Sleeping in was not a luxury she had any more, but if Lily could give her an extra ten minutes she'd gladly take her to the park later today.
"Mama?" Lily called from her bedside.
Kate slowly opened her eyes and looked into the sky-blue eyes of her daughter standing next to her bedside.
"Lilypad, it's seven fifteen in the morning on my day off. What could you possibly need this early in the morning baby?"
"You. Dream, very bad."
Kate had a feeling that this was the reason she was here in her bedroom so early. Months earlier Lily had learned to escape her crib with ease and Kate's life had never been the same since.
"What happened in your dream baby?"
"Daddy died."
"Lil, daddy was lost, he never really died in our hearts."
God, she hated lying to her child, but Rick was never coming back and she knew that. For as young as she was Lily had a sixth sense about her father. She would never not tell her what happened to him when she asked about him and when she could understand a little better even though she was only two and a half, Kate struggled about how to put how he disappeared into a way that a child as young as she was could understand.
"No daddy not lost. He alive…somewhere." She said as she tapped her chest where her heart was. This was their sign to show how much they both loved him. They always did it together.
"Lily I know that you want to believe that and you can believe that in the stories that we make up about him saving the world at bedtime, but baby he really is lost. He has been for quite some time now."
"Not lost, alive!" She shouted still standing at her bedside but could possibly run away.
"Lil calm down, please. How about you come under the covers with me and we can rest a little longer together?"
Kate raised the comforter up giving her the option and she hesitantly climbed into the bed with her mother.
"Snuggle peese?"
"Sure thing baby."
As she laid there she thought about what never was. He should have been there and they should have been married and be raising their daughter together. But that would never happen. She thinks back to when she had lost all hope…
"Martha, I'm no longer a part of his life or yours either. He's been gone for over two years now, long enough for the state to declare him legally dead. We were never married so while I hope he is still alive somewhere, I can't keep hoping that Alexis will find out anything new about him. So far, she's come up with nothing. I really hate to do this Martha, but I can't see you or Alexis and make it through my day. Every time I see either of you my thoughts instantly go to him and it leaves me heartbroken. I need to limit the time I can see either of you."
"Katherine, what are you telling me?"
"Martha, I'm afraid that we can no longer be acquainted with each other. I hate to do this but it's just that I can't put my faith in something that will never be."
"Katherine, you really don't mean this do you?"
"I do Martha and I am so very sorry but a lot of my decision comes from what Alexis did."
"What are you talking about dear?"
"Martha you've got to know what she did. I know you know because you probably wanted it as badly as she did."
"Katherine I have no idea what you're talking about. Can you please tell me what she did?"
Kate really did not want to cause a rift between Martha and Alexis. It would not go over well. But she needed to know the truth.
"Martha, Alexis hired someone to break into my apartment and find evidence of what I was working on when I was trying to find Rick before I completely stopped."
Martha just took a step back and looked at Kate in shock.
"I never asked her to have someone break into your apartment, Katherine. You know me better than that but I will get to the bottom of this no matter what."
"Martha it doesn't matter what you do now the damage has been done already. Honestly, I really didn't care at the time, but the fact that she hired someone to break into my apartment when I wasn't home instead of coming to me and asking me what I had really made me upset in the fact that she doesn't trust me. And then she tried to cover it up by asking me out to dinner a couple of days after that."
"Katherine, I'm sure that you don't need to cut us out of your life. You are all I have to remember him by."
"Martha, I sympathize with you really, I do. But Alexis is the one who brought this on herself. She's the one who decided to go behind my back and try to find something that wasn't there."
"I can't say that I blame you but are you sure that this is the way you want to handle this?"
"I'm not a vindictive person and you know this. But since Rick has gone missing we have become further and further apart. So, this is just the natural path we should take"
"Katherine, I will confront my granddaughter and I will get to the bottom of this, I promise you."
"Okay, Martha. But I need to be going."
"Goodbye, Katherine."
Kate walked away without another word. It was better this way. He was gone and she would only be a reminder of what they once had. She did not want to be that reminder.
"Mama up?"
"Lily can we just stay here for another ten minutes?"
"Kay."
Her baby had the energy of her father and she wished she could bottle it up and sell it. Kate knew that one day she'd have to tell Lily the truth of why her daddy went missing, but until then she would just give her all the love she could for both of them.
Xx
Martha would get the answers that she needed. First, she checked on how her granddaughter was spending the money she was left with by her son. They needed to wait three years according to New York state law to declare her son legally dead. It was something that she thought about many times and did not think that she could actually be the one to do this so she held off in filing the paperwork. She found out that Alexis had sent a salvage company out on fourteen independent searches for her father over the span if the last year. When she searched back further she noticed many payments being dispersed to Prozio, Bromberg, & Newman P.C. She was curious as to why Alexis would be contacting a law firm that had nothing to do with their family. She'd never heard of them before now. She decided that calling them would be the best approach to find out why her granddaughter had utilized their firm.
"Prozio, Bromberg, & Newman P.C. This is Brittany speaking how may I direct your call?"
"I'd like to speak with Mr. Newman please." Martha requested.
"Yes, ma'am but it's not Mr. Newman it's Ms. Newman. Hold on and I'll connect you."
Martha dealt with the boring elevator music until Ms. Newman picked up the phone.
"Monica Newman speaking how can I help you?"
"Ms. Newman, this is Martha Rogers and I need some information regarding your law firm and my granddaughter. I need to know why she hired you for your services. The reason I'm asking is that as the executor of my son's estate she might have misappropriated funds."
"Mrs. Rogers due to client confidentiality I am not at liberty to discuss what we were doing for your granddaughter. If you get her to agree then, by all means, do so and I will tell you what we did for her."
"Ms. Newman you don't seem to understand. As I'm looking over the bank records for his estate it seems that we're paying you a monthly fee, a very large monthly fee. This will cease at the end of this call. Good, day Ms.…"
"Just hold on one second Mrs. Rogers, let's not be too hasty in our decision to withhold funds for our work that we do for your granddaughter. I can tell you that about two months ago we hired a private investigator to look into persons of interest that she was concerned with. It was basic information gathering that was all. But she does have us on retainer if she needs anything in the future that's what the monthly allotment is for."
"Ms. Newman I need the name of the person she was investigating."
"Hold on one second Mrs. Rogers I need to get the file paperwork."
Martha is put on a brief hold before she returns.
"Mrs. Rogers the people that were being looked into were Kate Beckett, Kevin Ryan, Javier Esposito, Elaine Parish and a Victoria Gates. I hope this helps.
"It does my dear thank you very much I will be in touch if I need anything from you in the future. Goodbye."
The line goes dead and now Martha has everything she needs to confront her granddaughter as to why she would have been investigating Kate and her friends in the first place.
Martha sits in the loft's living room keeping an eye on the front door. She knows that she'll be home soon and after the call to the private investigator she had earlier, he had told her exactly what Alexis was told. He found very little to give them anything that would be helpful in finding her son. But she heard something else in his voice, something that he wanted to tell her but stopped abruptly before he did. She is a bit startled when she hears the key being inserted into the lock. She sits a little straighter and waits for the war to start…