After Hours Read Free

woman’s acerbic query. “I am an attorney, but you’ve come to a firm specializing in wills, taxes and estate planning.”
    â€œIf that’s the case, then why did you agree to see me?”
    â€œI didn’t know if I’d be able to help you. When you called the office you didn’t disclose your reason for a consultation.”
    Adina glared at the conservatively dressed woman. Although understated, the cut of her navy-blue linen gabardine suit was as exquisite as the diamond solitaire and eternity band giving off blue-white sparks on her left hand.
    â€œThat’s because I was afraid to say anything over the phone. I’m still afraid and I don’t know when I’ll ever stop being afraid.” Tears filled Adina’s eyes and trickled down her cheeks; she swiped angrily at them.
    Karla’s closed expression didn’t change. She didn’t know why, but she felt Adina Jenkins’s pain. “Does he know where you are?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWhen did you leave him?”
    â€œFriday.”
    â€œWhere are you staying?”
    Adina peered at Karla through moisture-spiked lashes. She said a silent prayer that the attorney would change her mind. “I’m staying at a motel in Irvington.”
    â€œHow long do you plan to be there?”
    â€œUntil I run out of money.”
    â€œWhen do you predict you’ll run out of money?”
    Biting down on her lower lip, Adina mentally calculated how much it would cost to spend a month at the motel. “I have enough for at least another month,” she lied. How much money she had would remain her secret. “I’m going to need a new identity so I can get a job and rent an apartment. I have to start over, and that’s not going to happen unless I change my…my name.” The last word came out in a sob and the floodgates opened. Heart-wrenching sobs shook Adina as she buried her face in her trembling hands. A full minute passed before her hands came down and she stared at Karla. The tears had turned her brilliant eyes a mossy green. “I’m sorry,” she apologized before biting on her trembling lower lip. “May I use your restroom?”
    Pushing back her chair, Karla came to her feet and rounded the table. She’d witnessed domestic abuse firsthand as an adolescent when she walked into a neighbor’s apartment to find it ransacked and her best friend’s mother on the floor in a fetal position after she’d been beaten by her son looking for money to support his drug habit.
    Anchoring a hand under Adina’s elbow, she eased her from the chair. “Of course you may. It’s down the hall, on your left. Meanwhile, I’ll call someone I believe can help you.”
    Adina gathered her purse, sniffling as she walked out of the office; she hid a smile that mirrored supreme triumph. She’d rolled the dice and had come up a winner yet again. Despite her protests, Karla King was going to help Adina to not only change her name but also her life.

CHAPTER 4
    K arla, waiting until Adina left her office, moved over to her computer; she pulled up her mailing list and scrolled through the names until she found what she wanted. Pushing the speaker feature on her phone, she dialed the number. Unfortunately the person to whom she wanted to speak was in court. She left a message on his voice mail to return her call. No one had saved her friend’s mother, who’d eventually been murdered by her son. But if she could, then she would do all she could to help Adina Jenkins.
    Leaning back in the leather executive chair, Karla stared at a wall filled with diplomas and citations chronicling her life as a tax attorney. She’d earned degrees from New York University in accounting and law and an MBA. At forty-one, she’d come a long way; she grew up in a low-income Newark neighborhood as an only child of a single mother who’d worked two jobs because she