Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
Molly
H arvey Randall’s assistant jumps up in her chair as I blaze through his outer office, the door slamming behind me.
“Sorry Molly, he’s in a?—”
“Save it,” I interrupt, holding up a hand. “I know he’s in there with Brad, but if I’m wrong and there’s something going on in there that I don’t want to see, you better stop me now because otherwise I’m going in.”
The anger and determination on my face has her dropping back in her chair and waving me through. Wise decision on her part, but even without her assent, god herself couldn’t keep me out of that office right now.
I fling the door open and stride inside, taking in the scene. Harvey sits at his desk in front of a stack of papers that I’m sure are the partnership documents I hadn’t finished yet, pen poised over the signature line Brad points to as he stands over his uncle.
At the sound of the door hitting the wall behind it, both men jump, heads shooting up in perfect sync, eyes wide. The visual would make me laugh if my blood wasn’t filled with fiery rage.
“Molly dear! What are you doing here?” Harvey asks. “Brad told me you would be unavailable for several more days due to a death in your family.”
Brad looks at me with a smirk, but as soon as he sees my face, the smirk dies, replaced by an expression that looks almost fearful.
Good. He should fear me. This man has fucked with me for the last time.
“I’m fine, thank you, Mr. Randall. But please, for the love of god, stop calling me Molly dear . You would never call a man dear . It’s patronizing as fuck and I’m tired of it. I’m a grown woman and an accomplished attorney. Call me by my goddamn name.”
Harvey stares at me with a look of disbelief, and my satisfaction is dark and immediate. Surely no one, least of all a woman, has ever spoken to him like this. I’m thrilled to be the first.
He recovers quickly though, leveling me with a look of consternation.
“Now Molly, I’ll call you by your name if you want me to, but there’s no need for vulgarities in the office.”
Since I’ve heard this man and his cronies use plenty of vulgarities both in the office and outside of it during the time I’ve been representing him, I suspect what he means is that there’s no need for a woman to use vulgarities, and my rage just burns hotter.
“Mr. Randall, with all due respect, I’ll use whatever language I damn well please. Especially when my professional experience and knowledge is consistently being tossed aside in favor of an attorney with less experience and far less knowledge.”
Brad straightens, puffing out his chest like he’s about to drop some truth bombs. “Molly, this really isn’t the time. We’re in the middle of some important business here, so if you wouldn’t mind waiting until we’re done to have your little tantrum, we would appreciate it.”
I level Brad with a look of disdain. “By important business, do you mean pushing your uncle, who happens to be our client, into executing the partnership documents that I told you weren’t ready yet? The same way you convinced him to sign a trust document that wasn’t final?”
Brad scoffs at me, looking down to address his uncle. “I finalized the trust the same way I finalized the partnership documents. Everything is on the up and up, Uncle Harvey. Molly has been too preoccupied with her billionaire fiancé to do her job the way it needs to be done, but luckily, I’ve been here to pick up the slack. Once you sign this paperwork, we can proceed with getting the partnership shares transferred into the trust, and then this part of your estate plan will be complete, and you can rest easy.”
“What trust?” I ask, congratulating myself on keeping my voice almost casual.
Both men stare at me. “What do you mean, what trust?” Brad asks me. “The trust I took care of two weeks ago. I told you about it.”
I barely resist rolling my eyes because honestly, this man either doesn’t listen when I talk to him, or he has the memory of a goldfish. My money’s on the first. I bet his ears don’t even process the sound of a woman’s voice.
“Brad, I told you two weeks ago that the trust you had your uncle execute wasn’t final. That what he signed did not contain some very important changes that he requested. You knew that, and he knows that too, because you blamed it on me, even though you jumped the gun. In fact—” I turn my gaze to Harvey, whose gaze is bouncing between Brad and me. “Mr. Randall, you called me five days ago to ask for the new draft, which I sent to you not fifteen minutes after that phone call.”
I pause and take a deep breath, the reminder of exactly what transpired after that phone call pressing on my chest and making it hard to breathe. But I shove it away, unwilling to show these men even an ounce of weakness.
“Have you executed the new trust?”
Brad waves a hand as if dismissing the entire idea, but when he speaks, his voice has the tone of someone who is rapidly trying to fix an issue he didn’t realize he caused. “We can do that later. The old trust will be fine for now, and we can execute the new one later, after you finalize it.”
I shake my head, still unwilling to believe that a single person could be so fucking stupid, despite spending half my career having things incorrectly explained to me by a vast number of men who are wildly inferior to me in every way imaginable.
“I’m going to speak slowly so maybe this time you’ll understand. There are so many reasons the old trust won’t work. Not the least of which is, we already revoked the old trust so even if you wanted to use it, which would be a stupid idea, you can’t. You already knew that but decided not to listen to me in favor of screwing me over to look better in front of your uncle. And since the new trust isn’t finalized yet, what you’re doing is executing subpar partnership documents that will just be hanging in limbo until we can finalize it. And don’t even get me started on the potential tax consequences. You are royally fucking up every single part of this and will, I’m sure, blame me for it as soon as everything goes to shit.”
Harvey stands up, smoothing down his dress shirt and holding out his hands like he’s trying to calm a child. Men, I swear. Take me to Themyscira to live with Wonder Woman and the Amazons because I am so fucking done with the men. Well not Gabe. Or Ben, Asher, Jer, and Jordan. And Ben and Julie’s dad. They’re the good ones. But all the rest of them.
“Molly, you really do need to calm down. Brad is a lawyer, just like you, and I’m sure he knows exactly what he’s doing. You haven’t been available, and I really just wanted to get this done, so Brad stepped in and made that happen. If there’s some kind of issue in the future with whatever I’m signing now, I’m sure you’ll be able to handle it and fix whatever needs fixing. You’re so very good at that.”
Harvey winks at me and sits down with a satisfied look on his face, leaning back and crossing his arms over his stomach as if he didn’t just dismiss my entire life’s work in a single sentence. Brad stands there nodding in agreement, smug look plastered on his stupid face, and just like that, I am so completely done with this shit.
“No,” I say, my voice low and controlled.
“No what?” Harvey asks, his face screwing up in confusion as if he doesn’t understand the meaning of the word.
“No, I won’t be able to fix whatever needs fixing because I’m done. I’m sure Brad can handle whatever needs handling from now on. I quit.”
“You can’t quit,” Harvey sputters indignantly. “I’m your client. There are ethics rules that say you can’t just leave a client. Aren’t there?” He looks up at Brad, as if Brad will have the answer, and I almost laugh because seriously? That guy wouldn’t know an ethics rule if it stood up and introduced itself.
“There certainly are ethics rules. As a matter of fact, Rule 1.16(b)(4) of the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct states that a lawyer may withdraw from representing a client where the client insists on taking an action that the lawyer considers repugnant or with which the lawyer has a fundamental disagreement.”
Both men goggle at me, and I just lift a shoulder, smiling at them. “Photographic memory. Mr. Randall, I consider you taking Brad’s advice when he has consistently shown himself to be an inferior lawyer who cuts corners and takes action despite not having the expertise or experience to do so repugnant. And I have a fundamental disagreement with doing things such as executing corporate documents before they’re ready and only executing half an estate plan when doing so inures to my client’s detriment. Ever since you brought Brad on, you have consistently failed to take my advice and have, at times, done the exact opposite of what I recommended. I cannot, in good conscience, continue on in a representation where I see such obvious disregard for the law and for the basic tenets of my profession. I have a reputation to protect as well, and I refuse to put my name to work on a product that is so inferior it borders on malpractice. Consider this your notice that I am terminating this representation. Since you seem already to be employing alternate counsel, that termination is effective immediately. I’ll have all your files sent over tomorrow, along with my final bill.”
I turn to leave, but Brad’s voice stops me.
“Molly, wait.”
I turn back around, and the look on his face is so desperate it’s almost comical. I say nothing, just look at him and wait for him to speak.
“I’m sure we can work something out. Share the representation more equally.”
“Well, that would be a fantastic idea,” Harvey says, standing again and clapping his hands together.
This time I do laugh. “A fantastic idea for whom, exactly? Not for me. I’m done working for people who don’t appreciate me. I’m a brilliant and accomplished lawyer who graduated first in my class. I have a list of career accolades a mile long, and in the five years I’ve been representing you, I have never provided anything less than excellent advice and work product. I have gone above and beyond for you, and, well, you probably should have thought about all of that before you decided to do whatever this is.” I wave a hand between him and Brad.
“Whatever you’ve got going on now, I’m sure Brad can take it from here. Have an excellent day, gentlemen.”
With that, I turn and stalk out of the office and straight out of the building without a backward glance, satisfaction humming in my veins the whole way home.