by Ali Vali
As Hurricane Katrina ravages New Orleans, attorney Tully Badeaux's life follows suit when betrayal leads to heartbreak...
Tully Gaston Badeaux might be successful in the courtroom but at home her relationships with her partner, Dr. Jessica Badeaux, and their children are falling apart.
In one life-changing moment precipitated by a spilled cup of coffee, the world Tully had so carefully constructed comes to an end. As Tully struggles to pick up the pieces, two women add to the complications—Dr. Kara Nicolas, the woman who stole her wife, and Libby Dexter, the young woman who moves in to assist Tully with the kids. Kara becomes her focus in the courtroom, and Libby offers more than a helping hand around the house.
Second Season
Ali Vali
Chapter One
“Ugh.” Tully Gaston Badeaux studied herself in the large mirror in the master bathroom, wondering where her trim waistline had gone. “Wherever the hell it is, it’s there sunning itself with the hair that used to be dark.”
“Did you say something? You’re mumbling again. Are you practicing another closing argument?”
Tully could barely hear Jessica Badeaux’s questions through the closed door, since her lover was getting dressed in the adjoining walk-in closet.
“No.” Tully sucked in her stomach, raised her arms, and flexed her biceps. She was beginning to be depressed. “Forty sucked when it finally rolled around, and adding another couple of years didn’t help.”
“Now I know you said something. I can hear you talking.” Jessica opened the bathroom door to finish her makeup and hair before she pulled on silk underwear and a white blouse, figuring her partner was done since she rarely if ever bothered with makeup.
In fact, it bothered Jessica how Tully had given in to her graying hair and expanding waistline. She liked that her own hair was still as dark as when they met, her weight hadn’t fluctuated much even after each pregnancy, and her face still didn’t show signs of her forty years. It didn’t matter that some of those secrets were between her and her hairdresser and dermatologist.
Tully’s gray eyes were slightly bloodshot, but Jessica noticed they still softened when she smiled and said, “Can I tell you, you’re the best-looking girl who’s wandered in here all morning?”
Tully pressed up against her and tried to kiss her, but Jessica moved away and put her hands up. “I’ve got rounds this morning.”
“I didn’t realize a good-morning kiss chewed up so much of your valuable time.” Tully’s tone, no longer teasing, now held an icy edge usually reserved for her adversaries.
Before this rebuff escalated into another argument, Tully walked away. She wasn’t in the mood for another of Jessica’s lame excuses.
Tully didn’t have to be in court that day and she hadn’t scheduled any clients, so she chose a casual blue seersucker suit. She was dressed and down the hall before Jessica finished in the bathroom.
The room at the other end of the hallway was closed, but Tully could easily hear the stereo blaring from the other side. She had to knock for three minutes before the teenaged inhabitant decided to grace her with an audience. After a few screaming matches, she and Jessica had learned it was a small price to pay to knock and wait instead of just walking in.
“What?”
“And good morning to you, sunshine,” Tully went on as if the kid was happy to see her. “Are you almost ready?”
“Why?”
“I thought you might like a ride to school, and I have time this morning.”
“Why?”
“Why what?” She detested these conversations, but figured eventually the pod people who’d stolen the cute little girl who once enjoyed bedtime stories would bring her back and retrieve the surly replacement model that had shown up the year before.
“Why would you want to?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
Bailey Badeaux continued to chew her gum, adding a few pops. “We’ll see,” she answered before closing the door.
Aware that the immediate increase in the stereo volume masked the sound, Tully banged her head softly against the wall a few times. Talking to Bailey often left her in that mood.
The last hope of restoring her faith in the reasons she’d decided to settle down and have a family rested behind the door in the middle of the hall. It opened before she could knock, and Ralph Badeaux looked up at her and smiled.
“Morning, Ralph. You ready, buddy?”
His smile widened, his face displaying the dimples that appeared when he was happy. Seeing them reminded her again of the wonders of genetics and the sense of immortality that ensued if you decided to venture into the uncertain world of parenting. The other blessing in her life was that her two brothers looked so much like her.
As Tully gazed at Ralph, she thought about how both of her children, with their height, dark hair and skin, and light gray eyes, resembled her Cajun family. They also shared her intellect, though only Ralph showed an inkling of her drive. He was also the only one who enjoyed going back to her hometown to spend time with her parents.
She’d been born in Montegut, Louisiana, to Gaston and Alma Badeaux, who both had spent a lifetime working so that Tully’s mental gifts wouldn’t go to waste. They had also expected their only daughter to pull her share of the workload on Gaston’s fishing boat, and she had, working there every summer until after she completed medical school. Then, having decided that she wanted to become a trial lawyer specializing in medical lawsuits, she completed a law degree. Mastering both disciplines had helped make her a successful civil attorney.
However, it was aboard her father’s trawler the Alma Mae that Tully had learned the value of a day’s work and the devastation when people, through no fault of their own, were injured and couldn’t put in that day’s work to feed their families. Being able to convey the impact of such tragedies to a jury while wearing a suit that cost more than most of them made in two months made her even more successful. “A hometown girl who’d hit the big time” was the way her father liked to put it whenever he had the opportunity.
“Are you taking us today?” Ralph adjusted the book bag on his back and walked quickly after her.
“Sure, unless, like your sister, you’d rather wait for your mother.”
“No, we hardly ever get to see you in the morning, so that’d be cool.”
He picked up his pace, and Tully could read his mind: he knew that if they were out of the kitchen before Jessica made it downstairs, he’d get to have Pop-Tarts for breakfast instead of whatever nutritious meal she wanted them to have.
“Chocolate or blueberry?” asked Tully, holding up two boxes.
“One of each.”
As the silver packages of sugar-coated breakfast treats slid across the counter Bailey entered the room and headed for the refrigerator. Tully could read her mind also: she wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to start her day with a Coke instead of orange juice and scrambled eggs.
“Chocolate or blueberry?” Tully asked again.
“Strawberry,” Bailey answered just to be contrary, but chuckled anyway when Tully handed over a package from another box she’d taken out of the pantry. “Let’s go, shrimp, before we get busted for something,” Bailey told Ralph.
On any normal day Tully would’ve been listening to her secretary on the speakerphone, but now the phone in her Discovery SUV was silent, though she couldn’t say the same of the CD player. After hearing the word “bitch” for the tenth time in a one-block span, she raised an eyebrow.
“Do you actually listen to what these people are saying?”
Bailey took a deep breath as if searching for patience. “Don’t start, okay?”
“Look, Bailey, as much as you’d like to believe I’m the enemy, I’m not. I don’t want to start any
thing. I’m asking you a civil question and would appreciate a mature answer that shows some respect. In turn I’ll treat you with respect. If you don’t want to answer, fine, but I’d really appreciate it if you could lower the hostility a few notches.”
Bailey glared at her for a long moment, though her brother cleared his throat in warning from the backseat. “You know what your problem is?”
“Perhaps, but I’m willing to bet you’re going to tell me.”
“You think giving us a few minutes of your time makes up for all the times you’re not with us. If you want me to respect you, then treat me like I’m as important as your precious career.”
For one so young, her argument was clear and to the point. What upset Tully was that she had nothing to counter it with. The truth, she figured, didn’t always set you free; it only put more bars on the cage you carefully constructed for yourself with the choices you made.
Silence prevailed in the SUV as the private academy that Bailey and Ralph attended loomed in front of them. Tully turned into the main drive, stopped, looked at her daughter in the front seat, and could think of nothing to say, quite a feat for someone paid for her ability to articulately string words together.
“Have a good day.” It was lame, but the best she could do.
“Thanks, Mom, you too. I have baseball practice tonight. Can you remember to tell Mama when you talk to her?” Ralph was trying to smooth things over from the backseat, a job he was taking on more and more.
“Thanks, buddy. You have a good day too, and I’ll see you both tonight.”
Tully drove away slowly, watching Bailey trudge into the building like she was entering a death chamber as Ralph patted her on the back as if trying to make her feel better. Being unable to talk to her daughter was starting to bother Tully in ways she couldn’t explain even to herself.
Chapter Two
Tully left the suburbs and headed into the city for another day in the trenches, where she tried to find justice for those wronged by the medical industry. She used her background in medicine to help select cases in which she could improve the profession by removing a bad physician, intending to make sure that doctors earned the faith that people placed in them. With her reputation, she often heard the word “settlement” immediately from the people she was up against.
The elevator quickly reached the twenty-fifth floor of the Chevron Building where Barnes, Corey, and Badeaux had their offices. The other two partners rarely went into court anymore and had been more than happy to give Tully the large corner office with a beautiful view of the Mississippi River, downtown, and the French Quarter. She knew they had long ago nicknamed her the cash cow of the office and regularly congratulated each other for giving her a chance right out of law school.
“Are you mad at me or something?” Roxanne Lemoyne asked as soon as Tully stepped into the large office suite.
The tall, slender African American in her late thirties had been with Tully almost from the time she had become a partner. Roxanne had two assistants of her own, along with a handful of paralegals and junior partners who barely got them through when Tully was in the middle of a big case.
“Not that I’m aware of. Why? Did you do something to warrant my wrath since yesterday afternoon?”
Tully flipped through a slew of messages from potential clients, grateful that none of them concerned the Duplessy case, which they had just wrapped up. She grimaced at the memory of the surgeon who had mistakenly removed a young diabetic man’s right leg instead of his left. To make things worse, he had then spent more than twenty hours trying to reattach the mistakenly amputated limb. The bungled procedure had further weakened a body already ravaged by a very unforgiving disease. Disgusted by the damage that one careless person could cause, Tully threw more than half of the message slips in the trash.
Tully wasn’t, no matter what her partner Jessica’s colleagues thought of her, an ambulance chaser. She accepted only cases of blatant medical malpractice, cases about which she usually felt strongly. After dropping her bag on the credenza behind her large desk, Tully took off her jacket and sank into her comfortable leather chair.
“What’d you do?” she asked Roxanne again.
“I didn’t do anything, thank you very much for asking. I didn’t get my usual seven thirty phone call, so I thought you ran away from home.” Roxanne’s face clouded over a bit when she took in Tully’s appearance. “Are you okay?”
“I wish I could say I’m ecstatically happy, but I’d be a liar. Sorry for not calling, but I took the kids to school and got an earful of how I’m never around and what music they listen to is none of my business.”
Roxanne scrunched her forehead. “Ralph told you that?”
“No. Those insightful words came from the next attorney in the family, Bailey.”
“What did you tell her?”
Tully swiveled a little to the right, concentrating on the busy river traffic, and exhaled deeply before answering. “I wish I could say I came back with something really clever and insightful, but part of me knows she’s right.
“My dad worked hard all his life, but I always knew in my heart of hearts how he felt about me. I understood that when he wasn’t around, he was trying to make a living for my brothers and me.” She took another deep breath and turned her head from the river to her assistant, who had long before become more of a caretaker than an employee. “Kids today, at least my kids, don’t understand that concept. Or maybe I’m just an idiot. Whatever the answer, I’m doing a lousy job communicating with them.”
“Honey, you are many things to many people, but an idiot isn’t one of them.” Roxanne strolled over and put her hand on Tully’s shoulder. “I know you just got here, but why don’t you take off for a little bit and try to clear your head?”
“Maybe later, but now we’ve got a few other things to catch up on.” Tully reached for the first file on her desk. Though the associates in the firm represented some of the cases they took, Tully liked to check their work before they reached an unsatisfactory settlement due to their lack of experience. “Why don’t you set up the guys? We’ll review files, then have a roundtable this afternoon. I want us to look at a couple of promising cases.”
“You’re on, boss.” Roxanne moved back to the other side of the desk and jotted a few notes on the pad in her hand. “Want anything? Knowing you, you had Scotch for dinner last night and Pop-Tarts for breakfast.”
“Those food items have all the vitamins and minerals growing bodies need, so don’t knock ’em.” Tully tried to joke off Roxanne’s comment, but the night before that was exactly what she’d had for dinner, along with more than a few cigarette chasers.
Ironically, she’d started smoking several years before in the middle of a ground-breaking suit she’d led against the tobacco industry on behalf of the state. In hindsight, she should have paid more attention to the findings on how quickly you could become addicted. And they’d lied about the weight loss, she thought, and smiled at her perverse private joke.
The previous night she’d fully intended to go home and celebrate her victory in the Duplessy case with her family, but when she’d arrived she discovered that Jessica had taken the kids out to dinner. Later, when they got home, they’d all filed past the closed office door, not bothering to see if she was inside.
It was just one more night when she felt no longer a part of the family she loved so much. Bailey wasn’t the only one who had grown sullen and distant. Jessica had put a barrier between them in the bedroom, and everywhere else, that was widening by the day. Tully was beginning to worry that Jessica found her touch repulsive.
“Well, you’d better start taking better care of yourself or I’m going to be having these morning meetings with you in the cardiac wing of the nearest hospital.” Roxanne left without lecturing Tully any further.
She gathered the associates as Tully had asked and sat next to her, taking notes as they went through the files. In the end two cases caught Tully’s attention, and they
started to make plans and choose teams. The associates seemed thrilled since this time around Tully said she would let them all take the lead and fight the good fight while she sat on the sideline and did her best to coach them.
“That was different,” Roxanne commented after everyone except her and Tully left the room.
“I want to have the young pups ready to venture out on their own by the time summer gets here. That way I can spend more time with Jess and the kids. What Bailey said this morning may be right. Sometime during the last year I started feeling it all slip through my fingers, and I want to stop the bleeding before it’s fatal.”
“Why don’t you start now?”
“Start what?”
Tully was amused to see Roxanne hook her jacket and hold it up.
“Get out of here and invite Jessica to lunch. When was the last time you did that?”
Tully furrowed her brow, and Roxanne laughed. “I thought so. Go on. I promise to keep the building intact in your absence.”
As Dr. Jessica Badeaux drove away from Children’s Hospital, located at the end of Tchoupitoulas Street in New Orleans, toward home, she thought about the fact that she primarily treated kids with fevers and runny noses while many staff members were experimenting with cutting-edge treatments for a multitude of illnesses. She left the exciting medicine to others, content to deal with the mundane side of healing because her father had convinced her that was the best kind of practice for a woman with children to tend to.
On most days she compared this choice to the one she’d made in her personal life. She’d left her chance for excitement when she’d decided to settle down, and just…settled. Back in college, she’d thought the life she had chosen was what she really wanted—the family, the attentive partner. It was all a young girl’s dream and what her parents had wanted for her as well.
Tully was still attentive, but lately Jessica really didn’t want her attention, and eventually she’d have to explain her feelings in acceptable terms. She just wasn’t ready for the turmoil that explanation would provoke. So for now she had to keep her desires under wraps.