Chapter 10
The law offices of Richards how were they supposed to co-parent three toddlers?
And Janie would still have to confess what she’d done, what she’d allowed to happen.
Her gaze fell to her phone, where she’d changed the screensaver to a photo of their newly decorated living room, courtesy of Tia’s creativity.
A stab of grief shot through her. She was missing out on precious moments like that too.
Janie turned the cell on its face and reopened the folder.
If she didn’t get this work done, she wouldn’t even be able to keep up her responsibilities for financial support.
She didn’t know how much time had passed when there were two quick, sharp taps on her office door.
“Come in, Amanda,” she called, expecting her assistant, who’d been uncharacteristically quiet all morning.
Janie suspected she and some of the other paralegals had overindulged last night and were paying for it on a Sunday they hadn’t expected to be working.
Her door swung open, and Katherine stood in the opening.
The expression on her face made it clear she was still sore from Janie’s recent public evisceration of her at the bar most of the firm frequented.
Janie wanted to say sorry, both for the outburst and the unkind things she’d said.
It didn’t matter that they were mostly true.
What mattered was Janie’s complete lack of emotional control, a distressing signal that she was unraveling professionally as well as personally.
The only saving grace was that it hadn’t happened at the office.
Katherine was a senior associate and widely thought of as “one of the boys” by the partners, but they rarely socialized at Oscar’s, so they hadn’t witnessed it.
The firm’s grapevine was nothing if not effective though, and Janie had no doubt the partners would’ve heard some version of the incident by now.
She could only hope that it wouldn’t hurt her chances of progression.
“I thought I’d be the bigger person and come see you,” Katherine said as she stepped into the office.
Janie looked beyond Katherine’s shoulder as she closed the door behind her, but there was no sign of Amanda. She must’ve gone to lunch, or she wouldn’t have allowed Katherine to waltz into her office as if Janie was a junior associate instead of an equal. “What can I do for you?”
Katherine raised her eyebrows as if she’d expected Janie to fall at her feet in groveling apology. Her sense of entitlement irked Janie more than usual, and her regret for her behavior began to recede.
“I was going to ask for an apology for the other night.” Katherine swaggered across the office and took a seat without being offered one.
“But you’re under a lot of stress right now, so I decided to forgive you instead,” she gave Janie a crooked smile, “on the condition that you let me take you out for dinner.”
Janie leaned back in her chair, not quite believing the nerve of the woman. “Why would I do that?” She flashed her wedding ring, then dropped her left hand, guilt overcoming her for using Hannah only when it suited her.
Katherine inclined her head. “You have to play nice if you want to get anywhere in this firm.”
Janie gave a short laugh. “With the partners, sure. But I don’t think you have that position yet.”
Katherine tapped her nose, her expression smug. “It’s only a matter of time. With all the new business I’ve brought in and all the hours I’m billing, that upcoming spot is mine. This is your chance to get ahead of the curve.”
“I think I’ll pass,” Janie said. “I’d rather apologize.”
Katherine shrugged and pushed up from the chair. “The kind of passion you showed at the bar says something different, Janie. I’ll get the partnership, and then I’ll get you.”
Janie laughed again. “You’re actually serious,” she said, shaking her head. “You think me destroying you at the bar was foreplay?”
The corner of Katherine’s lip twitched before she walked away. She paused to turn back after she’d opened the door. “I think you’re doing too much protesting for it to be anything else.”
Katherine was gone before Janie could seriously consider throwing something at her smug face.
Hannah would go crazy if she knew Lori’s philandering ex-wife was not just working with Janie but also putting the moves on her.
Not that they’d ever had trust issues, but Hannah had very definite thoughts about the sanctity of marriage and the gross indecency of cheating spouses.
Janie got up from her desk to close her door again. The voice she heard coming from farther down the corridor froze her insides. It couldn’t be.
“Can I get you some coffee, Angela?”
Phillip Wall didn’t get coffee for anyone, and his question confirmed her worst fears.
The great Angela Evans was in the building.
Her building. Her mother hadn’t been there since Janie’s first day, when she’d inspected the place to make sure it was good enough for her daughter.
Except that wasn’t about Janie; it was about the Angela Evans’ legacy.
Everyone at the firm had to be made aware of who Janie’s mom was, and the firm had to understand that they weren’t just getting a new lawyer, they were getting Angela Evans’s daughter.
“No, thank you, Phillip,” her mother said with the curt chill in her voice that had put the fear of God into a thousand opposition lawyers over the years. “I didn’t really have time for this trip at all, so I definitely don’t have time for coffee.”
Her dismissal was complete, and from the doorway, Janie saw Phillip stop and almost bow.
“Maybe next time then,” he said and retreated.
Janie stepped back from the doorway before her mother could see her and slipped back behind her desk, needing the physical barrier.
“We need to talk,” her mother said as she strode into Janie’s office.
“Talk about what? Why are you here, Mother?” Janie realized she was gripping the arms of her chair hard, and she tried to relax her hands. Her mother surveyed the office, silently judging her aesthetic choices.
“Tell me why I had to hear about you abandoning your children from someone else,” her mother hissed quietly, not trying to hide her disdain. “It’s profoundly disappointing behavior, Janie.”
Her mother knew? Janie eased up from her chair, despite the child inside wanting to crawl beneath the desk. “And how do you know anything of what’s going on in my life right now?”
Her mother gave a tight smile. “I know things, Janie. You know Ruth is a dear friend.”
Janie clenched her jaw. She should’ve known her elderly neighbor had snitched; anything to score points with her dear friend and previous employer. “This is my office. Mother. If you have a desperate need to talk about my ‘profoundly disappointing behavior,’ we won’t be doing it here.”
Her mother arched her perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “At least you’re owning your actions. That’ll save us time I don’t have.”
Janie flared her nostrils. Of course. Seconds, minutes, billable hours.
Janie had known time was a commodity as soon as she was old enough to do math.
She hadn’t asked her mother to come here.
She wouldn’t have asked. But who had? Hannah?
She clutched her chest. If Hannah had thought she could enlist Janie’s parents to help repair their relationship, she sorely misunderstood them.
And she misunderstood Janie too. Had she forgotten how much Janie despised their judgment?