Deceived by Stella Barcelona

Author:Stella Barcelona [Barcelona, Stella]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2014-04-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

At eleven thirty Brandon was finishing a discovery strategy session with Mitch and Pete. Much of what Mitch needed to find out in the case would involve Pete’s investigative skills rather than Mitch’s legal skills. As they left, Brandon walked to the kitchen area, where Anna was rocking Michael, who let out a loud cry as Brandon’s cell phone rang. He answered Sebastian’s call, saying, “I have to call you back.”

“What the hell is that noise?”

“A long story,” Brandon said, taking the baby from Anna as she stood to prepare a bottle.

“I have time,” Sebastian said.

“I don’t. I have a house full of lawyers,” Brandon said, “and a crying baby.”

Michael cried again. Sebastian asked, “Who thought it was a good idea to bring a baby to your house?”

“Let me call you in a few hours.”

“Don’t forget, because now you’ve got me curious.”

Brandon took the bottle from Anna, made sure Michael was going to start taking it, then returned to the study with Michael and Jett. He introduced his son to Steve, one of his more experienced junior partners, and Noel, a third year associate. Brandon sat and fed Michael and listened.

The Alford case had bad injuries and decent facts for liability. The trial was to begin on Thursday and would last at least three trial days. They talked jury strategy and, when the bottle was empty, Brandon stood, placed Michael against his shoulder, and patted his back.

“Pretend I’m a distracted judge,” he said, “and give me your opening.” When Steve completed the argument, Michael’s burp filled the silence. “Success,” Brandon said, “all around.”

Brandon had promised Steve and Noel his undivided attention and, after depositing Michael with Anna, for three hours he gave it to them. At three in the morning, Steve and Noel packed their litigation bags and left.

He wondered whether he should try for sleep. After checking on Michael, who was snoozing, he climbed the stairs, then paused at the threshold of his bedroom, which had been completed after Amy’s death. Until tonight, it hadn’t been a place for sex, not with anyone. He kept condoms there, but they were for taking elsewhere. More often than a place for sleeping, his bedroom was a solitary space where his thoughts drifted to what his life would have been had he stopped working on April 5th, five years earlier, and driven Amy, his witty, sharp, compassionate wife to the birthday party. He either would have avoided the accident that had stolen his soul, or he would have died with her. Either scenario was better than what he was left with, a life without his precious wife and their unborn child, and guilt over their deaths.

Tonight, his bedroom’s hue wasn’t of distant, fading memories, and it wasn’t about missing what could have been. The normally neat bed linens were in a disarray. He bet that he’d be able to smell Taylor’s perfume on the sheets.

A virgin.

He wasn’t going near the bed until Esme changed the linens in the morning. Taylor had said that she was ready to lose her virginity.

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