by Wood, Lauren
“Good, glad you’re here.” He shot straight past me to unlock his office door. “Come in and sit down.”
I stepped inside sheepishly, and he immediately barked for me to shut the door behind me. This was not good. He seemed angry and snippy with me. There’s no way he didn’t know about me and Eric. I could see it all going down...him confronting me about our involvement, chastising me for not being upfront about the conflict of interest, then informing me that not only would I not be made partner, but I was also being fired.
It was hard not to cry as George settled in and peered at me over his glasses. He had a stack of paperwork in front of him that he had just finished reading over. Oh God, had he already had my termination papers drawn up?
“We need to talk about Eric Halstead.”
My stomach was turning flips, enough to nearly make me sick. I bit my bottom lip, resisting the urge to start blurting out a confession. I was not about to be the child that gave themselves away before they even knew what they were being accused of.
“The FBI sent this to me yesterday evening.” He slid some of the papers from his stack across his desk.
Would the FBI know about our affair? Had they been tracking him and seen us together...seen him coming and going from my apartment? The idea of them ratting us out to George was the worst possible scenario. Could I be disbarred for this kind of thing!?
But I swallowed down my questions enough to start reading. It was informing us of some things that had been uncovered during their investigation. They were preparing to press their official charges, if we could not disprove any of their findings. The words seemed to blur on the pages making them impossible to read.
“I’m sorry,” I shook my head and pressed my fingers to my eyes. “It’s early, and I don’t seem to be seeing straight. What is all this about?”
“It would appear as though there is some serious evidence suggesting that Eric was a part of an investing scheme that cost a lot of hard-working people their life savings,” he explained with disapproval. “This could be the thing that brings this whole case down.”
I sat back in the chair, trying to catch my breath. I was relieved that we hadn’t been caught, but this information was potentially far worse. I suddenly felt so stupid for not seeing this as a possibility. I had been so wrapped up in trying to keep my romantic notions about Eric separate from the case, that I neglected to consider what it would mean if he really was found guilty of something.
“Liz? Did you hear me?” he snapped. “I know this isn’t the smooth sailing we were hoping for, but now is not the time to lose focus. I need you to fix this. You need to review all of this, and see if there’s anything we can do before it moves on to formal charges against him. If the Halsteads don’t walk out this thing free and clear, we’ve lost them as clients.”
My mouth went dry as I thought to myself, I’ve lost Eric as a lot more than just a client if they don’t walk out of this free and clear.
“Yes, sir,” I tried to pull myself together. “I will get on it right away. I’m sure there is something I can do.”
“Let’s hope so,” he sighed, throwing his glasses to his desk as he drug a hand across his face, “because right now it doesn’t look good.”
I gathered up everything that had been sent over and walked out of his office, feeling like I had been punched in the stomach. I had been angry with Eric before, but never like this. I felt duped. He had managed to change my opinion about him, all while knowing he had screwed middle class people out of their hard-earned money - just so he could hoard more money than he’d ever need. I didn’t want it to be true.
23
Eric
I was starting to panic when several more days went by without a word from Liz. I knew she said she needed time to think, but I was starting to get worried she was pushing me away again. We had come too far to start all over again from square one.
By Wednesday, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to see her, and I felt like she needed to see me too. If she was getting it into her head that she was going to run from me again, maybe just looking into my eyes and hearing my voice would remind her why she ever started to let me in initially.
I called one of my cars around to take me to her apartment. It had been over a week since that blissful weekend we spent together, and I was desperately aching for more of that with her. I knocked and waited, but there was no answer. I could hear the floor creaking and saw her shadow moving from underneath the door.
“Come on, Liz, open up. I know you’re in there. I can see you.”
She finally flung the door open, and I could immediately tell something was very wrong. She looked strung out with big circles under her eyes. I wanted to hold her in my arms to make it better, whatever was wrong, but the minute I reached for her she pushed me away.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she scolded as she slammed the door shut behind me.
“Are we back to that again? I just wanted to make sure you were alright. I haven’t heard from you in days, and I was starting to get worried.”
“Oh, we’re far beyond just being back there again,” she fumed as she rushed to gather piles of paperwork up from her coffee table and put them away. “You’re not allowed to see any of this yet. Didn’t Dominic tell you? There’s a meeting at our office tomorrow morning. You’re all supposed to be there.”
“Well yeah, he told me, but I didn’t really think anything of it. I thought it was just an update on the case. What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
“It’s an update alright,” she crossed her arms, looking like she might cry. I tried to go to her again, but she pushed me away. Then she turned to me with a look of pure hatred, enough to turn my blood cold. “Did you run a ponzi scheme through Halstead Corporation?”
“What!? No! Of course not!”
“Two years ago,” she continued, ripping the papers back out of her bag to start citing off dates and facts and figures. “You signed off on this. Do you remember?”
She shoved a photocopied document into my hands. It was a sign off on some sort of new stock that we were going to start pushing. It was put together by a team of our people, but I didn’t know any of them too well. I studied it carefully, noting my signature at the bottom of the page.
“I mean, yeah...I did sign this, but I don’t remember anything about it. I sign stuff all day long. I can’t always read every little thing carefully. It’s supposed to be vetted before it ever even makes it to my desk.”
I thought back to the timeline. I remembered it was a stressful time. Jason had just lost Anna, and I was leaving the country as much as possible to avoid all the grief. It was hard to see him go through that. The date I signed it I would have been in between trips - just popping in long enough to satisfy Dominic, who was always complaining about how absent I had been.
I tried to explain all of this to Liz, hating the way her expression melted into disappointment. That fond, dreamy look I had managed to coax out of her before was long gone. Now she was looking at me like I was a total stranger, and one she didn’t care for at that.
“Please, you have to believe me. I never would have signed off on something like that on purpose. It’s not my fault. They need to go after the guys that put this whole thing together...not me.”
“It’s really astounding that your brothers trust you with anything at all, you know that? Of course this is all going to come down on you! On paper it looks like you were the one who schemed this whole thing up! Those guys were just your little minions carrying out your bidding, and that doesn’t make you any less liable!”
“Well, how much money are we talking about here?”
“Enough for this to be a federal crime!” Something in her shifted as she said the words. She started sobbing, turning from anger to sadness in a split second.
“Don’t cry,” I begged, rushing to her. I knew she wanted to push me away again, but she was too upset. She melted into me, crying into my shoulder.
“I was just really starting
to come around to you. Then this had to come up and...now I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
I took her face between my hands and demanded for her to look me in the eyes. “You have to know I would never do anything like this on purpose. I may not care about business in the way I should have, but I would never knowingly swindle people out of their money.”
“The FBI and the judge and the jury aren’t going to care if you did it on purpose or not.”
“I don’t care if they do. I only care about what you believe...what you think. Please tell me you believe me, Liz. Do you think I’m the type of person who would do something like that?”
She wouldn’t answer. She just fell back to my shoulder, sobbing. I wished that I could go back to that day and not sign the paper, just to save her from these tears.
24
Liz
All of the Halstead brothers are intimidating men. I’ve known this from the first time we were all gathered in the meeting room together. They’re each ridiculously handsome in their own ways, and they have that rich, powerful vibe about them mixed in with a certain level of cockiness that makes you unsure if you want to slap them or kiss them.
But as George and I spelled out the potential charges against Eric, I saw a whole new level to them that was enough to knock the wind out of you. They went from being aloof, smug, good looking guys in suits to being these dead serious tycoons who were willing to do whatever it took to look out for themselves.
Dominic’s face darkened to alarming proportions, and I could just see the frustration with his brother boiling up inside. Jason looked the same, and Jesse looked more terrified that the same kind of thing could happen to him before this was all over with. They each had an eerie cool and quiet way of expressing their anxieties. It was sort of like watching a ticking bomb and feeling on edge about which way it was going to explode. They wouldn’t yell at anyone, but they definitely didn’t hesitate to snap at any one of us with their sharp, condescending tones and make you feel like a small child.
I was used to behavior like this from big powerful men getting in trouble with the law, but some of the interns and newer attorneys at the firm didn’t have the stomach for it. I could see that they were just waiting for this to be over so they could run and hide in the bathroom to cry.
In the middle of it all was Eric, who was the hardest to read. He seemed accepting - like he knew he had fucked up and was just patiently waiting to see what consequences there would be. I tried not to stare at him too much as he sat there with a blank face and quiet resolve.
George didn’t do much to foster a sense of optimism that I could tell Dominic and Jason were so desperately wanting. He took his glasses off and changed his tone to one of getting straight down to business.
“What we have to do now is damage control. These charges will be filed against Eric...you can be sure of that. We have to work to minimize what happens from there. Most importantly, trying to ensure that they don’t lock all of your bank accounts and arrest Eric. We have to find alternative bargaining chips to keep you from behind bars,” George stated plainly.
“Behind bars!?” Dominic huffed. “That’s just great. So, you’re telling us, it’s that bad...and there’s nothing you can do to make these charges go away?”
George was slow to answer, so I took my chance to cut in. “If we could prove Eric’s innocence...then, of course, that would change everything,” I offered.
Dominic, Jason, and Jesse’s heads all swiveled around to me in shock. George looked quite stunned too, just not in a good way. I could tell he was aching to talk to me in private when this meeting was over.
“Well, yes...but…,” George cleared his throat. “Are you innocent? You signed off on the documents, correct?”
Eric just nodded silently.
“But he didn’t know what he was signing,” I defended. “Look, he makes no secret of the fact that he has never had a big interest in his family’s business. That’s why he’s planning to get out of it as soon as this is all over. He made some sloppy mistakes along the way, but…”
“Unfortunately, when you are in a position such as yours, it doesn’t matter whether you like your job or not. You’re still liable for sloppy mistakes,” George clarified, shooting me a look of death from the other side of the table. “You’ll have to forgive Liz, gentleman. We have all been working very hard to salvage this thing, and it’s getting to some of us...apparently.”
I should have shut up after that, if I even had to be stupid enough to start proclaiming Eric’s innocence at all. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I still wasn’t even sure if I believed in his innocence, but I did know it was my job as his lawyer to fight for that idea tooth and nail. But while doing so, I earned myself looks of suspicion from every one of my co-workers. Even the other Halstead brothers kept darting their eyes over to me in strange ways. The tension in the room was thick enough to choke you, and it only kept building.
After many stammering, uncomfortable defenses and explanations from opposing viewpoints all around the room, followed by equally awkward long, heavy silences, George brought the meeting to a conclusion.
“You all know what’s going on now. We’ll keep working and communicating with the investigators as much as we can, and we’ll be in touch as soon as we know anything.” He didn’t hesitate to turn towards me and bark in a rather humiliating tone. “Liz, I’d like to see you in my office. Now.”
He stormed out and the other attorneys whispered amongst themselves as they gathered their things. I packed my bag up slowly, unable to resist lingering in the room. For one, to avoid George. And second, to see what would happen between the brothers. I could tell Dominic was about to lay into Eric the way George was about to lay into me.
Eric was terrible at hiding things. He kept his eyes glued to me, trying to think of any appropriate thing he could say.
“Thanks for sticking up for me,” he offered in a way that was far too intimate.
I stiffened and tried to regain my professionalism to save face. “Yes, well...let’s just hope that you’re worth it, Mr. Halstead. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”
25
Eric
“Unbelievable,” Dominic fumed as he stormed off down the street. “You’re...you’re really something else, Eric.”
“What?” I waved my arms innocently. I knew what he was mad about, but I wasn’t going to say it until he did.
He whipped around on the busy sidewalk, stopping long enough to give Jesse and Jason a chance to catch up. He got in my face with his neck turning red and his teeth clenched. It was the kind of anger he would never show to anyone else. Only me and my brothers would ever see this side of him.
“You’re fucking that lawyer,” he growled in disbelief, trying his best to keep his voice down.
Liz and I hadn’t been around people much together since the weekend we spent together. I don’t think either of us realized that the chemistry had built up to a point that was hard to hide from others. Combine that with the fact that she relentlessly defended the idea of my innocence, and everyone in the room was suspicious. I had a feeling my brothers picked up on it. I just thought we’d make it into the car, at least, before it came up.
I stared back at Dominic blankly. I wanted to deny it, but I wasn’t sure if there was much point. I was a terrible liar when my brothers put me on the spot. Plus I felt a little like a sick dog getting kicked. It wasn’t bad enough that I felt humiliated over this stupid mistake causing everyone so much trouble, but now all my other indiscretions were coming to light as well.
“Unbelievable!” he shouted again. My lack of immediate response told him everything he needed to know.
We marched on to the car waiting for us on the corner and each filed in. We sat in our own separate corners as far away from each other as possible.
“Do you have any idea how bad this is?” Jason asked finally.
“It doesn’t seem to be looking good,” I answered dryly, staring out
the window.
“Even if they could have found some way to get you off the hook for this whole investment scheme thing, which by the way - great job on that one, brother,” Jason’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “How do you think this is going to play out with you sleeping with her!? She’s defending your innocence now, but when she hates your guts in a week because you screw her over...you realize you’re going to jail, right? She’ll make sure of that.”
“It’s not like that,” I argued.
“Then what is it like!?” Dominic demanded. “Please enlighten us on how you didn’t mean to screw innocent people out of their money with a fraudulent scheme all under the company’s name, which I am the CEO of, by the way...and what they’re not talking about yet is my own liability in this whole thing. But on top of that, you’re going to sit here and tell us...what? That you accidentally fell inside of our lawyer!? The person who now holds your fate in her hands!?”
“No, I absolutely meant for that to happen,” I laughed a little, quickly swallowing it down when they each craned their necks to me. Now was not the time for joking. “It’s different. I’m not going to do anything to mess this up. And Liz is a professional. She’s not going to let her feelings for me affect any of this in a negative way.”
“Unbelievable,” Dominic murmured yet again.
“It’s actually very believable,” Jason raved. “And you know...I’ve kept my mouth shut about all of your jet-setting, womanizing bullshit until now. But when our lives and the fate of our father’s business hangs in the balance? That’s when I can’t keep quiet anymore. Really, Eric...you couldn’t have kept it in your pants just this once!?”
Finally, Jesse, who had been quiet all morning, leaned forward. He spoke to me in a hushed tone, as if that did anything to keep Dominic and Jason from hearing, “Wait...so, is this the girl you’ve been going on about? The one you’ve fallen for?”