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“Even if you’re right and he’s guilty, everyone deserves to have the best representation in court they can get. It’s their right as an American.”
“I disagree. They deserve a fair trial, sure, but you know as well as I do that the justice system is broken. Prosecutors use every dirty trick they can just to win. They don’t care if the person is innocent or not, and lawyers like me will do anything to get our clients off even if we know they did the crime.”
“It isn’t our place to judge if they’re guilty or not. We should assume our clients are innocent and help them to the best of our ability. It’s up to a jury to decide guilt.”
“That is such an idealistic, foolish way to think! I used to be like you. I didn’t care if they were guilty. It wasn’t my job to know. I defended them anyway until...”
He broke off, raw emotion cracking his voice.
“Until what?” she asked.
Instead of answering the question, he returned to the earlier matter of their fake engagement. “I filled your office with lilies and proposed to you on one knee with orchestra music playing over the intercom. My father brought me up to be a gentleman with old-fashioned values, so I bought you a beautiful ring. But I gave you the option of exchanging it if you didn’t like it.” He pointed at the glove compartment. “It’s in there, by the way.”
She opened the compartment to find a velvet box with a stunning princess cut diamond in a sterling silver setting. He’d thought of everything. For a moment, she thought his plan might work. Maybe they could fool his family for a few days. Then they’d return to work. No one would think it was odd they didn’t spend a lot of time together since they were both workaholics with difficult jobs.
She tried the ring on. It fit like a dream. Her heart thundered in her chest. “I can remember that proposal. Simple but sweet. Now, what about our work issue. How did we find enough time to spend together so that wecouldfall in love?”
He grinned, and the tension in his body seemed to ease. “There is always a way. If I wanted to be with you, I would work late nightswithyou. We would jog on Saturday mornings, spend the rest of the day together and the nights, of course.” She blushed, but he didn’t notice with his eyes on the road. “If I had to work on a weekend, I would make sure you were right there with me. I’d try my opening and closing arguments on you and listen to yours. We’d bounce ideas off each other.”
It sounded amazing. Too bad real life wasn’t like that. He painted a pretty picture, but that’s all it was in her mind. His dog pushed his nose between the seats. She ran a hand over his furry head. She envied Skylar. She’d wanted a dog while growing up even though she was allergic. Her twin sister had resented her because they couldn’t have one. After her family died, she went into foster care, and they always sent her to the homes without pets. That was hard on a little girl already missing her family. It would have been nice to bury her face in a sympathetic furry neck and cry.
Memories brought back a load of pain. She turned to stare out the passenger side window as hot tears pricked her eyes. How was she going to survive a holiday weekend with strangers while pretending she was in love with their son? She’d been wrong to assume the hardest thing about it would be fooling his parents. If they were a good, loving family, the hardest thing would be watching them love each other while knowing she’d never be a part of it.
