Chapter 35 #2
I inhaled. Exhaled. Leveled Julian with a look.
His eyes dazzled as he raised a brow. I gave a resigned nod.
His smirk grew while giving a shake of his head, a little disappointed but a little knowing, like he understood what it was to give into something inevitable.
I mean, I was pretty sure he’d crossed lines in this office with Juniper, but that still wasn’t as bad as me, as this. Juniper was a colleague, not a client.
He patted me on the shoulder, giving it a squeeze.
“Nothing,” I said then, aloud—a word that contradicted our entire former exchange.
Because that was what Julian needed to know: nothing. If, God forbid, my relationship with Natalie somehow came to light and Korey managed to find real, tangible proof, I needed Julian to have plausible deniability.
Julian laughed and then dropped his hand.
“Go get rid of Korey’s ass so you can put this behind you and get your girl,” he muttered under his breath and then let me go.
His words of encouragement were pretty much the only thing keeping me sane as I made my way through the startlingly hot Boston streets to Wilson and Thomas, especially since I wasn’t even sure if Natalie wanted to be my girl after the text she sent this morn—wait.
Did Natalie know that Chloe had talked to Korey about me? About us? Because if she did…that just might explain everything. I hoped it explained everything. And I hoped she knew she couldn’t push me away that easily, not just to appease her manipulative ex.
With that possibility in mind, my steps were lighter as I made my way to the same conference room where we’d held Korey’s deposition.
The ex-husband in question wasn’t there yet when I walked in, but his lawyer was.
I gave Mr. Keller a curt greeting, which he returned as I rounded the table to sit across from him.
“My client will be here soon, but we’d like to propose a new custody agreement ahead of trial.”
“Sure,” I replied with a nod, having expected that. It felt a bit like a waste of time since I was sure Natalie would have no interest in going for whatever split arrangement they’d concocted. But oh well. “Let’s—”
“Wait a fucking minute.”
Korey Abrams burst through the doors of the conference room in the most overdramatic fashion I had ever seen—arms swinging, suit jacket flying open, eyes flaring. He seethed, and all of that glaring attention was going straight to me.
“We’re not doing anything until we talk about what this man has been doing.”
Korey leaned over the table, jabbing a finger at me. His lawyer looked between the two of us, clearly unaware of his client’s concerns. Too bad, honestly, because maybe he could have warned Korey that this was going to go nowhere. Could have saved us some fucking time.
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said flatly.
“Don’t give me that shit.” Korey straightened, putting his hands on his hips. His voice lowered to a degree that might be threatening, if I could ever be threatened by a man this small. “I want you to stay the fuck away from my daughter and the hell away from my wife,” he hissed.
I gritted my teeth, if only because he kept conveniently forgetting that he’d lost the privilege of calling Natalie that a long time ago.
“I am representing your ex-wife in your custody trial, Mr. Abrams,” I intoned, doing my best to sound bored by his intimidation. “Our collaboration is necessary for the case.”
“Your collaboration,” he repeated, huffing a humorless laugh beneath his breath. “Your collaboration. So that’s what we’re calling it, huh?”
“Mr. Abrams—”
Mr. Keller attempted to cut in, but Korey turned to him and spat, “This man has been parading around with my family. Taking them to baseball games, bringing my daughter to a law firm, babysitting her so Natalie can spend all her fucking time at work, as usual.”
I folded my hands on the table in front of me. “Mr. Abrams, as I know Natalie told you at her brother’s house, I am a friend of the family. I have been for many years. And it is important for me to foster good relationships with my clients, which is all I have been doing.”
“Good relationships,” Korey sputtered, and I could tell from the wild glaze coating his eyes as they swung back to me that he was spiraling. Shit. “You’re fucking my wife, aren’t you?”
No.
I’m fucking your ex-wife, Abrams.
Before I even got a chance to respond to his allegation, Korey looked back to his lawyer, thrust a finger at me, and proclaimed, “He’s fucking my wife. Aren’t there some goddamn rules against that?”
Mr. Keller looked increasingly out of his depth, so much so that it might be humorous if I wasn’t counting on him to keep his client in check.
“Yes, there are very serious rules about that.” He gave me a pointed look, a raised brow, and I glared back, stony-faced.
“If there were to be a confirmed relationship.”
“And there is not,” I said, my voice dropping like an anvil. “We have established that I am simply a friend of the family. To which there are no rules against.”
“You’re fucking lying,” Korey argued, huffing in a way that was a tad worrying, health-wise.
I shook my head.
I wasn’t lying. Omitting the truth, but whatever. I wasn’t under oath. And hopefully, Keller wouldn’t figure out an avenue to put me under oath.
“There is no proof otherwise, Mr. Abrams,” I said, spreading my hands out as if to welcome any proof—which I knew he didn’t have. “So I suggest you let your jealousy and anger about what you’ve lost go, and let us proceed.”
Okay, fine, so I shouldn’t have provoked him further. But he was making it so very hard not to.
Korey seemed speechless for a moment, and then there were a few incoherent babbles before he shook his head, putting his foot in the ground. “There’s no way in hell that’s going to happen.”
“Mr. Abrams,” Keller tried again, and this time, he actually managed to get his client’s attention. “Why don’t you have a seat so we can…sort this out?”
A muscle twitched in Korey’s jaw, but he sat, flopping into a chair in a dramatized fashion, as usual. I tried hard to remain expressionless at the entire scene, though it proved to be more of a challenge than I liked to admit.
Sure, my job was on the line here. But ultimately, Korey and I both knew he had no proof that I’d been doing exactly what he accused me of doing. And it was hard not to be at least a little smug about it.
But all of that faded when Keller asked, “What is it that you would like to happen here, Mr. Abrams?”
And Korey gave a flatlined look across the table to say, “I want this asshole thrown off the case.”
My entire body tightened at the thought.
For some reason, I hadn’t expected him to say that, and the idea of not being Natalie’s lawyer anymore, of not pushing through to the end of the case…
it felt unfathomable. It could jeopardize the progress I’d made toward becoming partner and the good standing I had in the firm.
It could imply guilt, that I had been carrying on a secret relationship with Natalie.
But mostly, it could mean not getting to be the one who stood by her side when we won this thing.
Out of everything, that was the most inconceivable thought. That was what weighed the heaviest on my conscience.
Natalie.
Just, Natalie.
“That would be up to my client to decide,” I said with a shrug, faking nonchalance.
Korey scoffed, irritated, because he knew what Natalie’s response to that would be. And wasn’t that just a little bit satisfying? That he knew she’d pick me?
I tried to control the twitch of my lips.
“Gardner Law has other talented lawyers, and it is within her right to request a new one,” I added. “But that decision is up to her.”
Korey pressed his lips together, folding arms over his chest. And even though he didn’t push it further, I knew I had another reason I needed to call Natalie tonight.
And I wasn’t looking forward to any of it.
Somehow, Keller got Korey to focus on the task at hand, and we were able to move on with the meeting, although not without consistent glaring across the table on the man-child’s part.
Their proposition still involved Natalie giving up a lot of time with Chloe, and I knew she’d never go for it. But I promised to present the proposition to my client and then left Wilson and Thomas Law, my stomach sinking with every step.
Without Korey breathing down my neck, I didn’t have to pretend that his accusations and finger-pointing weren’t eating me up inside.
Not because I gave a shit about what he thought about me, but because I could readily admit that he could be dangerous.
He didn’t have a lot left to lose here, and desperate men went to desperate measures to regain their slipping control.
He could very well threaten what Natalie and I had built—with the case and in our personal lives.
And I didn’t know what the hell to do about it.
This case was far from over. There were still a number of weeks before the trial, hearings scheduled prior to it, and then the possibility that it could take days to weeks for the judge to decide on a ruling.
That was a lot of time for Korey to dig deeper into our lives, a lot of time for shit to go sideways.
But giving up Natalie? In any capacity?
Fuck, I didn’t know how the hell I was supposed to do that at this point. Letting someone else take the case had always felt like a nonnegotiable, but now? Now that it meant I might have to give up Natalie for weeks, if not months? Right when it felt like we were at a tipping point?
I was afraid something had to give, but I shook my head, knowing I was getting ahead of myself.
The last thing I heard from Natalie was I think we should end this.
Before anything else, I needed to figure out what the hell she meant by that.
And if she really thought it would be that easy to simply walk away.
It wouldn’t be. It would involve severing something inside both of us, the pull that kept drawing us back together time and time again.
She could deny her feelings all she wanted, but I knew they were there.
Maybe they weren’t as intense or all-consuming as mine, but they existed.
They were in the depth of her eyes when she looked at me the other night, the softness of her voice, the trust of her weight as it sank into me, knowing I’d take care of her.
And I’d wait as long as I fucking had to until she realized what was right in front of us.
Yeah, maybe she hadn’t asked for this, for the direction our relationship had turned. But it had turned, and I wasn’t sure I could let her run away out of fear again. Not this time.
I just needed her to stay long enough for us to figure this out.
I needed her to trust that I’d figure this out.
I’d do anything to figure this out.