Page 17 of Imperfections Forbidden
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.I woke up and you were gone.”
“I’m sorry, did I wake you?”
“No, you were gone for a while.I missed you, so I decided to come looking for you.You looked like you had something on your mind.Are you having second thoughts about us?”His eyes close down a little, and I can see the intense look that changes the shade to the color of the sky on a cloudy day.
“There are no second thoughts when it comes to the way I feel about you, and us being together.I know what I want.I want you.I will always want you.Do you understand me?”he says, with all the intensity I see in his eyes.
I nod my head.“Yes.”He runs his thumb over my cheekbone, kissing me on the corner of my mouth.
“Don’t ever doubt the feelings I have for you, Cat.”
“So what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing for you to worry about.It’s late, you should go back to bed.”
I place my hand on his arm before he has a chance to get up.“If you’re worried about it, then it’s something for me to worry about.Don’t try to lie to me.I know when something is bothering you; we’ve been friends far too long for me not to know.”
He puts the bottle down to the side, spreads his legs apart, pulls me between his legs, and puts his arm around my shoulders.He lets out a deep breath, and I rest the back of my head against his bare chest.Bending down, he kisses me on the side of my neck and wraps his other arm around my waist.I could sit here like this with him forever.Just the two of us, safe and secure.
“I love that you know me so well.I missed my friend.I’m glad you came back to me.”
“I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s on your mind.I know if there was something on my mind, you wouldn’t stop until you knew what it was.”
“I was thinking about a case I’m going to take—and my father.Life in general.”
“Is your father a part of the case?”
“No, he’s a part of the reason I took this case.”
“Why?Did he ask you to?”
“It goes back to what he taught me about being in business and a lawyer.”
“What did he teach you?He’s a pretty good lawyer.If you learned something from him, it had to be good; it helped make you the success you are now.”
“Yeah, it did, but at what cost?When you’re a lawyer, somewhere along the way you have to do things and make some deals that go against what you thought you believed in.Things that you thought you would never do to get to the top of your game.”
“Like what?”
“Let’s say there’s a case where a young man allegedly mugs an old woman.He’s arrested, and his father believes he’s innocent.I know he’s one hundred percent guilty, but his father wants the best for him; he doesn’t want his only son to go to jail.He wants to get the best money and power can buy for him.I refuse to represent his son.He says, ‘There’s a case you’re working on, and I can give you what you need to win—something you can’t get on your own—to keep an innocent man from going to jail for life, for a crime he didn’t commit.If you represent my son, it’s yours.’
“What would you do?Would you accept his offer?”
I think about it, while he’s rubbing his hand across my stomach.
“I know what you’re thinking.This is a simply answer: it’s black and white, yes or no, right or wrong.But if I refuse his offer, an innocent young man goes to jail for fifty years.His life is over before he has a chance to experience it.On the other hand, if I take the case, even though his son is one hundred percent guilty of attacking this poor old woman, I’m sure can get him off.
“There are no witnesses, she didn’t see what he looked like, her eyesight is failing; she can’t even tell you what he was wearing at the time of her attack.The only thing she can recall is the scent of the cologne he was wearing.He was arrested five blocks away from where she was mugged with the exact amount of money she had on her at the time and a pen identical to one her granddaughter had given her for her eightieth birthday.”
I blow out a long sigh.
“All I have to do is put her on the stand and make her look like a senile old lady by making her doubt herself.If I don’t take the case, someone else could take the case and get him off, and I run the risk of sending an innocent man to jail for a crime he didn’t commit, or I could take the case, help set an innocent man free while at the same time letting a guilty man that committed a far lesser crime free.The punk wouldn’t see a day in jail for the crime he committed.”
“If you were this lawyer, what would you do?”I ask, not coming to any decision of my own.
“I would take the case and set an innocent man free.”
