Page 58 of Best Kept Secret

Chapter 24

Beau

Isat at my desk, staring at the paperwork in front of me, but none of it registered. Numbers, contracts, reports—all of it felt meaningless. My mind kept drifting back to Mira. The way she'd looked at me that night, broken, desperate, begging me to believe her. I couldn't stop hearing Pari's little voice, crying out for herMiramashi.

Hell, I hadn't been able to shake any of it. Not the way Mira's voice trembled over the phone as she sang Pari to sleep, not the way Pari had calmed almost instantly. It tore at something inside me, something I couldn't push away, no matter how hard I tried.

Then there was the damn CPS report. Her parents,her own parents, saying she wasn't fit to take care of Pari. That she'd shaken the baby so hard that her brain had rattled. How the hell could I ignore that? That document, those accusations, they were like a noose tightening around my neck every time I thought about letting Mira back into our lives.

I ran a hand over my face, trying to shake off the endless loop in my head. The promise she'd asked me to make to her—that I'd never leave Pari alone with her parents—was the only thing keeping me from letting them see her now. I knew that if I broke that promise to Mira, which I'd silently made, I'd never forgive myself.

A sharp ring cut through my thoughts, snapping me back to the present. My phone buzzed on the desk, the screen flashing with a number I didn't recognize.

"Bodine," I answered, my voice rough.

"Mr. Beauregard Bodine, please."

"Who's calling?"

"This is Kush Patel, I'm a Children's Protective Services caseworker based in Atlanta, working out of the Buckhead office."

I straightened, my stomach churning. Finally, a response. I'd been waiting for days to get some clarity, for someone from CPS to tell me what the hell had really gone down. I'd asked my lawyers to put the fear of God in everyone so I could get the story about my daughter and her guardian from the horse's mouth.

"Hi, Kush, I'm Beau. Thanks for getting back to me." I took a deep breath. "I've been waiting for someone to explain this CPS report I've seen. The one about Mira Sen and the allegations of her neglecting Pari…my daughter."

There was a long pause on the other end, and I could hear Kush shuffle some papers. "You saw a CPS report? How did you do that?"

I cleared my throat. "Mira's parents gave it to me."

"How didtheyget the report?"

"They said it was part of their custody documentation."

"Mr. Bodine, I'm going to be honest. I'm shocked to hear what you're saying. I've been out of the country for the last two months because of a family emergency in India, and I'm just getting back into the case files. But the report you're talking about wouldneverbe handed over to Mr. and Mrs. Sen. I'm assuming you're talking about Anil and Seema Sen?"

My heart stuttered. "Yes. But…I have the report here."

"Can you email it to me?" Kush rattled off his email address.

I'd already had the reports scanned for my lawyers, so I sent them to Kush. In seconds he told me he had it.

He cleared his throat. "Mr. Bodine—"

"Please call me Beau."

"Well, then Beau, these are not reports from CPS. These are statements from some people Mr. and Mrs. Sen hired. They look like ours—or rather, they have been made to look like ours but are not."

"They're fake?"

"Not exactly. These are statements from private investigators. But I don't think they'd hold out in court because I doubt these psychologists evaluated Mira or Pari. I also know that the content is untrue because Ididinvestigate when Mr. and Mrs. Sen started to send complaints about Mira's handling of Pari."

I could hear him, and I could process what he was saying, which was a surprise because my heart was hammering so loudly I was sure it was about to leap the hell out of my body.

"Beau?"

"Yeah, I'm here," I said hoarsely.

"We've had a case on file regarding Pari, it's confidential, but I can tell you that everything we documented cleared Mira of any wrongdoing. She was never considered a danger to Pari,and in fact, the courts were always clear that Mira was the most appropriate guardian after Asha passed."

---