It was the week of the case and I was a mess.

The damn case was in three days, on Friday.

Every time I thought about it my stomach churned.

I went to see my father first thing this morning. He’d messaged me last night, requesting my presence.

He lifted his head from the paperwork he was going through and smiled.

“Morning son.” The smile grew.

Lately, my father had greeted me the way he did Preston. With respect.

I’d worked my whole life just to earn that. I had to admit it felt good.

“Hey. You okay?”

“Perfect. Just wanted to see how you are.”

“I’m fine.” It was a half lie. If I was referring to Summer then I was off in the heavens, high of on love happy. But, my feeling about work were a whole other story.

“Good. I’m glad, and proud.”

Proud.

My father had never said that to me. Not when I graduated from high school with the highest GPA of my year, which was higher than Marc’s. Not when I finished at Princeton with firms begging to take me, and not when I won my first case.

Which, I might add was so difficult and complex that no one else wanted it. It was cast off to me as the newbie at the time. It involved high tech embezzlement. I was the prosecuting attorney and everyone thought I’d end up making a fool of myself.

I really thought my father would have been proud of me then but he’d just given me a pat on the back.

“it’s nice to hear that.”

“I am, you’ve really changed a lot and it’s shown me how much you want to be part of the partnership. I just wanted to have a one to one with you and see if everything’s set for Friday.”

“All set.” I nodded.

“Good. There are a few cases I’d like you to take. We’ll book in time to talk about them.” He nodded and smiled. “I thought I’d give you the heads up now so you can plan. Senior partners are busy people. I suspect you’ll be rushed off your feet.”

My breathing stilled. Senior partner, wow. He was talking about me.

I couldn’t resist the smile that inched up my face.

“I’m ready for it.”

“Looks like you are. It’ll be an honor to pass the torch to you” He nodded and smiled.

Excitement at the achievement looming before me made my whole being tingle, showing me how badly I wanted the position.

“Thanks. It means a lot.”

“You’re more than welcome.”

“That all? I’m rushed off my feet.” I joked.

“I’m done. Enjoy being rushed off your feet.”

I gave him a curt nod before I left.

Summer was in my office putting letters in my in tray. I closed the door and swooped her up into my arms bursting to share what happened.

“Alex, you are so crazy,” she giggled.

“My dad was just talking about me being senior partner. It’s happening, Summer.” I sounded like a kid who’d just gotten everything he wanted for Christmas.

“That’s amazing. You did it.”

I set her down.

“Not yet. Got to make it to Friday first and hope that goes well.”

“It’s all gone well so far right?”

I nodded and gazed at her beautiful face. “It has.”

It had gone okay so far. Marc hadn’t been able to find anything else but what he found was damning enough to make me sever any links Sullivan’s had to Devon once I became senior partner.

That was the plan, in my head. Since Preston didn’t trust him I thought that part would be easy. Plus it was my father who had that direct link with Devon’s company. Once he passed the torch, as he put it, the connection would change.

I just wanted to leave no stone unturned.

“Baby, I can’t wait till it’s all done and dusted.”

“I know.” She beamed. “Then I can have my man back completely, and not have him looking like a lost boy.”

“I happen to love the lost boys Summer, who wouldn’t want to live in Neverland and go on one adventure or another?”

She giggled when I kissed her. “I could see you doing that.”

“Yes, me too angel.”

We were just waiting to see what happened with the case and then we’d book our vacation. I couldn’t wait to be away with her.

Just us, having fun and getting lost in each other as we escaped life together.

I pulled her closer for another kiss which I relished for all of ten seconds before the door flung open and Marc came in looking flustered.

“We need to talk, now. In private.” His eyes darted at Summer.

It was weird because I couldn’t think of anything that would be so secretive that he wouldn’t want Summer here. Unless, he found something about Devon.

Fuck, he did, didn’t he?

He looked like he did.

I looked at Summer who was just moving to go but caught her arm.

“It’s fine. Tell me. I want Summer here.”

She looked appreciative to hear that.

“Okay.” Marc nodded looking uneasy.

He carried a large brown envelope under his arms which he placed on my desk.

“What have you found?” I asked.

“Nothing good, Alex. Nothing good at all.” He took out several sheets of paper and laid them out. “Take a look and tell me what you see.”

I sighed knowing I was going to hate this to no end.

Picking up the first wad of paper I looked at the front sheet. It was a bank statement in Devon’s name with several transactions showing seriously large amounts of money being credited to different companies.”

“Do you recognize any of the companies?”

I felt my heart ache when I realized what he was saying.

Yes I recognized the companies. At least five anyway. They were all companies that Devon had investment dealings with. Bottlebrite was one of them.

“This is of relevance to you.” Marc picked up a sheet to my right and handed it to me.

Silveranium Tech, the company that had mined the silveranium were listed. I saw transactions listed for stock purchase at amounts up to a hundred thousand dollars.

“And this.” Marc showed me a process receipt showing evidence of the sale of those shares for eight hundred thousand dollars.

He’d sold the shares for a more than handsome profit.

“And this.” Marc added with another sheet of paper with email conversations.

He looked at Summer who’d stood next to me the whole time looking at the same things I saw. She looked rigid and pale. “Summer, this is seriously top secret info. I beg you not to say anything to a soul.”

“I won’t be saying anything, Marc.” Her tone was flat and emotionless, one I’d never heard.

“This is confirmation of inside dealing. He bribes the company secretary or someone who deals with the company finances and they work together to pull off a pump and dump scheme. It’s been going on for years. It looks like he does one every few months and deposits the earnings into his off shore accounts.”

“Fuck Marc, what the fuck?” I winced. This was the nightmare I saw coming.

The thing I feared. The thing that could lose me what I’d worked so hard to get, and shit now there was a link to my case.

How the hell was I supposed to defend Devon in court now?

What was I supposed to do? We’d never take on a case like this which I now knew was all a load of bullshit.

No disclaimer could refute this.

“I know. I was shocked.” Marc grimaced. “I’ve never liked the guy, but this is beyond what I expected.”

“You can’t do the case, Alex.” Summer cut in. She was shaking her head. “You shouldn’t. It’ll be a disaster.”

“Angel, it’s on Friday. My dad won’t make me senior partner when he sees I went digging.”

She looked shocked by my answer.

“Alex, she’s right. Screw the partnership. This is serious shit. We can’t get mixed up in it.” Marc jumped in.

“It’s easy for you to say, you don’t hope to be senior partner. You’re happy doing what you’re doing.” I snapped.

“Alex, there is so many things going on here. It’s all securities fraud of the highest level.”

“Marc. I plan to get rid of any ties to Devon after I become partner.”

“Has your dad given you a date for this inauguration?” Marc narrowed his eyes at me.

“No, but I know it’s next month some time.” He gave us the update a few weeks ago. “Maybe when I’m done with the case.”

“Alex, you have no idea how long this case could go on for. And, you don’t know what evidence will be called. I suggest you take this to your father and we contact the feds letting them know we suspect illegal activity. We should do this now. That way we stay out of it.”

“There has to be another way.” I insisted. I couldn’t lose my chance. I couldn’t.

I was too close to getting what I wanted.

“There isn’t. You have to do something before the shit hits the fan Alex.” His eyes pleaded with me.

“You said this stuff would be hard to find on a normal basis.” I pointed out trying to clutch on to whatever I could.

Summer shocked me by walking out.

I looked to the door as it swung backwards and forwards and then to Marc.

“We’ve always been friends, man, and I have always looked up to you. This isn’t you. Doesn’t matter what the goal is, wrong is wrong. You know that. Alex, what if you win on Friday? A woman will lose everything. She’ll pay legal fees, more money for something bad that happened to her. And Devon will get away with all of this. You care about people. This isn’t you.”

It wasn’t. It wasn’t me at all. Confliction tore at my insides, and it was heightened by Summer walking out.

“I have to go.” I left him and went to Summer’s office. She was standing by the window slumped over with her hands resting on the ledge. She tried to steady her breath.

“Summer.”

My voice caught her attention and she turned to face me.

“Alex, you can’t do this case.” Now she was giving me the pleading look. “Please listen to me. you can’t. bad things could happen and getting the senior partnership here would mean nothing if Sullivan’s gets dragged in to a securities fraud disaster.”

“Summer, you know how badly I want to be senior partner.”

“It’s not worth it. Alex, your father would have to find another way.”

“Angel, he won’t. This is it. He made it clear that I should focus on the case and not go digging around for anything that wasn’t relevant.”

“But all that Marc found is relevant.” She contested.

“I know, but it’s only relevant in the sense where I know where we stand with any further relations with Devon.”

“Alex, trust me I know what I’m talking about.” She pulled in a deep breath and released it. “I worked for Ashfords.”

“What?” I thought I must have heard her wrong.

“I worked for Ashfords. I worked there after Gold and Thorps. I was there during the disaster and it dragged me in and messed everything up for me.”

Jesus.

This was the thing she was hiding. The more I felt that she wasn’t saying.

My mouth dropped. “Why didn’t you tell me that before?”

“So you could kick me out for working for a firm with a bad rep?” A tear ran down her cheek.

“I would never have done that.” I shook my head.

“I was scared, and maybe you wouldn’t but I’m sure your father or Preston might have.”

“I would never have allowed anyone to do that to you.” I assured her.

Maybe I should have been mad that she didn’t tell me, but I wasn’t. I understood why she kept the secret, and why she was telling me now.

It made sense.

“It means a lot to hear you say that. It really does.” She sighed. “It was something that killed me to keep from you and I felt worse every day for keeping the secret. I took this job because no one else would hire me as an attorney. I was up to my neck in debt and had to find something. I suffered like I was the one who was guilty, when I didn’t do anything wrong. I lost my job before I realized my dad was so sick, and I came here to restore my name and get some credibility. I can’t live through something like that again.”

“I would never consider going ahead as planned if I thought for one moment that anything could get exposed in court and drag us all into a crazy mess.”

“But you don’t know what could happen. I’ve listened to you talk about how much you wanted the senior partnership, and I’ve held back on telling you how much I just wanted to be a lawyer again, and be me. I worked hard too, and it wasn’t so I could be a PA forever.”

“I know, and I don’t expect you to be a PA forever. Summer… all the stuff that Marc found was from me being worried and wanting to do extra checks. And, all the findings have been done by people with special skills to find this shit. They had to dig deep. A simple run of the mill case won’t require that level of deep investigation.”

“But what if later something happens and it’s found out that you knew what was going on? How can you even trust the people who found the stuff? They could come forward at any moment and say they found it and gave it to Marc who then gave it to you. What would you do then? ”

That was a possibility but one I didn’t want to entertain. “Hopefully I would have sorted things out by then.”

“This isn’t right. Alex you don’t want to be caught up in a lie that could turn uglier than it already is. You told me only two weeks ago that you were worried you’d act selfishly, you knew something was going on from then didn’t you? All the time you looked worried you knew something wasn’t right.”

I thought for a moment, then looked deep into her eyes. I didn’t want to lie or evade the question.

“I did.” At the time I knew about the offshore accounts.

“Alex, the reality of this is anything could happen. We don’t know what the prosecution could have found, and it could get dragged into court. Please see it all for what it is and not what you want it to be.”

I was losing my grip of everything and didn’t even know what to do anymore.

“I’ve worked too hard to mess things up now.” I thought of what my father said back in the office earlier.

He told me he was proud.

I’d lived my whole life waiting to hear those words.

He’d never praised me when I did anything good, because he found some sort of flaw with it. He never looked at all the abilities I had as a good thing, but that I had more experience in certain areas so I should take on whatever he threw at me.

If I brought this to him that would be it. I’d lose more than the chance for the senior partnership.

It would also be that respect that I’d gained from him, from following orders and doing what he told me to do.

“So your choice is the senior partnership?” She held my gaze and looked at me with wide worried eyes.

“Yes.” I heard myself say. “But I’m going to sort out the kinks later. I promise I will do that.”

She closed her eyes, squeezed them and opened them quickly and blinked several times like she couldn’t believe my answer.

“Okay.” Came her breathy reply that held an air of defeat in its tone. “Okay.”

I wanted to continue to reassure her that I would do all that I could to make it okay but what I saw next caught and held my attention.

Whenever I looked at Summer, the first thing I always saw in those beautiful green eyes was that spark.

It was fire that came straight from her soul, and I knew it only burned for me.

In the flashing lights of the club that night, months ago now, I saw it ignite.

But just now I saw the light go out.

The spark was gone.

It went out as if someone had switched it off, and I knew in that moment that I lost her.