Chapter 13 JEMMA
Jemma
Jemma took a breath, forcing herself to speak slowly. ‘Rohan, there’s still information missing from the file, from the meeting with Wilkins you took by yourself. I’ve left you a dozen messages and Tien has been trying to contact you for days too.’
‘I was ill.’ Rohan’s aggrieved expression made it clear he expected sympathy.
‘In any case, all you need to know is that I’m angling for the best outcome for all of us.
If Wilkins is generous enough to Celine, she recants, there’s no criminal trial and that leaves only the divorce settlement to nut out. ’
‘Gerard would rather we went to trial on the domestic violence charge.’ And so would Jemma; not only was that where the real money lay, but it was her portfolio.
Suddenly Rohan’s choice to take on Wilkins’s divorce rather than the criminal case made sense.
‘White-anting me was your ploy all along. You’ve taken it upon yourself to advise Wilkins on how to proceed in regard to the criminal defence, despite the fact that I’m his barrister. ’
‘We are his lawyers, Jemma,’ Rohan corrected.
‘Teamwork, remember? I’m simply lightening your workload by providing Wilkins with a viable alternative to going through court.
You’d have reached the same conclusion and provided the same advice, given that we’re obliged to advance and protect our client’s best interests. ’
He made it sound so reasonable, but her gut instinct, always reliable, was that he was screwing her over.
Yet what did he stand to gain, other than moving a step ahead of her on the corporate ladder?
With the exception of Tien, any lawyer worth their salt would fight for the partnership: but not like this.
‘Wouldn’t our client’s best interests be served by understanding that his prenup won’t protect his assets? I noticed you glossed over that little matter.’
‘We were focused on how best to avoid a criminal trial for our client.’
‘No, I was focused on amassing the information I required to decide where we stand in regards to going to trial.’
Rohan waved a magnanimous hand. ‘Something you no longer need to be concerned about, right?’
‘No, I won’t endorse encouraging our client to coerce or bribe his way out of the charges.’
Rohan covered his eyes with one hand. Then he sat forward.
‘Jemma, Wilkins is not an idiot. But he is a very dangerous man.’ He lowered his voice.
‘I don’t think you fully understand what you’re playing with here.
Wilkins doesn’t like lawyers, doesn’t like that he has to pay us to defend him when there are more …
physical ways he’d rather deal with the matter.
I gave you the opportunity to move those goods for him because that would have been your chance to ingratiate yourself, to earn his trust while I found the best way to turn the case around.
You chose not to do it.’ He shrugged his disappointment.
‘So now, if you risk taking his case to trial on the spurious notion that you’ll win—and you won’t, Jemma, not because of any failing of your own, but because the court will be out to make an example of a middle-aged, wealthy white man accused of domestic violence—you’ll have made yourself a very grave enemy. ’
Her chest tightened. There was surprisingly little satisfaction in having her suspicion of Wilkins’s involvement in the threats confirmed.
‘Wilkins has the kind of money that gives him the expectation of being invulnerable,’ Rohan continued.
‘You don’t want to be the one to shake his belief in his untouchability.
The best course of action—the safest—is to financially encourage his wife to retract her statement.
We get that sorted, then we move on to the division of assets. ’
‘Did he hit her?’ she blurted.
Rohan’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Why?’
She shook her head. It wasn’t something she needed to know.
She was paid to defend the client, not to decide his culpability.
Although, as she’d told Hamish, she did form judgements about people, she couldn’t allow them to impact her work, at least not while she was employed by GB if Wilkins failed to take it on board in the confusion of the moment, that’s on him. You did your duty.’
Failed to take in the information because Rohan had swiftly brushed it under the carpet. Yet it seemed that Rohan was correct: getting the domestic violence charge withdrawn was the best way to serve their client. ‘But we have no indication that Celine will refuse to testify for the DPP.’
‘Nothing concrete, but she accepted Wilkins’s initial gift last week, which we carefully couched as being to further help with the children’s expenses.
And her lawyer’s shot through a request for funds to pay the bond on a new rental.
’ Rohan shook his head. ‘Can you believe there are places by the beach that are over two grand a week? Not the kind of life a hardworking barrister’s ever going to enjoy, right? ’
She nodded, although considering Rohan shared her penchant for advertising his standing with designer clothes and high-end accessories, his virtue signalling was somewhat misplaced.
Tien closed her office door with his heel before handing her a takeaway coffee. ‘I don’t get it, Jemma. If you suspect that Wilkins is behind the note, you have grounds to go to police.’
She’d finally decided to—at least partially—confide in Tien, but then had immediately told him that she needed coffee.
She took the cup, sipped at it. Tien must literally run when he did the pickup—he always got her drink to the office dangerously hot, just the way she liked it, and every bit as good as the one Stefan handed her each morning. ‘I have no evidence.’
‘Surely finding evidence is the police’s job, not yours?’
‘Can you imagine how it would look? I’m willing to defend him in court as a client, yet I’m accusing him of harassing me? Besides …’ She hesitated, debating the wisdom of sharing. ‘There’s still something about the notes that doesn’t sit quite right.’
‘That’s a no-brainer.’
She shook her head. ‘I mean about the contents. They seem … juvenile. Not what I’d expect from Wilkins.’
Tien lifted one shoulder, then licked spilled coffee from his hand. ‘He’s not a rocket scientist. Wait.’ He shoved his glasses up his nose. ‘Notes? As in, plural?’
‘Ah. Yep. There was a second one.’
‘When?’ Tien stood abruptly.
She waved him down. ‘Ages ago.’
‘Be more specific.’
She made a show of nonchalantly flicking through her diary to jog her memory, as though she didn’t know exactly when she’d plucked the note from her mailbox. ‘Shortly after the first. But before I refused to collect those packages Rohan had arranged.’
Tien frowned. ‘You think that’s tied in?’
‘I don’t know anymore. Rohan’s story about failing my chance to prove myself to Wilkins makes sense, but the timing doesn’t work.’ She rubbed her forehead and exhaled loudly.
Tien waited silently, and she knew what he wanted.
She sighed again. ‘“You’re not as safe as you think you are,”’ she quoted.
Tien squinted. ‘That’s not so bad. Why has this one got you rattled more than the first?’
She gripped her coffee cup, willing her hand not to tremble. ‘I guess because it’s proof that someone knows where I live—’
‘Warned you about that.’
‘Yeah, well, thanks for putting that in my head. But that they have no issue with walking right up and putting their letter in my mailbox—’
‘Wilkins isn’t going to stroll up to your house,’ Tien said firmly. ‘You’re right, it can’t be him.’
‘Who then?’
‘My money’s still on that languishing ex-boyfriend.’
Tien’s obsession with her romantic life got a little irritating sometimes. But maybe he had a point: Kain had made no secret of how much he’d loved his high-profile, expensive-appendage lifestyle with her.
‘Although—are you sure that you’re the only one getting the notes?’ Tien continued, holding up a finger to signify he’d thought of something.
‘Not following.’
‘I mean, is there a chance this could be a prank? Maybe kids targeted the whole street. You’ll probably find there’s a TikTok subculture dedicated to pulling this kind of stunt for views.
Like the first, that second note is vague, generic enough that anyone could take it personally.
Maybe you’re reading into Wilkins’s grandstanding. ’
‘Oh my God, you’re right.’ She clamped her forehead in a tight grip, digging her thumb and middle finger into her temples. But she could feel the tension falling from her shoulders like a dropped mantle. ‘You say it like that, and it sounds entirely plausible. And now I look absolutely neurotic.’