Page 65 of Kiss Cam

Logistically speaking, I know that Joey is probably right. I just can’t bring myself to accept that until it’s over.

When we pull into the parking lot for Max’s office building, I feel like I’m going to throw up. All I can imagine is us going into their office and Max or Ryan telling us that Grant found out what they were doing. My palms start to sweat as I think of the possibility that he twisted all of the evidence so he didn’t look guilty.

Joey holds my hand tightly as we walk from the car to the building. His presence alone is reassuring, but the comfort of his hand in mine grounds me.

Max’s receptionist greets us the second we walk through the door as if she’s been waiting for us all morning. “Good morning you guys, Mr. D’Antonio and Mr. Tanner are ready for you now — follow me.”

She leads us down a long hallway with a conference room at the end. When she ushers us inside, I’m surprised to see three faces greeting us — Max’s, Ryan’s, and the District Attorney… what the hell is he doing here?

Max is the first to speak. “Joey, Kelsey, thanks for coming in on such short notice. Have a seat, please.” We do as he asks before he continues. “Kelsey, I believe you know Dave Holloway, yes?”

I nod my response without saying anything. Despite the shit I’ve gone through with Grant, Dave was always extraordinarily nice to me at town functions. Now that I think of it, he was probably so kind to me because he knew my boyfriend was fucking his secretary, among other women. I hate that he’s been dragged into this mess.

Dave offers a sympathetic smile as he extends his hand out to mine. “Nice to see you again, Kelsey.”

I can’t bring myself to return the smile, but I take his hand anyway and shake it firmly. “You too, Mr. Holloway.” I swallow audibly. “I don’t want to sound rude, but may I ask why you’re here for this meeting?”

“There are some very serious charges being brought upon one of my attorneys, so as soon as the information came through, I contacted Max to arrange a meeting.” He motions his hand to Max and Ryan as if I don’t know who they are. “So, why don’t we start from the beginning?”

Joey and I spend the next two hours recounting everything that’s happened since Grant and I broke up. We show photos of my car and the note that was left on the windshield, along with the security footage from Joey’s garage. We also present a copy of the Lake Geneva Police report, which may or may not help our case here in Illinois. God, when I put it all together like this, I can understand Joey’s adamant stance that Grant will lose his law license.

Dave clears his throat before speaking. “First, let me offer my apologies that you have been dealing with this. It’s terrible that he’s been making you feel so afraid. That being said, there is a lot of evidence here to build a case against Grant for not only the termination of his employment, but possibly disbarring as well. Some of it is circumstantial, but a big enough portion of it is concrete.” He shuffles through the papers before looking up at us again. “There’s enough evidence here for you two to pursue a civil lawsuit against him for the damages to your properties, should you choose to.”

Joey takes the reins of the conversation before I can speak. “We’ll take that into consideration, thank you.”

I let out a deep sigh as my head finds its way up against my clasped hands on the table. This nightmare will truly be over soon. Joey rubs my back gently in support, but with a subtle undertone of “I told you everything would be okay.”

“If you two don’t wish to make an appearance at the hearing, we can depose you prior to the trial — if it even makes it that far,” Dave continues.

“Knowing Grant, he won’t go down without a fight,” I scoff and roll my eyes. That bastard is relentless and malicious when he wants something.

“He doesn’t really have much of a fight to put up, though,” Max chimes in. “An arrest for a felony, even in another state, is enough to raise some eyebrows with the state board. Couple that with the stalking, a protective order and suspicions of extortion and vandalism, and he doesn’t have a prayer.”

“He’s right,” Dave adds. “We’ll take this one step at a time, making sure we cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s. Just hold tight a little while longer, Kelsey. We’re going to handle this and we’ll be in touch to get you both set up with a deposition date.”

Chapter 52

Two Months Later

It took approximately a week and a half to gather all the intel needed to present more solid evidence to a judge and jury. Once they were able to prove that Grant not only stalked Kelsey — and me, by proxy — but also had bribed clients to give false testimonies, the case was in the bag. The DA called every person who had been manipulated by this and informed them that no perjury charges would come to them if they testified against Grant at his trial. Some agreed to it because they wanted to clear their conscience about lying to get someone put away for life. Some only agreed to escape criminal charges.

Max convinced me to file the civil suit that Dave had mentioned during our meeting, which very quickly settled out of court. I think Grant knew he didn’t stand a chance — not with the other fifteen cases pending against him. Some of the other lawsuits were criminal for extortion, some were against his law license for mistrials, but almost all of them were sure to land him some jail time if he were found guilty.

He lost his job with the District Attorney’s office and has been put on house arrest. While we wait for the trials to begin, he’s been ordered by the court system to wear a tracer anklet. Now that his every movement is being monitored, he hasn’t come anywhere near Kelsey or me.

Despite that we had given a recorded summary of the events that took place over the past couple of months, Kelsey and I were both called in to give our “official” depositions prior to the trial. We’d discussed going to the court hearing, but just talking about it gave her a panic attack, so I’d decided that was a no-go for us.

I’ve just finished giving my statement and am about to head home from town hall, when I get a text from Savannah — weird. We usually only text in the group chat that I have with her and Kelsey.

Savannah: Karaoke night at the pub Friday! Trust me, you wanna be there! Kelsey lost a bet and has to sing a song of my choosing :P

I’m intrigued about what their bet was on, but Kelsey having to sing whatever Sav tells her to gives me an idea.

Me: Can I make a suggestion?

Savannah: Sure :)

Me: Love Story by Swiftie

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