Redemption: A British Stepbrother Romance (38 page)

I
strolled
out of the office with my sleeves rolled up to reveal my tattoos. I rarely walked around in public with them on display because they didn’t exactly scream “reputable lawyer,” but right now that wasn’t the image I wanted to give out.

Zach stood there outside his office building waiting for me. He saw me approach and motioned for us to head in the direction of a nearby park. That was fine with me. I’d feel less inclined to hold back if we had a bit of privacy.

We ended up under the shade of a tree, which did little to help keep me cool in the suffocating humidity. I’d been in D.C. for over five years now, but I still wasn’t used to the constant feeling of being in a greenhouse when outdoors.

The summer months were torture, but even in the winter you would get a humid day spring up out of nowhere, making you sweaty and sticky under a thick coat.

I’d been struggling to control my temper while I was indoors; outdoors in this heat, it was almost impossible.

“I’m going to assume you found out that I’m right,” Zach said. “About April committing a big no-no. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”

“Perhaps I’m just here to punch your lights out,” I replied. “Or did that not occur to you? At least there’s nothing for you to fall over here.”

“Very droll. It still amazes me that someone like you,” he paused to look down at my tattoos, “managed to become a lawyer. You were bound to fuck up eventually, it’s just a shame you had to drag someone like April down with you.”

“It’s not her fault,” I said. “I’m the one to blame. I messed up the conflict check.”

“Oh, I know. I always suspected as much. April’s far too perfect to make such a basic mistake. Fucking little Princess.”

“Watch your fucking mouth,” I snapped. “You are in no position to be insulting anyone’s character, least of all hers.”

“Whatever. The fact is, all I have to do is send out an email and within hours shit will hit the fan, so to speak. I’m guessing your firm will fire April immediately, and you will likely be placed on leave. Then there’s the disciplinary hearings. Oh, they’re going to be so much fun. I might go along for shits and giggles.”

“You’re not going to send those emails.”

“I hope you’re right,” Zach said, trying to sound sincere. “I don’t want to send them. You know what I want.”

“You’re not getting my biggest client.”

“You can hardly work for them if you’re suspended. You really have no choice in all this.”

“We can go back to the bit where I knock you the fuck out,” I said threateningly.

“I’ve got you over a barrel, Foster,” Zach said, before laughing loudly to himself. “I know you’re dumb, but you’re not that dumb. In fact, I reckon I could take a swing at you right now and you wouldn’t even react.”

“Go on then,” I said, as I moved within punching distance of Zach.

He looked around to make sure no one was looking and to my immense surprise he swung a punch. To my even greater surprise, he managed to make contact.

I let my head swing to the right as his fist collided with the left side of my face. My tongue checked for damaged teeth, but found none.

I pretended to barely feel the punch, but the truth was that even the weakest, most feeble punch to the face did hurt at least a bit.

Fortunately it also hurt the person doing the punching. Zach smiled, but I could see him wincing in pain, and trying to hide the discomfort in his right hand. He’d probably never punched anyone before, not unless it had been part of some silly frat boy dare.

This would usually be the part where I swung a punch of my own and sent Zach to the floor in a crying heap. This time I’d be sure to break some bones in the process; he deserved it.

But I couldn’t punch him and we both knew it.

“Does that make you feel better?” I asked. I could taste some blood in my mouth, but I swallowed it so as not to give him the pleasure of knowing he’d actually made me bleed.

“Yes, it does. Not as good as it’s going to feel when I get promoted after bringing in such a huge new client though. I probably won’t make partner immediately, but I’m going to jump a few levels without a doubt.”

“You know, there’s more to being a lawyer than bringing in clients,” I pointed out. “You actually have to do the work as well. Or would you like me to do that for you too?”

“If you insist on making this difficult, then I might just have to do that. Now then, shall we talk business. I want that client on my books within the next two months. That gives you a month to start severing ties, and a month to find a way to introduce me with a glowing reference.”

“I’m not doing it,” I replied.

“Yes, you are,” Zach yelled. He was like a spoiled child, used to getting everything his own way and never being told ‘no.’ “I’m not bluffing, Foster. I
will
do it.”

“Go ahead then. I don’t care. PorTupe is worth a lot more to me than Jacob’s current case, and I’m confident I’ll stay out of trouble. Mistakes happen.”

“And what about April?” Zach asked. “Are you just going to hang her out to dry?”

I tried to effect a casual shrug, but I still hadn’t gotten the hang of it. I’d have to practice in front of the mirror one day.

“I don’t care what happens to a summer associate,” I lied. “She made her bed. She’ll have to lie in it.”

“She will. Alone no doubt. That frigid bitch is soon going to find out what the real world’s like.”

“What did you just call her?” I snarled.

Zach hesitated, as if his brain was trying to impart important information, like how it might not be a good idea to answer that question.

“It’s true,” Zach said. “None of the guys in the office got anywhere with her. Not even me. Like I said, she’s a frigid bitch.”

This time I definitely broke some bones. Or perhaps it was a tooth chipping off in his mouth. Either way, the punch landed hard on the side of his face.

Zach went sprawling against the tree which kept him up on his feet and gave me the chance to swing another blow, this time higher up. He’d have a real shiner of a black eye in a few hours.

He collapsed on the floor and curled up in a fetal position. I drew back a foot to kick him in the stomach, but I couldn’t bring myself to kick such a feeble, helpless creature when it was curled up on the floor. I liked to punch people face-to-face, so I could look them in the eye as I did it.

A few people had seen me punch him and small crowds were starting to gather. The general public tended to act on instinct and what they saw was two men in suits arguing. For most people, that didn’t constitute anything they needed to get involved in.

I walked straight back to the office and soaked my knuckles under cold water. The harder you punched, the harder it hurt afterwards. The adrenaline kept most of the pain away, but they’d still sting for the rest of the day.

I’d fucked up. Any chance I’d had of stopping Zach from reporting April and me to the state bar had just gone out the window. In truth, me punching him probably hadn’t made a difference. I’d made my choice.

I’d decided to keep PorTupe, even though I was starting to intensely dislike the directors the more April told me about them. I’d brushed off her complaints, but they left a nasty taste in the mouth. I didn’t like working for people like that, but it was too late now.

I could handle a suspension and a slap on the wrist. April might not be so lucky.

Y
our boyfriend chose
money over your career. You’re fucked.

Zach had been taunting me all morning with a series of texts, that I’d tried my best to ignore until that last one. Apparently he had evidence that I’d committed a major breach of legal ethics, but I had no idea what he was talking about.

His final message made it clear that Foster had refused to play ball, and now I was in serious trouble. As if to confirm that, an email popped up from Kathleen demanding that I go to her office immediately.

We’d agreed not to act as stepmother and stepdaughter at work, and judging by the tone of this email, Kathleen had no issues sticking to her side of the bargain on that one.

I took the long walk over to Kathleen’s corner office situated on the floor above mine. I’d only ever been on this floor once before and that was to use the bathroom when ours had been shut for cleaning.

Unlike her son, Kathleen kept her door open and she beckoned me inside when she saw me approach.

“Shut the door behind you,” she said sternly. Yeah, this wasn’t going to be a fun meeting. “Do you know why I’ve called you in here today?”

“No,” I replied. That was sort of true. I still didn’t understand what the hell was going on, other than Zach’s cryptic messages.

“This isn’t easy for me to say, April, but I’m going to have to let you go.”

Whoa, this just got real serious, real quick.

“What? Why?”

I only had a few more weeks left, and I’d earned more than enough money to get me through the final year of law school, but the bigger problem was trying to find another job for after graduation.

I’d now been fired by two law firms and I hadn’t even finished law school. What the hell was wrong with me?

“We’ve received a very serious allegation that you worked for the other side in the Jacob Oscar matter last year at Cooper & Cooper. As I’m sure you know, that is a serious breach of the ABA’s ethics rules, and means you may have breached client confidences.”

“Of course,” I muttered, “but I don’t even know who the other party is in Jacob’s case. Foster never gave me the details.”

I had worked on a similar legal area at Cooper & Cooper, which was why I’d been able to produce a decent memo for Jacob. I suppose the facts had been similar, but Foster had never given me any of the opposition parties’ names.

“Do any of these names ring a bell? Mendleson Co., NormArtTech, N. Gaige…”

“Yes,” I said, as my heart started pounding in my chest. “Yes, I worked for those clients, but I put them on my conflict list. I’m sure I did.”

How could this have happened?
Arrington & Hedges had draconian internal policies and procedures to catch this kind of thing. I’d prepared the conflict checklist exactly as directed.

“You did,” Kathleen said. “Foster ran a conflict check, but he must have fucked it up.” Kathleen rubbed her temples with her fingers, and sighed loudly. “I’m sorry April, this is not entirely your fault, but you have to live with the consequences. You still should have spotted the overlap and raised a red flag, but it’s Foster’s fault as well. When he sees the sight of money and billable hours, he gets reckless and plows ahead without thinking things through.”

She didn’t need to explain that to me. I’d seen first hand how Foster always put money before everything else. I thought I meant more to him than that. Apparently not. He’d had a chance to fix this, but that would have meant losing out financially. That was a step he wasn’t prepared to take. Not for me.

“So what happens now?” I asked.

“I’m going to do what I can to fix this,” Kathleen explained. “But I still have to let you go. We can’t risk it looking like you’re providing us with information on your former client.”

“I understand.”

“I wish I did. It sounds like you made a real enemy over at Cooper & Cooper. How does someone as nice as you manage that?”

“By rejecting his advances,” I replied.

Not to mention the fact that Foster punched him. If Foster had never showed up that night, this would probably never have happened. I would be at Cooper & Cooper now, and Foster would just be a normal stepbrother, albeit one that I would look at inappropriately whenever I saw him.

“I see. Well, like I said, I’m going to do what I can, but you’ll need to pack up your things and leave.”

I nodded and quickly got up and left. I only just made it back to my office before I started to cry. Foster had given me some incredible moments over the last nine months, but he’d also destroyed my life and had gotten me fired from two jobs.

How could he have messed up something so simple as a conflict check? It occurred to me that perhaps Kathleen had been lying. Foster had probably never even run the check at all. Maybe he’d asked his assistant to do it. Foster might as well have “Time is Money” printed somewhere on his chest, so it made sense that he would palm off all non-billable work to his assistant.

My login privileges hadn’t been revoked yet, so I pulled up Jacob’s client file on the system. Each client had an admin folder where things like engagement letters and conflict checks were stored.

There was nothing there. Foster hadn’t even bothered to run the conflict check. I pulled up the conflict spreadsheet I had prepared on my first day, and sure enough, the names of all the opposing parties in the Jacob case were there in black and white. If he’d run the check I wouldn’t have lost my job.

At least his office was empty right now. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing me leave. I shoved the photos of Mom and Dad into my bag, and looked around my office one final time.

Apparently fate didn’t want me to be a lawyer. Nor did it want me to be in a happy relationship. I just wish fate had passed on the message before I’d wasted two years at law school and fallen hard for Foster.

At least now I knew the real man underneath the suit. Underneath the tattoos. Underneath the thick muscles that covered his body. Foster wanted money and success. He would happily fuck me in his spare time, but the second I got in the way of his primary goal, he would throw me to one side without a moment’s thought.

I went back to my apartment and filled out the paperwork to withdraw from law school. I didn’t have to pay tuition, but I was still going into debt for living expenses and casebooks at $200 per subject. There didn’t seem much point it finishing if I was never going to be a lawyer anyway.

Dad had said Mom would be proud of me no matter what I did, but I doubted that included quitting. Mom had her flaws, but she never quit.

Sorry Mom. I just can’t do this
.