Page 82 of EverGreene
“We’ll get started just as soon as my special guests arrive in just a couple more seconds.” I looked over my shoulder at my bewildered colleagues. “Dinner is on the firm as soon as this meeting is over.”
“What?” Conrad asked. “No one told me that. What is going?—”
“Hello, dear.” Conrad’s eyes widened as my aunt walked through the door.
“Denise,” he greeted his wife. It had been a while since I’d seen Conrad flustered. I’d forgotten how glorious it was. “What are you doing here, darling?”
“I just thought I’d pop on in to see how the trial is going and figured I’d stay the night and watch the closing statements tomorrow.” I give my aunt credit for the acting job she was pulling off. She was furious. You could see it written in her eyes and the stiff movements she made when Conrad went in for a hug. But her delivery was spot-on and believable if you weren’t observing all the nonverbal cues that told you something was amiss. She may have stayed with Conrad despite his numerous betrayals, but she wasn’t about to stay if the money was leaving. “In fact,” she said, “I think I may just take my stuff up to the room now, if?—”
“No,” Conrad interrupted her. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Kim visibly squirming in her chair. “The room is a mess. Let me call housekeeping before you go up there.”
“Gee, honey, it’s almost as though you don’t want me in your room. What, is your girlfriend in there?” She laughed, slapping Conrad on the arm.
Conrad, meanwhile, looked like he was about to become physically ill. “Don’t be silly, sweetheart. No one could compare to you.”
A loud screech tore through the room as Kim pushed back her chair to stand up, deliberately avoiding eye contact with anyone while she stormed out of the room.
Denise turned to Conrad. “Oh, darling. You and I both know what a fucking lie that is.”
“You!” Conrad turned his ire to me, taking a few steps in my direction before he was stopped when Blaine stepped in between us. “You set this whole mess up. Lying to your own aunt about me after everything I’ve done for you. I’m done bailing you out, Loche. Kiss everything you have goodbye, starting with your job at the firm.”
“You can’t terminate an employee at a firm you’re no longer employed with yourself.” Jack Haak walked into the room, flanked by Matt Smith, effectively bringing all the partners of the law firm together for this less-than-big happy reunion.
“What is the meaning of this, Jack? You can’t be serious, right now. For an affair? You can’t seriously be entertaining my nephew’s mental health issues. He murdered a man for crying out loud.”
My hand gripped the back of a chair as my body tensed with rage. In the back of my mind, I always knew my mother’s life had meant nothing to Conrad, but to hear him stick up for my piece of shit father was enough to make me wish there was a gun within arm’s reach right now. I took a step forward with the intent of erasing some of the family resemblance he and I shared from his face, when a hand gripped my wrist, pulling me back. In my anger, I hadn’t noticed Ever moving around the table. Her touch was like salve on a wound.
“If it wasn’t for Loche, your sister wouldn’t be here. He’s a hero, and that pisses you off. You never would have been brave enough to do what he did when he was nothing more than a child. You’re too much of a coward.”
“You can pack up your stuff right along with him.” Conrad sneered at Ever. Lucky for him, her hold on me was keeping me tethered to the ground. “Your work has always been subpar.”
I moved to take a step forward, but Ever beat me to it, putting herself in front of me. “That’s not what you told me when you cornered me outside my room and tried to arrange a private mentoring session with you, which I declined.” Ever looked over at my aunt to further punctuate the last part of her sentence.
“Marty is going to have a field day with this,” my aunt replied. She’d removed her phone from her purse and was recording everything that was going on.
“Marty?” Conrad asked. With the way the vein in his neck was bulging, it was a wonder he hadn’t had a stroke. Although the night was still young, there was always that chance. “Are you talking about Marty Freeman, the family law attorney? You haven’t filed for divorce, have you?”
Conrad had always despised Marty, primarily because he was more successful than Conrad, had a higher AV rating, and still had most of his natural hair color. He also wasn’t a raging dickhead, so there was that as well.
“As a matter of fact,” Matt Smith handed an envelope to Conrad, “ she has. “Consider yourself served.”
“Happy anniversary,” Denise called out, diabolically.
“Shit,” Jason muttered to Caroline, who sat back, wide-eyed. “We may need to find some popcorn for this.”
“Cheating on your spouse isn’t against the law and in no way will it protect the firm against a wrongful termination lawsuit.”
“Which is why it isn’t the reason for your termination,” Jack interceded. “Embezzlement, however, is clearly grounds for your immediate removal, not to mention arrest.”
The satisfaction I felt watching the color slowly drain fromConrad’s face could almost be described as ethereal. His time was up; the walls were closing in on him. He was a caged rat, and he knew it. “Embezzlement? That’s slander!”
“It’s not slander if it’s true, Uncle. That’s something you should know with that fancy law degree of yours.”
“You!” Conrad turned around, pointing one of his chubby fingers at me. “You set me up, you ungrateful, fucking weasel.” He swung back around to face the other partners, a cornered animal prepared to fight his way out. “Whatever you think you have on me, you need to look at him. He’s the guilty one, not me. What proof do you have, otherwise?”
“Conrad,” Jack stepped forward, “do you think we haven’t looked into this? We have you dead to rights. We know some of the invoices you claim were from the construction company working on the renovations in our building were fake, and that wire transfers made to them were deposited into an account you set up under an assumed name. From what we’ve been able to gather so far, you’ve been siphoning money for far longer than Loche has been employed with the firm. And now you’re trying to get him to take the fall? I never thought you would stoop so low.”
“You know what, fuck you all.” Conrad threw his hands up into the air. “Good luck tomorrow. I was the reason the firm stayed afloat for as long as it has. Without me, you’re nothing. And when I’m exonerated, you’re all going bankrupt.”
