Unforgiven Read Free Page A

Mrs. Stowles arrives, and what if you don’t make it back? I’m not ready to take the lead. What am I supposed to do? They’re coming at eleven. You don’t have time.” She was still sitting, but she had shot up straight as she slid around in the chair, watching as he slipped on his dark green suit jacket and lifted his trench coat from the coat tree in the corner. His small office overlooked the bullpen of legal secretaries and clerks.
    “We have nothing left to go over, so stop worrying. If they show up early, just make sure Mrs. Stowles doesn’t cross paths with her husband or his lawyer.” He strode back to his desk, grabbed his cell phone, and stuffed his iPad and all the documents he still needed to review in his tote, then lifted it over his shoulder.
    “Samuel, I hope this doesn’t sound cold, because I really do want everything to be okay with your wife, but you’re a junior associate, and whether you believe it or not, I’m not vying for your job. This is a really big case for the firm, and if you screw it up, it won’t look good for you. Leaving me stuck if you don’t show is as good as screwing me, too, and I’ve worked too damn hard to get where I am to be left floundering. Do you get me?”
    This was the first time he’d ever seen Erin look the least bit worried. “I told you I’ll be back—and for the record, Jill isn’t my wife.”
    He didn’t wait for her shocked response before he left his office, stopping at his secretary’s desk to let her know where he was going.
    As Samuel walked out of the office, he remembered the day that haunted him still: his wedding, that afternoon two months before when his family didn’t show, and the despair on Jill’s face as they stood before the justice of the peace to say their vows. The only thing that had come out of Jill’s mouth was “I’m sorry.”
    ***

Chapter 3
    “See? This works,” Samuel said. “You can talk to me and get ready for the meeting at the same time.” He stopped outside the twelfth-floor office in the medical building eight blocks from work, sixteen from home—which was maybe one reason he didn’t want to move. Another move with Jill would mean the place was theirs, something permanent, something he believed would drive the wedge with his family even deeper.
    “Samuel, I’m not kidding,” Erin said over the phone. “If you’re late for this deposition, I will kill you.”
    He could hear something in her voice that he hadn’t heard before: fear. There was a click in the background and then quiet as if she had shut a door, but then, Erin didn’t have an office. She worked in the bullpen with the other third years who did all the grunt work for the other lawyers.
    “Just calm down,” he said. “I’m not going to be late. You just need to have everything ready in the conference room before the client arrives. The court reporter will be there to set up, and she doesn’t need you there to do anything, so stop panicking. She’s been there before.”
    “Samuel, listen to me. One of the reasons I wanted to talk to you first beforehand is that when I went through the files, I flagged something: wifey was financing hubby’s business, which is now financially on the rocks.”
    “What does that have to do with her suing him for rape and trying to get that on the record? Where are you going with this?” he said. He didn’t see Jill in the waiting room. The glass doors revealed several women in all stages of pregnancy and small children playing with toys in a play area in the corner.
    “Samuel, think about it. The mister’s lawyer isn’t great, but don’t you think this is rather coincidental, with the arguments that have gone back and forth between Samantha and Rick? Of course it escalated to violence, but it started out with Rick going ahead and doing something without Samantha’s knowledge, putting her on the hook for the bill. I mean, I’d be pissed, rightly so—but his lawyer is going to take her account of