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She just handed her over with no proof, no DNA—just going on the big biker’s word and what kind of fool did that make her? A huge damn fool—that’s what kind. She was feeling off her game since her sister showed up on her doorstep, drunk out of her mind, with a baby in tow. It should have been something she saw coming, but she was still shocked that her sister could be such a heartless bitch of a mother. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree for her sister—she turned out to be exactly like their mother. Always bringing home strange men to live with them, staying out and partying all the time, and leaving both of her daughters to fend for themselves at an early age. Yeah—her sister’s latest fuck-up shouldn’t have surprised her at all, but it did.
Trinity had always hoped that Charity would find a way out of that life as she had. When their mother took off, leaving them to both go live with a great-aunt that neither of them knew, Trinity vowed never to turn out like her mom. Their father wasn’t really in the picture much at that point, and she and her sister were as good as orphaned. They would have been living on the street if it wasn’t for their great-aunt. She and Charity used to lay awake at night, in the little twin bed that they shared, and dream about the life that they wanted—one where they were living in a big apartment and had nice clothes, and lots of food to eat. All the necessities in life that they should have been provided by their mother, but never had. But then, Charity turned eighteen and took off, just like their mother had. Trinity was only sixteen at the time and Charity said she couldn’t take her with her. She promised to send for her just as soon as she found a job and a place to stay, but that never happened. She left Trinity just like their mother had and for her, that was unforgivable.
She saw her sister once in a while—usually when she was in trouble or needed money. Her sister was always good to show up with her hand out or ask a favor that was going to cost Trinity so much more than just giving her sister some cash. Trinity found a way to work her way through school, even getting a partial scholarship to help. She moved out of her great-aunt’s place and into the dorms at school and for a while, she felt as though she had made it. She felt like she was living the dream that she and her sister used to lay awake at night to talk about. But that only made her miss Charity even more.
She tried to track down her sister, for the better part of her senior year of college, with no real luck. When she found out that Charity had taken up with a biker and had basically joined a biker club—whatever that was, she gave up trying to reach her sister. It was time that she find her way forward and give up on the silly pipe dreams that they had come up with together. Her dreams were going to look the same, she’d just have to learn to go it alone. That worked for Trinity—being alone wasn’t something that she minded. She had already spent so much of her life alone; this would be nothing new to her.
Trinity worked her way through law school and when she graduated at the top of her class and gave the commencement speech, there was no one there to cheer her on or to watch her walk across the stage. She was fine with the loneliness, but when Charity showed up on her doorstep with Arabella, she felt that tiniest bit of hope that had her rethinking her lone wolf status. Hope that she’d have the family she always wanted as a kid, but that was quickly dashed when her sister dumped her kid on her and took off once again. She was a fool for believing that her sister might have cleaned up her act and wanted her to be a part of her life again. She was an even bigger fool for letting her niece steal a little piece of her heart, but the little bugger had a way of weaseling her way into Trinity’s heart in just a few short hours. In fact, that kid was all she could think about all afternoon, and getting any more work done wasn’t going to happen. She’d been good, keeping to herself, and not calling to check in with Ace every day, to see how Arabella was doing—even though she wanted to.
Trinity grabbed her bag and purse, loading most of the contents from her desk into the big bag she carried back and forth to work every day. She was constantly bringing her job home with her, but what else did she have going on? Trinity had nothing waiting for her at her tiny apartment other than a sad TV dinner and whatever was on television that night. She shut down her computer and turned off the lights in her tiny office, poking her head out to find her assistant still hard at work. Yeah—she was an ass for ducking out early, but if she didn’t go to see her niece, she’d let the questions that plagued her over the past week continue to occupy her thoughts, keeping her from her caseload.
“Hey Beck,” she breathed. Her assistant looked up and smiled at her.
“Hi Trinity,” Beck said. “Can I do something for you?”
“Um—no,” Trinity said. Her assistant was one of the best in the whole firm. Beck Dax could work for any of the partners in the law firm, but she stuck with Trinity. She was honored that Beck didn’t try to use her to climb the corporate ladder and Trinity was sure that she could count Beck as one of her friends, although they were hard to come by for her. She didn’t really have any good friends and what did it say about her that she counted her assistant as a “friend”?
“What’s up, Trinity?” Beck asked, standing to round the desk. She looked so concerned that Trinity almost wanted to giggle.
“Nothing bad,” Trinity said. “I just need to run an errand and I’m cutting out a little early today. If you need me, I’ll be reachable by cell.” She turned to leave the office and then changed her mind. “You know what—never mind. You should play hooky for the rest of the day. Have some fun,” Trinity ordered.
“But I have all this work and—” Beck started to protest and Trinity held up her hand, effectively stopping her.
“And it will all be here in the morning. Just go, Beck. You need a day off once in a while,” Trinity insisted.
“Well, that’s rich coming from you. You don’t take any personal time off, Trinity,” Beck accused. “You sure you’re okay?” she asked. She thought it was sweet that Beck seemed concerned for her, but she also knew that telling her assistant about her looser sister would open a door into her private life that she’d sooner leave closed. She didn’t tell anyone about her childhood or her sister; it just wasn’t something she liked talking about. A part of Trinity worried that if she opened up to someone and told them about her crazy family, they’d judge her unjustly, and that was something she couldn’t allow.
“I’m fine,” she lied. “I just have a few errands to run, and they can’t wait until quitting time. Here are Mr. Johnson’s divorce papers. Can you make sure they get sent over to him and that he knows where to sign? I want to get this one wrapped up as soon as possible.”
Her specialty was criminal law. Hell, it’s what she went to law school for. She wanted to put away the bad guys and help the good ones. But that wasn’t how things were working out for her. No, the firm had her stuck in divorce court hell. She was carrying a caseload that made her frustrated enough to want to quit most days, but she wasn’t a quitter. Trinity knew she was being punished. She pissed off the senior partner, Mr. Hopkins. He asked her to dinner, and she foolishly turned him down flat in front of a few other office staff members who were nosing around the break room. She used to believe that was his fault for asking her to dinner in such a public place, but she could have handled things better than she did. Trinity had heard the rumors. She heard about the predator in the firm that preyed on new lawyers wanting to work their way up. But she wasn’t desperate enough to sleep with the senior partner. She wanted nothing to do with climbing her way up the corporate ladder by sleeping her way through the office. Saying no to dinner was something she had regretted every day since saying it to Mr. Hopkin’s face. She should have just gone out with him and figured things out on the fly, but she let her foolish pride and ego get in the way of making better choices. And now, she was paying daily for making him look the fool by turning him down flat in front of some of the staff.
“Will do, boss,” Beck said. “I’ll see you in the morning. You have court at eleven,” she reminded.
“Yeah—I’ll work on that stuff tonight after I get home from running my errands,” Trinity said. Taking off early to check on her niece was going to cost her some of her downtime later. Oh, who was she kidding? She wasn’t sleeping much lately, and she usually worked well into the early morning hours, even falling asleep with her laptop on her chest, sprawled out in her bed.
“Don’t work too late,” Beck called after her as she got onto the elevator.
Trinity smiled and waved back at her. “No promises,” she said, just as the elevator doors closed.
