"Ted Wilson?" repeated Levi in shock. "You know that guy?"
Vicky wondered why it was so unexpected, she'd known Uncle Ted all her life. She nodded anyway.
"Vicky he's the best lawyer in the continent." said Levi running his hands through his hair messing it up completely.
"Now look Axky, that's a good kid right there." said someone from behind them.
Levi turned swiftly to see a salt pepper bearded man. He was taller than him, and much bulkier, a nice pot belly happily protruding his grey suit. For a minute, Levi thought he was starstruck. This was the lawyer who solved legendary cases...the Riberbery case, the Kormin's case, the Dixon case...Hell Ted Wilson even had his own show on the Legal Matters television channel. Levi schooled his features to return from gaping awe to one of dignified indifference.
It was easier to treat Ted Wilson as just another guy when he spotted an extremely unhappy Axky standing beside him.
"Levi's not all that great. Just another obnoxious teenager if you ask me." Axky said grumpily, earning a scowl from Levi. "He's rude and has an ego bigger than Paula's kitchen."
Gee. Thanks Axky. Would you like to write my college recommendation letter?
"What's that Axky?" said Ted cheerfully. "Must be hard to like the guy dating your little princess eh?"
"You have no idea how bad it is." muttered Axky. "He keeps trying to grope Vicky whenever I'm not around."
"Hey!" protested Levi. "I don't grope Vicky!"
"Well you're always sucking face and wandering your hands all over the place. It's all I ever see on the security cameras." retaliated Axky.
Levi was flabbergasted for a second but it didn't matter because Vicky had something to say.
"DAD!" she shrieked. "You watch us on CCTV? But..but...it's private!"
"No." corrected Axky calmly. After all, his enemy was the corrupt and vile Levi not his pure and innocent daughter who possessed no desire for sex. "The inside of our home is private. If you make out on the balcony the twins aren't the only one's who get a view."
"Shit." Vicky groaned. How embarrassing that her parents knew all about her little flights of affection.
"Want me to sue him for invading your privacy?" suggested Ted happily. "It will be my pleasure. I'll even do it for free."
"Shut up Ted." said Axky rolling his eyes. "I'll just delete all the evidence. Remember the last time I hacked into your computer?"
"You almost ruined my career you bastard." said Ted with a glint in his eye. It looked to Levi as though...he didn't mind.
"I said I was sorry, didn't I?" said Axky impatiently. "Can't you bury the hatchet?"
"Nah." said Ted waving his hand. "Where's the fun in that?"
Axky glared at him as Levi looked on in amusement. For all he knew, Ted Wilson was exactly the kind of antagonizing person he would become at his age. Man, they needed to raise the legal drinking age in this country. Heaven knows he needed a stiff one right then.
"Come on guys," called Paula just then. "The food's ready. We can discuss over dinner."
Everyone stopped to smell the wafting aroma of fresh lasagna and blueberry pie and decided they could fight some other time.
"Ah, come on Axky my boy," said Ted wrapping his arm around Axky's shoulders and leading him to the dining room. "You get riled up so easily. You're lucky Paula is so calm."
Levi looked on in astonishment. There was no resentment between them at all, yet all they did for the past ten minutes was fight like an old married couple.
He sighed as Vicky tugged at his arm. He was lucky she had taken to her mother and at least given him a chance...
"You're hair is messed up again." commented Levi's mother as soon as he stepped into the dining room. "Hold still."
And yet again, Levi was subjected to the torture of having his hair combed and set by his mother in front of a very cool lawyer, his girlfriend and her family. Levi thought he would never be embarrassed of anything in his life again, considering how nothing could possibly be as uncool as this.
The table was almost bent with the weight of the food on it. Paula had cooked enough for a battalion. Not that Axky would complain---he'd just buy looser clothes. He hurried to the kitchen to help Paula bring in the glasses as everyone took their seats.
"Sir, you---will you really help us?" asked Levi as he scurried far away from his mother and they settled down on the soft chairs across the table. He couldn't wrap his head around the fact that Ted Wilson---the guy who did the Know Your Rights commercial and the man who sued the Mayor last year---was going to help them.
"Of course." said Ted tucking a napkin around his collar. He leaned over the table and cupped his mouth with a hand to add "I'll do anything for Axky and his family. I just like to pull his leg a bit. Don't tell him I said that though."
Levi laughed. "Thanks Mr Wilson."
"Hey Uncle Ted." said Vicky handing him a chocolate nougat her mother had made. "Have you heard about our mess with Gavin Walters? Dad was in a tough spot."
Tough spot? Understatement of the year was more like it. Levi thought of his singed hair and missing eyebrow and shuddered at the memory.
Ted chewed on the chocolate nougat cutely, but spoke rather viciously after he swallowed. "Yeah. I hate that guy."
Just then Paula and Axky arrived carrying glasses and a nice bottle of wine. Of course Vicky and Levi had to settle for juice. Levi looked longingly at the beautiful bottle of alcohol in front of him and then at Vicky, whose lips were a little red from their quick kissing session.
Ah, so many things he wanted but had to wait till he was of age.
Axky poured the white wine into the glasses as Paula served them a generous serving of everything she'd made. Vicky was protesting about how she couldn't possibly eat so much, but Levi put up a half hearted fight when Paula insisted he take more lasagna. Hell, the food tasted glorious and he was a teenage boy, he had the metabolism of a hummingbird, for goodness's sake. He'd digest it all in a couple of hours.
Levi's mother was staring at horror at the heaped plate in front of her.
"I couldn't possibly---" she started.
"Nonsense!" said Paula. "Try the pie, the recipe is a my husband's favourite."
Axky grinned as he took a bite and gave a thumbs up. There was little that Paula made that didn't get the Axky Seal of Approval.
Ted tucked into his meal and as he tipped the wine glass into his mustached mouth, Levi understood it was time for business.
"Tell me about Gavin." he said as he set down the crystal glass. "I want to first hear the account from Axky and then from you Levi, understood?"
Both men nodded as Axky spoke first. "Gavin Walters is forty nine years old and he owns Walt Games. No doubt he's filthy rich. Owns amusement parks, discotheques, theaters and restaurants. Has a seriously enviable list of foreign cars and plenty of girlfriends. Uses popular escort services liberally."
Levi winced as he bit the inside of his cheek to control his sudden burst of anger at Axky's words. He took deep breaths to calm himself. If anything, Levi had learned his lesson about emotions as all consuming as the desire for revenge. Hating Gavin wasn't the answer, he needed to bring his sperm donor to justice.
"I found some files on Gavin that showed he was married to Levi's mother about ten years ago. Divorce was clean, he gave her nothing. Then he went abroad and returned only a couple of times since." Axky continued. "I worked as his head of cyber security at Walt Games. We'd had several attacks on our servers in the past few months and I demanded an audience with Gavin. He finally showed up last month after I gave his secretary an ultimatum."
"He didn't want to come to this country?" asked Ted sharply taking out a notepad from his coat pocket an impressive calligraphic fountain pen from his shirt pocket.
Vicky looked on admiringly as he wrote in perfect handwriting and Levi made a mental note to gift her one of those fountain pens later.
"Interesting." said Ted furrowing his eyebrows. "Alright Axky. I know what happened after that. That son-of-a-bitch, no offense Levi, had you kidnapped and almost killed you."
Levi raised his hands and said nonchalantly. "None taken. My grandma said I was an ugly child anyway."
Axky, Paula, Vicky and Ted all stopped eating to look sharply at him when he said that. Levi hazarded a look at his mother. She was trembling slightly and Levi wanted nothing more than to go over to her and wrap her in a hug. He would protect her. He would always protect her.
Mom, believe me, those days are over.
"Explain." said Ted pushing aside his heavily laden plate to x-ray Levi's eyes with his own. Levi sighed. There was no point holding anything back anymore. These people sharing the table with him was family now and they deserved to know.
"When Gavin divorced my mom, she was heavily pregnant with me. I was due any time. She couldn't chase after him and he left. He fucking left her with nothing." said Levi in a monotone. He forced himself not to give way to any kind of emotion. Gavin was not worth it.
"He...was gone in the blink of an eye." continued Levi's mother calmly. "I reached out to my former mother in law for help. My own parents have been dead for years now and I was an only child. Honestly, my husband was all I had. Anyway, my mother-in-law called me a tramp and when I said I was due, she accused me of sleeping around. I gave birth to Levi in a public hospital, and there was no one there with me. But Levi was a darling child, so beautiful and thoughtful, he rarely cried and he kept me going."
She dabbed a handkerchief at the corner of her eyes and Levi got up from his seat to stand beside his mother.
"She---Levi's grandmother came to see Levi for the first time when he was three. I was working two jobs that time, and I wasn't a very present mother. Levi used to play in the garden a lot, building mud castles and pretending to be a pirate." she smiled at the memory as Levi snuck in a quick hug for what she was about to say next.
"Levi's face was coated with mud, because he'd fallen into a puddle and his clothes were soiled. That's when she arrived. She took one look at Levi and said, no ugly gypsy would ever be her grandson." she said with a heavy heart.
"Now I know where Gavin gets his shit from." said Axky. "I'd love to go visit her and give her a piece of my mind."
"She lives in Spain." said Levi simply. He didn't care about that woman anymore. She was dead to him and his family. "I've seen her only that once. She never came to visit again."
"Spain, you say." said Ted with a twinkle in his eye. "That is a delicious piece of information. Now tell me, do you know where she stays in Spain?"
"Last I heard she lived in Barcelona." said Levi's mother. "Gavin bought a huge mansion there when he invested in an amusement park in the city. I think he would like her to stay there and live like a queen."
"I hope the country already got tired of her and kicked her into the sea." muttered Vicky.
Silence filled the table once again punctuated only by the sound of Ted eating his meal.
"How can you eat at a time like this?" demanded Axky. "We need a plan."
Ted swallowed an enormous mouthful and looked at him warily. "But we already know what we have to do. It's just a matter of deciding who gets to go. And it will be a heated discussion and this meal will get cold. How about we all eat and then talk about it?"
"When you say who gets to go," asked Paula her mind racing. "Do you mean go to Spain?"
Four pairs of eyes whirled to stare at Ted who stopped chewing to answer.
"Why of course. All our documents and clues are bound to be in that mansion." said Ted.
"But I found nothing!" said Axky indignantly. "Gavin leaves no proof anywhere, he's very thorough and smart---"
"I know he's smart Axky, but it's obvious you are not." said Ted impatiently. "Have you ever known a doting mother to throw away anything that belongs to her son?"
Axky thought about the loft filled with Vicky's childhood toys and nodded slowly understanding what Ted was suggesting.
"You're saying she may have those documents with her---the wedding papers, the divorce clauses and the property distribution plan." he said.
Ted nodded. "Glad you're catching on, boy."
"But how will we ever be able to?" asked Paula. "We'll never be given a search warrant. Not to mention she'll never open the door for strangers."
Ted tucked into his blueberry pie and relished the sweet taste, as he thought about their next move. But Axky beat him to it.
"Levi should go." he said, as though the words pained him. "His grandmother will open the door for him, even if she hates him. Levi...you're not the same child you were back then. You're stronger and more in control of your mind. What do you say, do you think you can sweet talk your way into the mansion and steal the papers?"
Levi froze, his arm still around his mother's chair as he considered it. He was a smooth talker, and a good negotiator. Could he come up with something that would convince his grandmother to let him in after all these years?
He looked at the small adopted family in front of him and felt a blazing determination in his heart. If life was kind enough to give him this chance, he was bloody well going to take it.
"I'll do it." he said and almost instantly Vicky spoke up.
"I'm coming with you." she said.