Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
I really needed to get my ass in gear and not keep my appointment waiting too long. My fingers hovered over the keys, debating my response to his text for a few heartbeats. Screw it. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Layla: I miss you, too.
***
Mackenzie Cartwright, my afternoon consultation, entered my office with one of those fancy strollers and a sleeping little girl. Can’t say that had ever happened before. Aside from the fact that eighty percent of my clients were men, the women I occasionally provided services to kept their business and personal lives very separate. I didn’t have a clue whether most of them even had a family.
I extended my hand. “Layla Hutton. It’s nice to meet you, Miss Cartwright.”
She corrected me. “It’s Ms.”
“Oh. Yes. Of course.” I waved to the three guest chairs on the other side of my desk. Please, have a seat. Can I get you anything to drink?”
“No, thank you. But if we could please keep our voices down so my daughter doesn’t wake up, that would be great.”
“Sure,” I said, realizing I hadn’t actually lowered my voice at all. “Sorry.” I whispered. “Of course.”
I walked around my desk and waited for Ms. Cartwright to settle in. She wore a light jacket—even though it was probably seventy-five degrees out today—and dark sunglasses. But she took her seat without removing either.
Okay. Whatever.
“So…the paralegal who did your intake and set up the appointment said you have a partnership disagreement you want advice on?”
She seemed to be staring at me. I waited in awkward silence for her to finally answer.
“That’s right.”
“Why don’t you start from the beginning?” I looked down at the client intake form the paralegals complete during a phone interview before we bring on a new client. “It says here that you suspect your partner is misappropriating funds?”
She stared at me some more. This was the oddest initial client meeting ever. Again, I waited for her response through a long, awkward silence.
It gave me the chance to take a good look at her. She was attractive, but a little too thin. Her high cheekbones, which could have looked modelesque with another fifteen or twenty pounds, instead jutted from her pale, grayish skin. Upon closer inspection, I thought her thick dark hair, which covered a good portion of her tiny face with heavy bangs, might actually be a wig. I tried to see her eyes, but they were hidden behind the dark tint of her oversized glasses.
At some point, the waiting and checking each other out just became weird, and I felt the need to prompt her response again. “Have you spoken to your partner about the issue yet?”
“Yes.”
Okey-dokey, then. I was only going to get one-word answers, apparently. Normally these were the types of responses I got from the client of opposing counsel during a deposition, not from my own. Clients seeking help usually couldn’t wait to tell me their stories.
“And what is your partner’s position on the misappropriation? Does she admit to having taken the funds?”
“He.”
“Oh. Okay. Does he admit to having taken the funds?”
“No.”
“Is he still a signatory on the partnership bank accounts?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Well, the first thing we can do is go to court and ask for an injunction that restrains him from being able to withdraw any money or cash any checks without both your signatures. That way, you’re still able to utilize the partnership funds for legitimate business purposes you can agree on, but neither of you will be able to make a unilateral decision to withdraw for personal use.”
“Fine.”
“Do you have an accounting of the funds that you believe were misappropriated?”
“No.”
“How about a rough idea?”
She stared at me some more.
Frustrated, I motioned with my hands for her to speak. “Is it…one thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand? It doesn’t have to be exact. We’ll call it estimated at approximately…”
“Six million.”
I raised my brows. “Six million?”
“Yes.”
I felt like I was being punked. Who comes into a law office to discuss their partner stealing from their business, yet doesn’t want to actually provide any information, and when the estimated theft is dragged out of them…it turns out to be six million dollars?
I put down my pen and stopped taking notes. Something was definitely off. “And these funds…these were taken from business profits?”
She shook her head. “They were funds we both contributed from a prior business venture we were part of. Transfers from our old firm.”
“Start-up investment capital, then?”
“Yes.”
“You each contributed an equal amount of the start-up funds?”
“I’m not sure.”
I squinted. “Okay. So eventually, if we went to a trial on something like this, we’d have to prove who put in what and where it came from. Would that be a problem?”
A sweet little voice stole both our attention. “Mama.”
With a giant stretch, the sleeping beauty in the stroller came to life. The little girl was gorgeous. A massive head full of dark curls, pert little nose, and pale green eyes. I smiled at her, and she shot me a toothy grin before covering her face with the blanket, playing shy.