Chapter 1
“Please don’t look in my office,” Cassandra Flemming whispered as she balanced the heavy case files she’d brought home last night. Unfortunately, the rush was needed since she was late for work. Again!
“Please be too busy to look in my office!” Cassy prayed under her breath as she hurried down the long hallway, ignoring the pinch in her shoes and the tight band around her waist since she’d accidentally pulled on the suit that she’d banished to the back of her closet after she’d gained too much weight to comfortably wear it. Unfortunately, she hadn’t brought her other suits to the drycleaners over the past two weeks, so this suit was all that was clean.
Juggling several files, her computer, a gym bag, and the extra-large tote bag that served as her purse, she hurried through the maze of hallways to her tiny office, keeping her eyes forward so she didn’t have to acknowledge her coworkers already at their desks, heads down and working diligently. She wasn’t extremely late. But even five minutes after the stroke of eight o’clock in the morning would cause her boss to issue a demoralizing reprimand. Usually, those admonishments happened in front of her co-workers, which made the scolding ten times worse.
It didn’t matter that Cassy was late because she’d only gotten two hours of sleep last night. It didn’t matter that she’d e-mailed a very important brief to her boss at four o’clock this morning, a brief that had been dumped on her desk yesterday after five o’clock. After finishing that assignment, Cassy had leaned back in her uncomfortable kitchen chair to rest her eyes “just for a moment” before heading to bed – which caused her to fall asleep in said chair. And since she’d fallen asleep in the kitchen, she hadn’t heard her alarm go off in her bedroom at six o’clock this morning.
Hence, why she was late.
Unfortunately, the fact that she’d worked twenty-one hours the day before had little bearing on the fact that she was fifteen minutes late today.
“Ms. Flemming,” a condescending and clearly irritated male voice barked barely a fraction of a second after she’d entered her office. Thankfully, Cassy had already put both of her cumbersome bags down and turned around, still holding the file folders confidently in her arms.
“Mr. Hanover!” she replied with her shoulders back and head held high, as if she were eager to see the man. She took the top file folder off of her stack. “The Osaka briefing is right here, although I also e-mailed it to you last night.” He opened his mouth to say something, but Cassy didn’t give him a chance. “The argument I compiled is powerful and I’ve found several cases to back up the defense.” He glanced down at the file, his mouth still open, but Cassy wasn’t going to endure any sort of tardiness reprimand! Not after the work she’d done last night. It was good stuff. She might be exhausted, but she was a damn good lawyer!
Instead of waiting for him to speak, she handed him the next file, explaining rapidly, unaware of the sparkle of excitement in her eyes. “I won the Simms case yesterday, but I wrote a follow up summary with all the issues we confronted during the trial, as well as a list of problems we might want to e-mail our clients in similar situations. The problems this defendant faced during court will come up again in several of the cases we are working right now. I’ve summarized the problems and how I solved them, then e-mailed them to each of the lawyers, as well as copying you so you’re fully up to date.”
She handed him the last file, which was the biggest, and continued, “This was the most interesting case and I cited several problems with the treaty. And let me say thank you so much for letting me review it. International law is the area I’d like to specialize in.”
Ian Hanover was obviously flustered as he accepted the case files, trying to balance each of them as Cassy handed them over while still listening to her explanations. “Ms. Flemming!” he finally interrupted. It only worked because Cassy was finished.
“Yes?” she asked, proud of the work she’d done during the previous twenty-four hours. Those briefs weren’t written by a bimbo. She’d worked long hours and done a huge amount of tedious, exhaustive research. Everything was summarized with exemplary writing and she hadn’t relaxed until each bullet point was succinct and powerful. No