Page 40 of The Cinderella Secret
“Great,” said Jackson. “See you in a couple of hours.”
He hung up and looked at Dominique. “Theo’s my secret weapon,” he said, and Dominique chuckled out loud this time.
15
Ella – Chiropractic Adjustments
Ella lay on the floor of her office and hated Aiden Deveraux. Above her, Aiden’s stupid headshot with his stupid smile from his stupid law firm was taped to the case board. She crossed her leg over her body and popped a vertebra. This is what he had done to her. He’d made her tense enough that she had to do her own chiropractic adjustments. She put her leg back down, but didn’t get up.
What was the point? There was nowhere to go. She had missed her chance at Number Nine in Jersey and now all she had to occupy her mind was stupid Aiden Deveraux. And she did not want to think about Aiden.
The only good thing to have happened the last week was the indictment of J.P. Granger, which had forced her uncle to admit thatnotusing any of his research was the right thing to do. She felt like she had narrowly dodged a bullet with that one. She wanted to win, but it had to be on the merits of the case. There was no way that Bai could force himself onto the board of DevEntier and not end up having to work with the Deveraux. It wasn’t like they would magically disappear. If Bai wanted a future with DevEntier they needed the Deveraux to concede that the Zhao had a right to be there. But stupid Aiden Deveraux was making that very difficult.
Her grandmother came into the room, hobbling with her cane and tiny steps to loom over her. The glory of downtown Manhattan was having a beautiful apartment that was only a block from the offices. The downfall of downtown Manhattan was that all of the relatives knew where to find her when she was hiding in the office.
“Why are you glaring at the cute boy?” asked her grandmother in Mandarin.
“He’s not cute, Nai. He’s an evil plague of boils,” replied Ella.
Nai Nai looked amused. “And he has stricken you to the floor?”
“Yes! Yes, he has!”
Her grandmother looked skeptical and went to settle herself into the desk chair, wheeling it around the desk so she could look at Ella on the floor. “Who is this lady killer then?” She squinted at the photo. “He looks so happy.”
“Lies! All lies!” said Ella from the floor. “He is a dissembler. A fraud. A fake. A phony.”
“Oh my.”
Ella hauled herself to her feet and dropped into the chair opposite the desk.
“This was supposed to be easy. He was supposed to be stupid! A charming, but ultimately ineffectual rich boy, playing at being a lawyer, with all the intelligence of a tree frog.” She leaned forward and snatched the Deveraux dossier off her desk, shaking it angrily. “All of Uncle’s research says he’s an idiot. His cousin Evan is the smart one, but cold and vindictive. His cousin Jackson is a violent ex-con. His sister is… well, honestly, she’s just pretty and smart and I hate her because she’s tall. But he”—she pointed at the photo—“was supposed to be stupid!”
“Not stupid?” asked Nai Nai.
“No! Oh, he pretends to be. He bumbles along, with that stupid smile of his and he charms everyone into believing that he’s some sort of adorable, funny puppy, but he is not. I’ll quote statute and he, just pops up and says,thank you for clarifying that, Ms. Zhao, but I thought the rest of the statute stated… and then he just quotes from memory. Who does that?”
“Besides you? I don’t know.”
“And then, he’ll tie it back to some sort of case law. And say something chummy like,well, of course, Judge, you would know better than I, but that was my interpretation. And then, he doesn’t even…”
“Doesn’t even what?” Ella was silent. Her grandmother raised an eyebrow.
“I’m not proud of this, but it’s desperate times in that courtroom. I wore some shoes the other day that have generally resulted in stupid lawyers staring at my legs and ass. Which means they’re not listening to what I say.”
“He didn’t look?”
“No!”
“Rude.”
“Yes!”
“But perhaps he’s not interested in such things?” Nai Nai widened her eyes to make a significant expression and indicate that Aiden was gay without ever saying such a word.
“His last girlfriend was the Channel Four weather girl. She comes with her own storm fronts.” Ella spread her hands in front of her to indicate how big the double-D storms were.
Nai Nai clicked her tongue in sympathy.
