Chapter Text
The glass door opened and she stopped her strumming, turning her head to look at the person casually walking into her office.
“When are you going to get better with that thing?” Andy took a seat on one of the large chairs in front of Maya’s desk.
“Soon, impatient one. Soon.” Maya put the guitar down gently to the left of her chair, leaning it against her tall shelf.
“Have you been watching Star Wars again?”
“It was the only decent thing to watch last night. Don’t diss it. Yoda is proof that shorties are wise.”
Andy rolled her eyes. “I’m wise in spite of my height. And I don’t need to wear some burlap sack or have green skin and wrinkles or talk complicatedly to prove it.”
“Well then, wise one. Why are you here?” Maya leaned back on her big leather chair.
“Heard the settlement’s in for the Smith case.”
Maya nodded. “Big fat check coming your way.”
“You mean our way.”
Maya shrugged.
“Good job as always, Maya.” Andy clasped her hands. “I have another case for you.”
“Oh?”
“Now I know you might slightly be reluctant about cases like this,” Andy carefully said. “But I need your help on this. I need the best and you’re the best.”
“I don’t like where this is going.” Maya started to frown. “Why don’t you handle it yourself?”
“I wish I could but I’m handling two cases right now and you know how painful one of them is.”
“That lawsuit against that pacemaker company thing?”
“Yep.”
Maya tilted her head and looked at her friend.
“Don’t give me that look, Maya. I’m not feeding you to the lions.”
“Bears? Alligators? Sharks?”
Andy rolled her eyes again. “It’s quite a simple case but it’s high profile and top priority.” She calmly looked at her friend.
Maya took a deep breath. She knew Andy was using her ‘we’re best friends, Maya’ card along with ‘but you’re the best, Maya’ combo. “What is it?”
“Divorce.”
Maya’s expression didn’t change. “I thought we talked about this?”
“We did! And you know I respect our agreement but this one is different.”
“How different?”
“For starters, the plaintiff is one of my best friends.”
“I thought all your best friends work here?”
“We were very close in high school. Before I met you and those other dorks.” Andy paused to formulate her next sentence carefully. “Have you ever heard of Timothy Evans?”
“What do you think I am? A caveman? Of course I’ve heard of the national MC! The all-around good guy.” Maya observed her friend’s face. “Don’t tell me it’s him? You’re best friends with a top ranked celebrity?”
“No.”
“Ah.” Maya understood. “His wife?”
Andy nodded.
“Wait. I thought his wife was some socialite businesswoman or something?”
“Yep. Carina. Italian. Carina DeLuca.”
“Wait a minute. I think I read about her somewhere. Isn’t that DeLuca…” Maya tried to remember. “Is it the same DeLuca as in DeLuca Industries?” Maya tapped her phone – silently asking for Andy’s confirmation.
Andy nodded again. “I got loads of freebies from her. Even my current phone.”
“What?! And you never told me?!”
“It’s for me, not for you.”
“I can’t believe you. I thought we were best friends. Apparently high school best friend beats law school best friend. I’m hurt, Andy.” Maya shook her head in mock exasperation and let out a loud sigh.
Andy ignored the act. “So you’ll take it?” It was actually a rhetorical question.
“Nope.” Maya straightened up in her seat.
“Maya…”
“I thought we agreed that I won’t be taking any divorce cases after I’m made partner.”
“We did-…”
“Have a good day then.” Maya swiveled her chair to grab hold of her guitar again.
“Maya.”
Maya recognized Andy’s firm tone but chose to ignore it. She started adjusting her fingers on the neck of the instrument, pressing the strings against the frets and strumming softly with her right thumb.
“Do not make me use my authority and power as founding partner. I don’t want to do that.”
Maya stopped her strumming for a second. “Ask Vic.”
“Can’t.”
“Ross.”
“Full.”
“Ask someone else.”
Andy sighed. “I need the best. Best lawyer and also, best friend. Plus, you don’t have any other case right now.”
“Then give me one. But not this though,” she added quickly.
Andy stood up. “Travis will give you the files later. Your first meeting will be at two. My office.”
Maya didn’t look up. “Definitely not Yoda. Darth Vader? Hitler? Stalin?”
“No jokes, Maya.” Andy pulled the door open. “This means a lot to me. I trust no one else.” She walked out.
Maya shook her head and started to hum along with the sounding chords.
----
“You’re late,” Andy said after she stopped talking with the young woman sitting across her.
“I apologize.” Maya kept her professionalism. “One of the elevators got stuck between the tenth and eleventh floor so it was quite a long wait downstairs with the after-lunch rush and only two working elevators left.” It was true but she did choose to wait until everyone else had gotten on before she finally went upstairs.
The young woman turned around in her chair and Maya bowed.
“This is Carina.” Andy introduced them. “Carina, this is Atty. Maya Bishop. Senior partner and my best friend.”
“I thought I was your best friend?” Carina turned to face Andy again.
Maya took a seat next to Carina and set the folder and her pen on the desk.
“I’ve told you about Maya many times,” Andy said.
“I know. I’m just kidding.” The woman smiled a little.
Maya cleared her throat. “Shall we get started?”
Andy threw a split-second sharp glare at Maya. “I think Carina should explain to you what’s going on.”
Maya spun her chair slightly to her right and leaned back a bit. “If you please, Miss DeLuca?”
Carina hesitated. She glanced at Andy and the latter nodded. “Maya’s the best we have. Besides me, of course. And I trust her. You know I won’t give you anyone but the best.”
“Then why can’t you handle my case?”
Maya raised her eyebrows at the blatantly honest question.
Andy took a deep breath. “I told you, to have someone with no relation to you whatsoever will give a more objective view on the matter and may help strengthen your case. Otherwise, your husband’s lawyers could dismiss anything I say or do as just an effort to defend my best friend.”
“What more strengthening do we need?! I have proof! He cheated on me! Ancora!”
Maya observed everything quietly.
“You know we need to have more than just your word and a women’s perfume smelling shirt, Carina. Remember what we’re trying to do here. He’s going to fight for his money. The lawyers he’s hired are good too, you know.”
Andy then gestured towards Maya, encouraging Carina to tell her lawyer what was going on.
Carina sighed and finally turned to look at Maya again. “Well, I think you’ve pretty much gotten the gist. He cheated on me again and this time I’m not letting him get away with it.” She paused, gritting her teeth. She cleared her throat and straightened up in her chair, slightly flipping her long and wavy hair back.
“Do you have a pre-nup?” Maya opened her folder and started to scribble.
Carina winced a bit. “Yes…” She gulped.
Andy shot Maya another sharp look.
Maya suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. “I’m sorry, Miss DeLuca. I understand how difficult this must be for you.” They were just standard polite words she used on most her clients. She knew the type anyway. Rich, successful and beautiful people who would do anything to get back at anyone who hurt their pride or stood in their way. It was why she never wanted to handle divorces again. Each case was always so dramatically and exaggeratedly draining. She had gotten to a point where she never even wanted to be in any serious relationship with anyone. She had lost faith in the so-called love and specifically marriage. It seemed that every loving couple would just end up in court or in some corporate conference room, shouting nasty hurtful words at each other.
“No need for the fake sympathy, Attorney.” Carina had resumed her strict business demeanor.
Touché.
“I take it that the pre-nup isn’t enough?”
“There’s a clause that states that should any of us cheated, the disadvantaged spouse would have a right to receive compensation from shared possessions obtained during the marriage,” Carina said.
“I see.” Maya noted down a few more things. “And this is what we’re after, I assume?”
Carina was looking at Maya with her head slightly tilted to one side and her brows furrowed. “Andy… Andy… I’m still your friend, right?” She then turned to look at the puzzled woman across the large desk.
“Yes?”
“Then give me someone else. Someone who’s less cynical and who hasn’t made up her mind about who I am without even knowing me or my life.”
“Carina…”
Carina abruptly stood up. “Let me know if you’ve found someone else.” She shouldered her bag. “I’ll see you.”
Maya put down her pen and clasped her hands together, swiveling around in her chair to look at the slowly closing door for a few more seconds before she turned around to find an obviously unhappy Andy.
“Maya…” Andy’s tone was dangerous.
“What did I do? You know I did nothing wrong. I kept it professional.”
“You could try to be a bit more sincere.”
Maya shrugged. “This is why I don’t do divorces anymore.”
“I am trusting you with my best friend here. Work with me, Maya. It wasn’t even her fault, okay? He’s a player! Everyone thinks he’s super nice or a simple family guy. That side of him died when he started to become famous.” Andy leaned back in her chair. “Carina said that this is his second time cheating on her. Truth is, I’ve lost count a few years back.”
Maya waited for more explanation.
“She tried to make it work. She held on tight and even let go of her active position in her father’s company; leaving most of the work to her family. Just so she could spend more time with him.”
“Any kids?”
Andy shook her head sadly. “He’s been wanting kids ever since the first time I met him though.” She stopped there, not willing to reveal more personal and private information about her best friend.
“So if he’s been such a player all this time, why file for divorce now?”
“You clearly haven’t read her case, have you?”
Maya took the open folder from the desk and started to leaf through it. She finally found the answer she was looking for and took a deep breath. She slightly regretted her somewhat insensitive attitude.
“Now you know?” Andy calmly said. “She doesn’t need the money, Maya. Her family has been rich for generations. Old money. Powerful connections. She just wanted him to-…”
“Pay?” Maya put down the folder. “Is this about revenge?”
“I don’t know. She’s not the type to hold a grudge but I know she has been hurt too much in this case so I can understand why she wants to at least make him pay for what he did. He was literally nobody before he met her. She made him who he is today and look how he repays her.”
Maya sighed again, feeling her skepticism reducing a little. “Fine. I’ll look more into it.” She grabbed her pen and the folder. “I assume you’re going to talk to her?”
“Yes.”
“Let me know then.” Maya pulled the door open and walked out.
----
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry for Maya but she’s not a bad person, Carina.”
Carina took a deep breath and slouched further in the leather-clad backseat of the luxurious sedan.
“She had seen too much. I admit it turned her skeptical but I assure you, I trust her. I wouldn’t have handed your case to her if I don’t. I consider her the best not because she’s my best friend or because of her skills, Carina. There are other lawyers who are just as good or even better. But she has character on top of the skill. You won’t find many like her. She’s a dying breed.”
Carina was still quietly listening.
“You know I don’t just employ random people, right? Let alone make them senior partner. So please give her another chance? For me? If she’s proven to be incapable of doing her job then I’ll personally take over.”
“I thought you couldn’t do that.”
“It might make the battle a bit harder but it doesn’t mean we can’t win. I just don’t want you to have to go through more than you should or had. Or have my divided attention since I'm currently handling two very complicated cases.”
Carina took a deep breath. “Bene. I guess you know best.”
“Thanks. Trust me, okay? We’ll get through this. Just hang in there a bit. Maya will help.”
“You threatened her?”
“No.”
“Offered her a big bonus?”
“Come on. You know I’m not like that.”
“Sorry…”
“It’s fine. So, since you two clearly started off on the wrong foot and we need to get things done before meeting your husband’s lawyers on Monday.” Andy paused. “How about a dinner meeting later tonight? My treat.”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Not if you really want to go through with this.”
“Sigh… bene. Text me when and where.”
“Sure thing. Thanks, Carina.”
“Grazie, Andy. I owe you.”
“Don’t mention it. I’ll see you tonight?”
“Yup. See you.” She hung up and tossed the phone back into her bag. She leaned her head back and stared out the window.
The car stopped at a red light and she caught sight of a man and his daughter walking hand in hand with ice cream cones in their hands. The young girl was still wearing a school uniform, chatting and laughing happily with the man.
She felt her heart break.
Maybe this is my fault after all…