32. Serena #2
His eyes search my face. "Promise me you won't spiral while I'm gone."
"I make no such promises."
That earns me a ghost of a smile. "I'll call you as soon as I know something."
"You better." I cross my arms, trying to look stern rather than terrified.
He kisses me quickly, then he's gone, the door closing behind him with a quiet click that sounds like finality.
I drop onto the couch and stare at the half-packed boxes surrounding me like sentinels of a life interrupted. One minute we were joking about mugs, and the next... ethics complaint. The words echo in my head, sharp and accusing.
My hands are shaking. I clasp them together to make them stop.
I sit there for exactly fifteen seconds before I grab my phone.
"Layla? It's me. I need you to come over right now. And bring wine. A lot of it."
"What happened?" Her voice is immediately alert.
"Caleb just got called into an emergency ethics meeting at his firm."
"Oh shit."
"Yeah. Oh shit is right."
"I'm on my way. I'm bringing Bennett, and I'm calling Audrey too."
"Don't—"
"Too late, already texting. We'll be there in twenty."
True to her word, twenty minutes later my apartment is invaded. Layla arrives first, followed immediately by Bennett. Then Dominic bursts through the door like he owns the place.
"That is not Audrey," I say, staring at Dominic, who's holding a bottle of champagne and looking entirely too pleased with himself.
"Audrey's with Logan at the lab," he announces, settling onto my couch like he's been invited. "Some crisis with contaminated code. But I come bearing gifts." He waves the champagne. "And moral support."
"We don't need champagne," I protest. "This isn't a celebration."
"Every crisis needs champagne," Dominic counters. "Courage bubbles, sweetheart. Liquid spine."
Bennett looks around at the boxes, his expression grim. "How bad is this, Serena? Really?"
I sink back onto the couch, suddenly exhausted. "I don't know. Caleb didn't get any details, but emergency partnership meetings on Saturday mornings aren't exactly routine."
"You're right." Bennett frowns. "That's not good."
"I know. I'm just?—"
"Freaking out," Layla finishes, handing me a glass of wine she's somehow already poured while simultaneously relieving Dominic of the champagne and setting it on the coffee table.
"Which is completely understandable," Dominic says, actually being serious for once.
"What triggered it?" Bennett asks, all business. "Did he say?"
"Just that it's an ethics complaint. Margaret wouldn't give him details over the phone."
Dominic adjusts on the couch beside me. "Could be anything. Maybe he forgot to file something. Or double-billed a client. Or?—"
"Or it's about me," I interrupt. "About us. About how our relationship started."
The room goes quiet.
"The dinner thing?" Layla asks carefully. "But we all knew about that. It was basically a joke. Just his way of getting you to stop running scared. It was harmless."
"Not if someone found out and reported it to an ethics board," Bennett says, his brow furrowing. "We all know Caleb and understand why he did it. But even we were pointing out that it could be seen as coercion."
"But no one seriously thought that's what he was doing," Dominic says. "And who would report it? The only people who knew were?—"
My phone rings. Caleb's name on the screen.
I answer immediately, putting it on speaker. "I'm with Bennett and Layla."
"And me," Dominic adds, not one to be ignored.
"You're on speaker," I continue. "What happened?"
"It's an ethics complaint filed by Maya Bolton's attorney." His voice is tight. "She's claiming I accepted sexual favors from you in exchange for legal representation."
The wine glass slips from my hand, shattering on the floor. Red wine spreads across the hardwood like blood.
"How does Maya even know?" Layla starts, then stops, looking at me. "Serena?"
Oh God.
The jail visit.
The memory slams back—the way Maya smirked when she said, ‘ women like you .’ That glint in her eye, like she’d just pocketed a weapon she’d been waiting years to use. And I’d handed it to her.
"Serena?" Caleb's voice cuts through my spiral. "Are you there?"
"It's my fault," I whisper, my hands starting to shake again. "Oh God, Caleb, it's my fault."
"What are you talking about?"
"At the jail. When I visited her." The words come out in pieces. "I told her about the dinner arrangement."
The silence in the room is deafening. I can feel everyone staring at me, but I can't look up from the spreading wine stain on my floor.
"Serena," Bennett's voice is carefully controlled. "What exactly did you tell her?"
I force myself to meet his eyes, though my vision is blurring.
"She was talking about how she thought I was perfect, and I was trying to explain that I wasn't. That I was just as scared and insecure as anyone else.
Then she asked me about Caleb..." My voice cracks. "She wanted to know how I could afford him when he’s the best lawyer in the city. I tried to be vague, said we had history and that it was complicated. And she immediately assumed we were sleeping together. I didn’t deny it. "
"Oh, fuck," Dominic breathes.
"Serena, stop." Caleb's voice is firm but gentle. "This is not your fault. Maya twisted your words, just like she twists everything."
"How can you say that? I literally handed her the ammunition!"
"You couldn't have known she'd use it against us."
I press my palms against my eyes, trying to stop the burning sensation. "I should have. She was sitting there in an orange jumpsuit because of me. Of course she'd want revenge."
Bennett clears his throat. "What exactly is the firm saying, Caleb? How serious is this?"
There's a pause, and I can almost see Caleb running his hand through his hair, the way he does when he's trying to find the right words.
"The partnership is... concerned. The complaint alleges that I used my position of power to extract sexual favors from a vulnerable client in crisis. That I made representation dependent on a personal relationship."
"What's happening now?" Layla asks.
"I've been suspended pending a full investigation. The partnership has to review everything—every email, every meeting, every interaction between Serena and me."
"They can't just suspend you for a complaint," Dominic protests.
"They can and they did. It's standard procedure for ethics complaints involving attorney-client relationships."
"What exactly is Maya's lawyer claiming?" Bennett asks in his professional voice.
"That I took advantage of a vulnerable client. That I made legal representation dependent on personal favors. That I violated Rule 1.8 regarding sexual relationships with clients."
"And you started sleeping together well before the case was resolved," Bennett says slowly.
"Yes. But we had a relationship from before," Caleb says through the phone. "We'd met months earlier. The feelings were there before any attorney-client relationship existed."
"Can you prove that?" Dominic asks.
"The James Foundation Gala was photographed. We were seen together. Dancing. Talking."
"That could help," Bennett says. "Relationships that predate the attorney-client relationship aren't prohibited under most ethics rules."
"But the dinner condition—requiring her to go out with you to get representation—that's still a problem," Dominic points out.
"I know." Caleb's voice is grim. "Listen, I have to go. I need to meet with my attorney."
"You need your own attorney?" My voice breaks.
"It's procedure. Serena, listen to me. Do not contact Maya's lawyer. Do not make any statements to anyone about our relationship. And do not blame yourself for this."
"How can I not? You're suspended because you helped me!"
"I'm suspended because Maya Bolton is a vengeful bitch who's trying to hurt you through me," he says firmly. "This is on her, not you."
"Caleb—"
"I have to go. Bennett, keep an eye on her. Don't let her do anything stupid."
"Understood," Bennett says.
"Serena?"
"Yeah?"
"This doesn't change anything between us."
"OK," I whisper, my eyes burning because how can it not?
After he hangs up, I stare at the phone in my hand.
"We need to fix this," I say.
"We need to let the process play out," Bennett corrects. "Anything we do could make it worse."
"So we just sit here while his career gets destroyed?"
"We be smart," Layla says, kneeling to clean up the broken glass. "We document everything. We prepare for whatever comes next."
But all I can think about is that moment in the jail, Maya's question about Caleb.
The look on her face—that tiny, satisfied smirk.
She knew exactly what she was doing. Even behind bars, she's found a way to hurt me one more time.
God, and I honestly walked away from that meeting feeling like we cleared the air. I'm so stupid!
"This is ridiculous," Dominic says, pacing now. "Everyone knows what really happened. Caleb was into you from day one. The dinner thing was just his way of getting you to stop running."
"But that's not how it sounds," I say, dropping my head into my hands. "When you say it out loud it sounds predatory."
"Context matters," Bennett says, his voice steady but strained. "The ethics board will look at the full picture."
I look at the boxes around us, each one labeled with hope for the future. "What if he loses his license because of me?"
"You think you ruined him? No," Dominic says, surprising me with his seriousness. "He made his choice. And so did you. Now it’s our turn to make sure neither of you pays for it alone. That’s what we do—we figure shit out. Together.”
"But this time it really is my fault," I say. "I didn’t expect Maya to…Even after everything. I thought... I thought we were finally being honest with each other."
"You were being honest," Layla says. "She was gathering ammunition. That's on her, not you."
But as I sit there surrounded by the people who've become my chosen family, all I can think is that my need to connect, to be understood, to share my truth with someone who I thought finally got it—that need just destroyed the man I love.
But maybe that’s just who I am. The girl who ruins the people who dare to love her.