Chapter 5

Gesturing for the couple to take a seat, we get straight to business.

"Aaliyah has informed me that both of you want to file for a divorce and have everything sorted out in terms of assets and equity." I state.

"Yes, we have," states Mrs. Anna Adair "and as our lawyer there are a couple things we want to discuss with you before we start with this meeting."

I nod my head gesturing Anna to proceed as I take a sip of my water.

Anna looks over at Mr. Adair and he gives her a slight nod to continue. "Um, so me and Alex aren't married yet." She finally says fidgeting with the A on her necklace.

I almost choke on my water.

"Wait what?!" I exclaim putting my water bottle down. "But the magazines, news outlets, and everything say that you have been married since last month?"

Am I losing my mind?

"They do, and that is because we staged our wedding." Says Anna looking back at Mr. Adair. "Love, tell her all about it." She says touching his arm.

I turn my head towards Mr. Adair, a weird sensation tingling in my chest.

The moment our eyes meet again, I feel like the world is frozen and the only ones here in this moment are just the two of us. I can no longer hear the annoying ticking of my clock on the wall or the cars outside.

What is happening with me?

"Mr. Adair, can you please tell me what is going on." I say breaking our eye contact and looking directly at the door behind him.

"You probably already know how Anna and I met." He says his deep husky voice sending shivers down my spine.

Gosh, he's voice sounds even better the second time.

"Yes, I've heard." I say sitting up straighter ignoring the shivers in my body and my untamed thoughts. 

His hazel eyes bore into mine as he says, "I proposed to her last year and she said yes, however, things started to escalate after that. Her family, especially her dad, wanted her to get married within a couple of months and get divorced so she could have half of whatever I owned and that it would also be his."

I listen attentively to the story while noticing how Anna grabs his hand into hers. A weird sensation makes its way back into my chest, and I'm starting to think it's because of the falafel wrap.

"We weren't planning on getting married until two to three years later. Her dad started threatening her and turned violent. She came home one day with a bruise on her face and I lost all of my patience after that. I had resources and...people...that I could have used." He continues adding emphasis on the word people and I gulp knowing exactly what he means.

Removing his hand from Anna's, he fixes the cuff on his blazer while staring at my Lawyer of the Year plaque hanging on the side wall.

"But..." he pauses his eyes fixing back to mine.

"But?" I ask.

"But," Anna chimes in "we found out that my dad..."

Her eyes start to tear up. I quickly grab the Kleenex box and hand it to her so she could wipe her tears as I quickly blink the tears back myself. I've been through a lot of people crying in my office, but it never made me less immune to it like my other colleagues.

Adair takes her hand back into his and says "But he was killed three months ago. We staged our wedding to find his murder."

My eyes widen in shock as I take in the reality of the case. "Killed? How do you know he was killed?" I ask.

"He used to tell Anna that someone was out to get him. Never said who it was, and we thought he was playing games with us so we could get married earlier." States Mr. Adair.

"Does the police know about this?" I ask.

"Yes. They haven't found anything yet." He says tersely.

I nod, of course they knew.

"I'm sorry to hear about your father Ms. Anna." I say with empathy.

Talking about dads was never an easy subject for me, but I couldn't drop this. Although their here to file for a "divorce", their story has me hooked and I need to know more. There's something off about it and I need to get to the bottom of it.

"But why didn't he tell the police before hand that he feared for his life and why didn't you tell the police either?" I ask.

"I don't know. He would tell me at times that he's joking and then he would tell me that he's serious so we assumed that he was just playing with us." Sniffles Anna. "All I know is that he's gone, and his killer is out in the loose."

I sit back quietly collecting my thoughts as Mr. Adair tries to calm his fiancé down. Aaliyah wasn't kidding about this case being an interesting one.

After Anna quiets down I ask, "Okay so what would you like me to do?"

"We would like for you to stage our divorce." Mr. Adair states firmly.

"And why would I do that?" I ask playfully.

Why did I say it like that?

"By staging our divorce, whoever killed Annas father would come after Anna for the wealth. Which means we'll find out who killed him." He states the edges of his lips forming into a smirk.

Why is he smirking?

"And how do you know that person wants the wealth?" I ask trying to press the very information that I'm looking for.

They both stare at each other and after a couple seconds Adair nods at Anna.

Taking a deep breath she takes another tissue from the box and says, "The truth is that my dad was involved in bad things. He would gamble, was a part of a gang, and was caught selling drugs along time ago. I believe he still owed money to people he took the drugs from. I heard him talking on the phone once about how after I got married and divorced from Alex that he would be able to pay back the money he owed. Every time I asked who it was he said don't worry about. I think they killed him when they found out that I was actually getting married to Alex. I think they want the entire wealth that I was supposedly to get after my divorce. Alex and I think they'll come after me next. I was never going to get a divorce from Alex, but to find out who killed him we must carry out the divorce as planned by my dad." She finishes.

Bingo.

"But why didn't he just let you be married to Mr. Adair and take the money from you like that? As a married couple?" I ask.

It makes so much sense to get your daughter married to him, get the money that he needs once and for all, and then leave them alone. Why the divorce?

"Um because...he doesn't like Alex. He wanted me to get married to his friend's son. They um are in the mafia business. He thought he could get more money from them after my divorce with Alex." Anna admits looking down on the floor.

"Like I would give a single cent to that bastard." Whispers Adair.

I highly doubt he would get more money from anyone other than from a billionaire. There's still something off about her story, but what she's saying does make sense, especially with Adair's statement. Her dad sounded like a greedy man and Adair was having none of it.

I watch Adair, his facial expressions remain neutral, unfazed, as if this wasn't something new to him. I want to know why that didn't bother him, that his soon to be father-in-law, wanted only his cash and nothing to do with him, but I guess as a billionaire you will meet people who only want you for money.

"We'll pay you a lot more than you charge if you do this right." He states with authority.

My eyebrows shoot up. "Excuse me Mr. Adair but I always do my job right, thank you very much, and I will charge you according to the nature of the case." I say feeling angry at his audacity to question my work, his unkindness seeping through his words. Now I could see why people call him rude.

He nods his head. "As you wish Ms. Carter."

"Will you take our case Ms. Carter?" Asks Anna with pleading eyes.

I sit there questioning if I should. I mean they poured their story out and if they thought I was not competent, despite Mr. Adair's choice of words, they wouldn't have come to me. Plus I've been wanting a case that was exciting, something that pumped adrenaline in me, and well this is exactly that.

"Yes, I will take your case." I finally say.

A huge smile plays on Anna's face as she continues to usher thank yous while Mr. Adair nods at me his face expressionless.

"However, in order for a divorce to happen I need to file paperwork with the company and I don't know how I'm going to convince the head of the firm for your fake divorce." I say.

"You don't need to worry about that. The head of this firm is a friend of mine." Says Adair checking the time on his watch.

"Mr. Rollins is your friend?" The shock is evident in my voice. "If he was your friend why didn't you just go to him to fake your divorce. Why come to me?" I question.

"Because it needs to look real Ms. Carter. I can easily pull a few strings to make the process much faster, but then it won't look mundane." He replies in yet another boring tone.

What he thought I was a mind reader or something that I would know he was friends with Mr. Rollins and that he could pull strings. Maybe that's why he chose this company, because of Mr. Rollins and not because of my competency. I feel a little deflated.

"So, Ms. Carter you don't need to worry about a thing, it's all covered. You just need to do what I say and make it look real with fake court hearings." He states.

I narrow my eyes at him. Was he being serious?

Do as I say my ass.

I'll let him think right now that I'm doing as he's saying, but as his divorce lawyer he better be ready when I take charge. A smile tugs on my lips at this thought.

"And I guess these fake court hearings, if you guys want to put up a fight, will occur with you buying out the entire courtroom? I question already knowing the answer to this.

"Well said." He smirks.

I shake my head. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I spent my entire career on honesty and integrity and I thought that this law firm did the same, but I guess if you're a billionaire whose friends with the firms head then anything can happen. If Mr. Rollins was okay with it and no one was getting harmed then what could I say, and it's not like I owned the company or anything.

"Alright then." I breathe. "I'll get all the papers drafted for the divorce so we have something to work off of. For it to be real, we will need to go through the paperwork process although not in depth as usual cases. I'll get Aaliyah to prepare those, and as soon as they are done my secretary Yasmin will call you and we will book an appointment for you two to come in."

"That sounds good. Thank you once again Ms. Carter. I hope we can find the person who killed my father." Anna says softly.

"Don't worry we will." I smile back giving her hope.

These two look beautiful together. You could tell the way Anna looks at Adair that she loves him to death. Adair must love Anna so much as well. He's spending a lot of money and time on this even when he said he could have done it his way. But he's doing it the way she wants.

The jabbing pain in my chest returns and unconsciously my hand goes to my heart. Adair's eyebrow slightly shoot up in response. He's probably thinking I'm getting a heart attack.

"I'm fine." I reply before he could assume anything. "I think it was my lunch." I mutter dropping my hand down.

He nods slowly probably questioning my health now. 

All of a sudden I hear loud shouts coming from outside the building. "What the heck." I say quickly getting up from my seat to look outside.

Looking out the window, I watch the crowd of people standing outside the building with cameras in their hands. The buildings security guards and Adair's guards are pushing them away from the building as the crowd of people continue to try to make their way to the entrance. My eyes widen as I realize who they are.

"Paparazzi." I breathe.

I've had my fair share of news journalists in my face when I had high profile cases, but never the paparazzi. They were on a whole other level. They ask insulting questions and try to bring up your past when all you want is for it to be gone. They twist the truth and make you look like the bad guy.

"You better get used it because their going to be around here for a while now."

Mr. Adair's voice snaps me out of my thoughts and I slowly turn around to look at him.

"Don't worry I'll be fine. I'm used to cameras in my face." I lie with a smile. I hate having the camera in my face and I hate the paparazzi.

Adair's scrutinzed stare has me feeling that he knows that I'm lying, as if I'm a piece of glass and he can see right through me. I gulp. I've never felt this damn nervous around any high-profile client.

Clearing my throat to get rid of this tension, I look at the clock and realize our meeting time is almost over.

Thank God.

"Okay, so I guess Ill see you two at our next appointment." I say clasping my hands together.

"Yes, that sounds good." Smiles Anna rising from her chair, her tall figure shadowing mine.

"I must warn you Ms. Carter," says Mr. Adair fixing the buttons on his blazer as he rises from his chair "this won't be as smooth as your other cases."

That makes me laugh inside. What makes him think I can't handle his case?

With a smile on my face, I reply with confidence. "Don't worry Mr. Adair I never thought it as otherwise."