Discovery Devotion Destiny

Truth in A Dream

"Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine. "

-Jack Ma

Things were bad. Since the news broke of Oliver having Michael's autopsy falsified, he had no doubts who was behind it. Now he needed to figure out how to handle it. When his car pulled up to City Hall, he could see the reporters practically spilling out of the doors. He let out a sigh about to step out of the car and face the music when his phone rang. He slipped it from his pocket and answered immediately at the sight of Katie's name.

"Hey, is everything alright?" Oliver knew this wasn't just happening to him. His family was caught in the cross hairs of this mess and that's what he hated the most.

"Yeah, I'm good, but uh, where are you right now?"

"Just pulled up to City Hall about to try to claw my way in past all of the reporters." he sighed. "Why, what's up?" she didn't say anything and he quirked a brow. "Twinkie, what—wait, the meeting with the lawyers is today." he dropped his face to his palm.

"Twinkie, I'm so sorry, I-"

"Liver, it's fine, you're dealing with a lot right now, I can-" she let out a heavy sigh. "I will handle this. I'll just give you a call later to let you know what they say."

"Twinkie I'm really sorry."

"I know." there was a pause. "We're going to get through this Liver."

"That's getting harder and hard to believe."

"Then I'll believe it enough for the both of us. We're not going to let him win."

"We're not going to let him win." Oliver once again looked out the window.

"They're ready to see me now, I'll call you later."

"Right, I love you."

"Love you too."

Katie pulled the phone from her ear and took a deep breath. When they got the call from the lawyers wanting to meet with them, it didn't seem like a meeting with good news. And now she would have to face it alone. She turned to the assistant with a smile before following behind them.

Soon Katie sat in an office across from their head lawyer Craig. He didn't dance around the topic. Instead he just came out with it.

"The judge has finally came to a decision regarding Heather Locke." he spoke and Katie knew from the look on his face what he was about to say. "She's being released."

"Probation?" Katie asked and Craig shook his head.

"Surprisingly no probation. Apparently her good behavior and time served was enough for a clean release." Katie sat back in her seat with a furrowed brow. "Yeah, that's the same look we all had when we got the news." Craig shook his head. "We were all a bit nervous when this case went to Judge Hawkins. He has a bit of a reputation."

"What kind of reputation?"

Craig sighed. "That for the right price you can buy the verdict you want." he looked up to meet Katie's eyes before opening a folder and pulling up a piece of paper and sliding it over. "Along with the news of Ms. Locke's release, we received this." Katie frowned before reaching forward and picking up the paper. "It's a petition to the court to regain custody of Arianna." Katie lifted her eyes to the man. "She somehow got a court date before the ink was even dry on this thing."

"When?"

"Monday."

Katie let a puff of air as she sat back in her seat. Just a few days. She looked back up to Craig.