youcan take the money, but if you do, you can never fileadditional charges.Or you can file charges and walkaway with nothing.The money is yours for pain and suffering.She went for his jugular.Forced him to deal,or his whole network would come under investigation.Take the money, Liam.Take it and let's move on withour lives.He stole four years from you, so if you won'tconfront him, then take the damned money.""Take the money." I looked up to find my dadstanding in the doorway.A beer in one hand, a slice ofpie in the other."Your medical expenses cleaned youout.I hated watching that money go to the hospital.Your insurance wouldn't cover the breakdown.Sixweeks, son, it ate a hole in your savings.Take themoney.It's just compensation.""It's a million dollars, Da, a million.I had what about seventy thousand in the bank? It's hardly justcompensation.""It was just a little under a hundred thousand.You earned that money, you were saving it.He tookthat from you as surely as he nearly took your life.Okay, fine, then go to California, spend the rest of yoursavings trying to prosecute the asshole and watch aswhat little privacy you have left gets pulled apart by thepress out there.I know you, son, you're a sensitive soul.You can take a hit, and you can give one, but notthis underhanded shit.You deserve your life back.Takethe damned money.Go buy yourself a nice house.Andget on with your life."Kel came to stand beside him, a slice of pie inboth hands.The shit always did love pumpkin pie."Istill get the pool boy." He smiled that lopsided smile ofhis that sent my pulse racing."Take the money, Liam.Idon't want to see you hurting anymore.Sign the waiverand let's go house hunting."I looked at them all.My heart felt like it hadthat Saturday.Too fast, too something.Dread.I don'tknow.Da was right.He was always right.The thirdoption of ignoring it and hoping it would go away wasn'ton the table anymore."So I sign this waiver and he getsaway with what he did?""You can prosecute.All of his heinous acts willbe exposed.The porn.Probably underage violations.Ifhe forged a contract with you then you can bet he'sdone it before and since.Pressing charges is the smartroute.The deal he scored pays you off, and you can'tchange your mind
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