Lawfully Screwed (Lawful Affair)

by Victoria Bright

  “Don’t get fucking smart with me, Mason,” he snapped. His tight jaw indicated the restraint it took for him not to yell and berate me at the office. “This is exactly why you aren’t getting this firm—”

  “And that’s perfectly fine. I thought about it over the weekend and you not giving me the firm is probably the best thing you’ve done for me,” I said honestly. The irritation that etched his face dissolved in an instant. “I spent the whole weekend thinking about what happened at dinner that night and I realized that my problem is you.”

  “Your lack of control isn’t my problem.”

  “It isn’t, but the things you put me through take me to that point,” I admitted. He scoffed and shook his head.

  “How typical of you to try to point the finger at someone else instead of taking responsibility for your own failure.”

  “It’s not pointing fingers when I’m admitting to you what I’ve learned in my meetings and after talking with my sponsor,” I countered. His eyes narrowed at me, but he didn’t respond. “What do you expect to happen when you treat people the way you’ve treated me damn near my whole life?”

  “I expected you to be better than you turned out to be.”

  “See? You’re doing it now? Me as I am right now isn’t good enough for you. Hate to break it to you, but I’m not Malcolm and I never will be. All you do is compare me to him and how I’m not him and point out every single thing you think is wrong with me. So after ripping me apart at dinner and finally shattering any hope I had of running this place, I almost thought my life was over.” I took a deep breath and steadied my breath. “But it’s okay though. Maybe it’s for the best and we just go our separate ways anyway.”

  He raised a brow at him, an incredulous look on his face as if he wasn’t taking me seriously. “Is that right? So what, you’re going to work for another firm?”

  “I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I know my time here is limited,” I answered honestly. I knew that I wanted to open a firm with Aaron, but that was none of his business. As a man who’d treated me like shit for years, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to find ways to sabotage my efforts if I were to tell him my plans.

  “Hmm,” was the only thing he said before he finally left my office without another word, leaving me confused. That wasn’t the reaction I’d expected from him when telling him I was leaving soon, but I wasn’t surprised. Now that I’d let the cat out of the bag, I now had no choice but to get serious about this new venture. Even though the thought of having my own firm with my best friend was exciting, why did I still feel iffy about the whole thing?

  Chapter 11

  “You did what?” Samson asked me with wide eyes later that evening. We walked along Main Street after the meeting, moving along with the flowing foot traffic on the sidewalk.

  “I told him I was leaving.”

  I wasn’t sure how to feel after telling my father that I’d be leaving. The original plan was to wait until everything was set in stone before telling him, but after he reminded me that I wouldn’t be getting the firm, it was like my mouth was on autopilot and I couldn’t control it. At least I didn’t tell him the plan was to go into practice on my own with Aaron.

  “What did he say?”

  “Hmm.”

  “I said what did he say?”

  “That’s what he said. He only said ‘hmm’ and walked out. I didn’t see him for the rest of the day, so I don’t know what’s going through his head.” I sighed.

  “Do you already have everything set up or something? Seems risky to tell him that if you don’t have anything in place.” Samson shook his head. “I don’t know your father, but from what you’ve told me, I wouldn’t be surprised if he does something against you just to spite you.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck. “I didn’t intend to tell him that I was leaving until I was ready to leave. But then I…it’s a long story.”

  Samson smirked at me. “And we have time. Start talking.”

  I reiterated the conversation I had with my father, telling him how he still didn’t take responsibility for the part he played in my addiction. Samson held up a hand to stop me.

  “That’s a good thing you did. You’ve acknowledged that he’s your trigger. Even though telling him that didn’t have much of an effect, at least you know that and are taking the necessary steps to remove yourself from it.”

  I nodded. “Right. With the meetings and everything, I realize that every time I had an episode, it was always after a hard day at work with him busting my balls or having some kind of fight with him outside of work. I used to think it was my brother, but he doesn’t control my father’s actions.” I put my hands in my pockets. “I still have this nagging feeling that leaving the firm would make me seem like I’m disloyal to my family, you know?”

  “I get it. Stepping away from family can be hard, but sometimes they can be the most toxic ones in your life.”

  “Yeah.” We walked in silence for a few moments. A public transit bus stopped at the bus stop next to us. I swallowed the lump forming in my throat as I saw the billboard of my father and me on the side of it advertising Carter Law. “Sometimes I wonder if it’s a good business move.”

  Samson cocked his head to the side a bit. “To venture out on your own?”

  “Yeah. I mean everyone knows me as Maxwell Carter’s son. Once I’m on my own, everyone will probably be asking me why I’m not working for him anymore. And God only knows what he’ll tell clients when they realize I’m not there anymore.”

  Samson was quiet for a moment. “I don’t have much advice for you on that front because I’ve never been in this kind of situation. All I can tell you is that you have to believe in yourself, your abilities, and your plan for recovery. Change is never easy and it may be an uncomfortable adjustment, especially since the family firm is the only one you’ve worked for.”

  “You’re right. I think it’s just inklings of insecurities over the years.” My throat tightened. My father always made me feel as if I wasn’t good enough in anything I did, even more so when I started working for the firm. My mind was pulling all of my insecurities to the forefront despite the success I’d achieved. Are you going to be good enough on your own? What if people only came to you because you were Maxwell’s son? If your own father doesn’t think you’re worthy enough for recognition, why would the general public think so? Hell, he doesn’t even think you can handle running the firm when he retires; do you think you’ll be able to run your own?

  “The mind is a dangerous place,” Samson said, bringing me out of my musings. “Get out of it.”

  “Right.” We turned back around to head back to the church. “Can I ask you something?”

  “What’s up?”

  “When you started your business, was it before or after you’d got a hold of your addiction?”

  He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “It was during actually. It was probably a couple of months after I’d cut my mom off. I had to think about what it was that I wanted for my life and I knew that being addicted to sex wasn’t it. I wanted something else that could showcase what I could do, something I could be proud of no matter what anyone else said. So I pooled my whole life savings into something I still had doubts on, but I made it work.”

  “Why’d you have doubts?”

  “I didn’t know the first thing about running a business. I knew how to do construction, but not managing a construction business itself. I didn’t have enough money to really hire someone good enough to handle that, so it was a learning experience as I went along.” He looked over at me and grinned. “It turned out to be the best decision of my life. I’ve met amazing people, my company grew, I met the love of my life, and I’m completely happy with how life turned out.”

  “I was thinking yesterday how inspiring it was for you to be so successful with everything you’d had to go through. I’m sure it makes the journey worth it.”

  “Of course it does. Nothing’s worth having if you haven’t fo
ught for it.”

  I smiled, never hearing words more true. “Well, I guess I need to have a talk with my future partner to get this show on the road. It seems like things are falling into place right now. Aaliyah is back in my life, I’ve finally started standing up to my dad, and I feel like I’m slowly getting a grip on my addiction. I don’t feel so…controlled by it right now, you know?”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Samson said with a chuckle. “You’ll have good and bad days. The real test is how you handle the bad days.”

  I waved him off and laughed. “Thanks for bursting my bubble. I was trying to be positive.”

  He clasped my shoulder and gave me a playful shake. “My bad, man. It’s my job to be realistic.”

  “I know, I know.” We finally reached the parking lot of the church, walking over to our cars.

  “Oh yeah, Faith wanted to know if you wanted to come by for dinner later this week. She said she learned a new recipe that she wants to try.”

  “If it’s anything like that steak she made, you can definitely count me in.” I patted my stomach. “I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.”

  Samson laughed. “I’ll tell her. She asked that you invite your friend as well.”

  “I’ll ask her and let you know.”

  “Cool. See you later, man,” he said and got into his car. I slipped into my car and pulled out my phone, calling Aaliyah.

  “Hello?” she answered.

  “Hey beautiful,” I said, unable to stop the smile that formed on my lips upon hearing her voice. “How are you?”

  “I’m…okay.” She was hesitant, and her voice sounded a bit flat.

  “Is this a bad time?”

  “Um…kind of, but it’s okay. Hold on a second.” She said something I couldn’t understand to someone in the background and then the line went mute, as if she’d hung up. I looked at my screen, still seeing her call. After a few moments, she cleared her throat. “Sorry about that. So what’s going on?”

  “I was with my sponsor after a meeting and he and his fiancée invited the both of us to dinner. Wanted to see if you would do me the honor of coming with me?”

  She was silent for so long I was sure she hung up. “They invited me?”

  “Yeah,” I said slowly, confused about all the hesitation in our conversation.

  “What did they say?”

  “What do you mean what did they say?”

  “Like…how did they invite me? As your girlfriend or what?”

  I chuckled. “Nah. I told them we were friends right now. I told them about you when I had dinner with them last night, so they want to meet the woman I spoke so highly of.”

  “Oh.”

  “Oh?”

  “This is with the guy I saw you with the one time, right?”

  “Yeah, Samson.”

  “I see. Well, thank you for the invitation, but I um…things are a little hectic right now with work because we’re short a few girls, so I’m pulling some extra shifts and stuff.”

  I fought the urge to grind my teeth. Now that we were starting over, the thought of her sleeping with other men for money didn’t sit well with me at all. Hell, I didn’t like it when she showed up to my room as my escort, but the only thing I cared about back then was that she was in my presence again.

  I sighed deeply. “You know we’re going to have to eventually talk about that, right?” I asked, my voice low.

  “About what?”

  “You know what I’m talking about. About you being an escort.”

  She groaned. “Mason, it’s what I do. You knew that before you agreed to start over.”

  “We can find you something else. I don’t know how good it’ll look if I’m trying to start a firm and word gets out that someone I’m seeing is a paid escort.”

  “Ah, well I’m sorry if I’ll ruin your perfect image, Mason. Maybe you should find someone else then.”

  “Aaliyah, that’s not what I meant—”

  “That’s what you said,” she snapped. “Look, I have to go. I won’t be able to go to the dinner, but thanks anyway.”

  “Aaliyah—”

  She hung up without another word, leaving me a bit flabbergasted and confused. I hadn’t meant to offend her, but I thought she would understand what I meant. If I was venturing out on my own, I needed to keep my image and reputation intact. I was even making sure to stay out of sexual scandals that could stick to me and affect Aaron’s decision of partnering with me. I tossed my phone into the cup holder next to me a frustrated huff and finally headed home.

  *

  Work was busy for the most part of the week. On Wednesday, Joseph came to me to go over our strategy for the motion we’d be filing in court tomorrow. He hadn’t said much during the entire meeting, simply nodding and agreeing with mostly everything I said. It made me nervous. After seeing him in Samson’s client album next to a woman who looked eerily like Aaliyah, a part of me thought he might’ve caught wind about Aaliyah and me and was now pissed. He would’ve confronted you by now if he knew. Wouldn’t make sense to keep paying money to a man fucking his wife, the logical part of me thought.

  “Everything okay, Mr. Wilde? You don’t seem too happy about this,” I finally said. He leaned back in his seat and shook his head.

  “No, no. The plan is good. I just…I’ve been thinking about asking for something else if it can be done.”

  I folded my hands on top of my desk. “What do you have in mind?”

  His eyes wandered around the room as he spoke. “I’ve been getting pictures back from the private investigator, but I don’t think they’ll be enough. Even though I know it’s not me in the photos, you can’t see any the guys’ face and they all seem to be white men in dress shirts. I’m not sure how much that’ll help me.”

  “Okay,” I said, trying to figure out where the hell he was heading with this.

  “So…I wanted to know if the judge was able to order someone to have a physical or something.”

  “A…physical? Medical physical?”

  “Yeah, one of those.”

  “Any particular reason?”

  “To see if she picked something up from one of those guys or ended up pregnant or something. I at least want a backup plan in case the pictures don’t pan out in our favor.”

  “Okay, so doing this will change the strategy a bit. We could still submit photos, but if you don’t think they’re strong enough right now, I’d hold off. I’ll say that we ask to hold off on the alimony talk pending a medical physical. Sound good?”

  His tightened posture relaxed a little at the plan. “Perfect.”

  “Now you know that you may also be asked to have a physical yourself if you’re testing for STDs and such. That way if you were to do one and she doesn’t, it would make your case against her stronger.”

  “Right, right. Whatever it takes.” He stood and extended his hand to me. “Thanks so much, Mason. I’m feeling confident in what we’re planning to do.”

  I smiled and gave his hand a firm shake. “That’s my job. I’ll see you bright and early in court tomorrow.”

  He gave me a parting nod and exited my office, leaving me alone in my thoughts. I opened my texts on my phone and found Aaliyah’s thread. I hadn’t heard from her since talking to her a couple of days ago.

  Mason: Hey. Wanted to make sure you were alright. I didn’t mean to upset you.

  I hit send and watched my phone until I saw that she’d seen it. My heart quickened when I saw her responding to it.

  Aaliyah: I know. I’m just going through a lot right now and took it out on you. Sorry.

  Mason: Wanna talk about it over dinner?

  Aaliyah: It’s not something that I really want to talk about, but I will eat dinner with you.

  Mason: My place or somewhere public?

  Aaliyah: Your place is fine.

  “Mase, the meeting is about to start,” Aaron said, knocking on the doorframe. I gathered the documents for the case and followed Aaron to t
he meeting room where Mr. and Mrs. Kent sat along with Mrs. Kent’s lawyer. She must’ve not been too happy with the Judge’s ruling on the first motion, as a new lawyer sat next to her.

  “Good afternoon, everyone,” I said, shaking hands with Mr. Kent and Mrs. Kent’s lawyer. She turned her nose up at me when I got to her and I fought to suppress a chuckle. I’d probably be upset if I lost against myself, too.

  “Thank you for being able to meet with us on such short notice,” her lawyer started. “I’m Gary Campbell and I just substituted into this case. From what I’ve read from the previous attorney’s notes, Mr. Kent was ordered to pay a different amount than the one my client originally filed for?”

  “Correct,” I answered.

  “And now we’re discussing visitation rights for two teenage children,” he said with a quirked eyebrow. I smirked at him. It was a stupid idea to be fighting over teens old enough to make their own decisions. Gary shook his head. “Okay then. My client is proposing that Mr. Kent can get them on rotating holidays—”

  “That’s not enough time!” Mr. Kent bellowed, glaring at his wife, who looked indifferent.

  “Actually, Mr. Kent thought that they should alternate weekends and major holidays,” Aaron said.

  “I don’t want him to have the kids every weekend,” Mrs. Kent complained. “What if I have something planned with them?”

  “It would be every other weekend, you dumb—”

  “David,” I warned, narrowing my eyes at him.

  He blew out a breath. “Sorry.”

  “What David was trying to say is that you’d be alternating weekends just like you would holidays. You’d have them one weekend and he’d have them the next. Same with holidays; if you have them for Thanksgiving, and he’d have them for Christmas.”

  Mrs. Kent rolled her eyes. “Whatever. But he’s not to come to my house when he’s drunk and I want him to be required to attend AA meetings in order to continue seeing the kids.”