Second Chances (5 page)

“Northmont? That’s almost two hours away.”

“Yes, but it’s a great school,” Nichole said.  “And Kenni
already went there last year.”

“But, she came back? Did she not like it there?”

“She loved it,” Nichole said.

“So why did she come back?”

Nichole hesitated. “It wasn’t willingly. There was a court
document saying she could attend Northmont, but it isn’t in effect now. We need
to file paperwork to have her transferred again.”

Richard picked up a pen and tapped it thoughtfully against
his cheek. “Ah. So you need to file transfer paperwork with the school to get
her enrolled?  You shouldn’t need help with that.”

“I did,” she said, biting her lip.  “I filed for her twice
already. Both times she was declined.”

Richard leaned back in his chair.  “I see.  Did the school
say why?”

Nichole couldn’t think of a good answer.  “Demographics,”
she said.  “The school is mostly white.”

“Oh,” he said blankly.  “So, um, what did you need me to
help with?”

“The courts ruled last year that because Kenni’s school
doesn’t have accreditation, parents can file an injunction to send their kids
to a different district. We filed and got the injunction, and she was able to
attend Northmont.”

“So, she was going there because of the injunction?”

“Yes. But, the parents in the other school district fought
back and got the district changed, so now a technicality means the original
injunction no longer applies.”

“Ah, so you need me to file a new injunction,” Richard
finished. “And then she’ll be able to go to that school again.”

“Northmont is where her friends are,” Nichole said.  “It
took her a long time to get used to it, but now she’s stuck back at her old
school.  And she doesn’t like the school district we live in. So…can you help?”

Richard smiled.  “Absolutely.  In fact, it’ll be good
practice for you as well.  Go ahead and fill out the paperwork for your brother
and sister, bring it back and I’ll sign and file it.”

Nichole felt a huge weight drop off of her chest.  “Really?”

“Of course.”

“How…how much…?”

He held up his hand.  “No way would I take your money. 
You’ve been a life saver around here and anything I can do to help, I’ll do. 
Just get me the paperwork, I’ll double check everything, and it’ll be filed
first thing in the morning.  I know a judge who can expedite it.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” Nichole said.  She ran
around the desk and gave Richard a quick awkward hug, since he was still
seated.  “I’ll have it done in a few hours.”

“Take your time, there’s no rush.  I think everyone is
taking a half day today anyway, but I’ll still be here until five.”

“Okay, I’ll go start on that right now!”

Nichole was breathless as she left the office, elated at the
prospect.  Having Richard put his name to the injunction meant that it was all
but guaranteed to go through. 

Not only that, but it would save a few hundred, if not
thousand, dollars that neither she nor Rico had hiring a lawyer to handle this.

She hurried to her desk to print out the paperwork she would
need and started filling it out.  There were dozens of pages for each of her
siblings, but it didn’t feel like tedious work. Not with what was at stake, and
she was determined to miss no details.

Part of her felt bad for deceiving Richard. He had been good
to her, and she felt like she was dishonoring his trust by manipulating him.
She was withholding information and misleading instead of outright lying, but
it still felt wrong.

But, the thing was, she didn’t have a lot of options. Not if
she wanted a better life for her little sister and brother.  She had to figure
it out for herself since her mother had gone missing.

Richard couldn’t begrudge her that, right?

To be honest, it would have been a really good day, were it
not for the fact that Richard had to meet up with his brother later that evening.

He didn’t have anything personal against his younger sibling.
It was just that they hadn’t spoken in many years about anything more than
passing pleasantries. He didn’t really
know
his brother.

He knew Jason as the little brother who annoyed him, and as
the stoner in college who couldn’t get his life together. He’d never really
known him in the last twenty years, and certainly not the last ten.

It just never felt reasonable to go out of his way to spend
time with Jason. They had nothing in common, shared no interests, and had
nothing to talk about. Richard left home when he was in his early twenties and
never looked back. 

Jason and Richard had interacted more in the last few years,
after their mother died, but still only on occasion: sending emails about their
families and their work, never divulging more details than could be found on
social media.

Which was probably why Jason invited him to visit the
clinic.  Jason had opened his clinic years earlier for narcotics anonymous,
which he later expanded into alcohol and gambling as well.  It was a help
clinic for any addictions. 

Richard had never been to the clinic, but he surmised it was
like all other self-help clinics: dark, dingy, full of glazed over faces and
stinking of failure.

Maybe not a fair characterization, but he didn’t have the
ambition to find out differently. 

Several months earlier, Jason had invited Richard to visit during
one of his meetings. Richard, Jason surmised, could come for one session and
offer suggestions about how Jason could do better to improve the meetings.

Richard assumed his brother wanted validation, a chance to
show his older brother that, after everything, he wasn’t a total screw up.

This wasn’t long after their mother passed away, so Richard
agreed to go. Now he was regretting that decision.

Which was why he’d spent the next several months cancelling
every time his brother brought it up.

With a deep sigh, Richard punched his brother’s phone number
into his phone.  Jason picked up on the third ring.

“Hello,” Jason said.

“Hey Jason, its Richard.”

“Oh, hey Rick.  How are you?”

Richard hated to be called Rick.  “I’m fine.”

“Hey, we still on for tonight?”

“Of course.”

“Do you still want me to pick you up?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Richard said.  “Do I need to bring
anything with me?”

“Nah, I’ve got it all taken care of.  I’ll be by to pick you
up after work.”

“Sure,” Richard said.  “We won’t get back too late, will we?
I have to work early in the morning.”

“Should be done fairly early,” Jason said. “I’ll make sure
you get home at a decent time.”

“Okay,” he said.  “Sounds good.”

“See you tonight,” Jason said.

Richard clicked the phone off.  Nothing sounded less fun
than going to the meeting tonight with his brother, but now he was committed.

“Meghan,” Richard said, calling the front desk.  “Do I have
any more meetings for today?”

“None.”

“Then why are you still here?”

“I live here, sir.”

“I’m fairly certain your children would disagree with that
statement.”

“Not likely. I bet if I didn’t come home they wouldn’t look
up from their phones long enough to notice.”

“Not until they were hungry, at least.”

“So true,” she said.  “Like a pack of starving wolves.”

He checked his watch. Just after four.  He still needed to look
over Nichole’s paperwork before the day ended. 

“Is Nichole still here?”

“In her office. She dropped off a folder to me a while ago,
said you would look it over when you got a chance.  Do you want to come out and
get it?’

“Can’t you bring it in to me?”

She sighed.  “Sometimes, you lawyers can just be so damn
lazy.”

He laughed.  “Why don’t you tell me how you really feel,
Meghan?”

“No thanks,” she said.  “I still want to keep this job.”

She clicked the phone, and a few seconds later she opened
the door to his office, carrying a manila folder.

“She said this was for her sister.”

“Kenni.”

“Yep,” Meghan said. “And she’s almost done with Tyler’s
paperwork as well.”

“Good.”

“Let me know if you need anything else.”

“You didn’t take a half day?”

“No. I’m off tomorrow afternoon so I’m going to work some
extra hours this evening and put them all towards that.”

“Oh, okay,” Richard said.  “When I get these checked out and
signed, do you think you can file them for me in the morning?”

“Of course,” Meghan said.  “Just give them to me and I’ll
get everything straightened up.”

“Sounds good.”

“I’ll be out here if you need anything.”

Meghan disappeared back into the lobby and Richard turned to
the documents.

He opened the folder and started glancing over the details,
making sure it was filled out properly.  Nichole had impeccable handwriting,
easy to read.  She also had great attention to detail, missing nothing and
giving precise information.

He reached the last few pages and began furrowing his brow. 
After a few seconds, he called Nichole on her office phone.

“Hello?” she asked, answering.

“Hey, can I see you for a minute.”

“Sure,” she said. “I’ll be right over.”

He pulled the sheet in question out of the folder and set it
on the desk. Then he waited until she came in. 

She looked nervous as she entered. Not a good sign.

“Yes, sir?” she said.  “Is there anything you need?”

“The guardian section is filled in with your mother’s
information,” he said. 

“Yes,” she said.

“And signed,” he said, tapping his pen against the paper. 

“Uh huh.”

“But, it clearly says you need a notary to be present,” he
said.  “I
am
a notary, but I wasn’t present.”

“I, uh…my Mom just stopped in for lunch and signed it. Then
she had to get back to work.”

“Oh? She was here during lunch? I was here, in my office.
You could have grabbed me.”

“Yes but you were very busy today sir and I—”

“No,” he said. “I wasn’t busy at all, and would have loved
to meet your mother.  You’re always telling me about her. So why didn’t you
stop in with her when she came for lunch so I could meet her?”

“I apologize, sir.”

“It’s alright,” he said, frowning.  “I suppose I can just
check the video logs tomorrow morning and then sign as a notary…”

She bit her lip, hard enough to draw blood. Richard let out
a deep sigh and leaned back.

“I thought so.”

Her eyes fell to the floor and she turned back into that shy
girl.  He forgot sometimes just how young she was, not yet even twenty.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Time for the truth.  Why the forgery?”

Nichole sniffed, a tear dropping down her cheek. 

“I didn’t have a choice,” she said.

“Come on, it can’t be
that
much of a rush that we
can’t have your Mom sign the papers later?”

“I was just hoping you would be able to sign it for me, so I
can get it filed and get my sister transferred.”

Richard frowned, and glanced down.  “It needs to be
witnessed by a notary. I could lose my law license and my notary license if I
signed off on this without looking into it.”

“But, just this one—”

“No,” he said firmly.  “I’m not going to sign a forgery for
you.”

Tension hung in the air.

“Can I just have the documents back?” she asked.  “And we
can forget about it.”

“I’m not saying I can’t fix it,” Richard said, loosening up
a little bit. “We can have your Mom stop in anytime tomorrow and sign it. I’ll
forget this ever happened and get it filed next week. It isn’t that big of a
deal.”

Nichole bit her lip.

“She can’t come in.”

“I can go to her if you need me to. I can stop over tomorrow
night after work and meet her. It isn’t too far out of my way.”

“No,” she said.

“Why not?”

“Look, can we just forget about this and—”

“Why can’t I meet with her?” Richard interrupted, frowning. 
“What aren’t you telling me?”

“It’s nothing…”

“It’s obviously something, so why don’t you just—”

“Richard, please just drop it.”

“What’s wrong?”

Nichole was getting emotional, standing in the doorway. 
Richard could see it on her face, how much this bothered her. She looked like
she was about to flee from his office, scared and timid.  He hated seeing her
like this, but he needed to get the details and understand what was going on.
He needed to know why she had just asked him to commit fraud.

“Nothing is wrong.”

“Look, I just want to help but I can’t if you don’t tell
me—”

“We don’t know where she is.”

Richard coughed. Nichole just blurted it out, and he could
tell she immediately regretted it.  

“Excuse me?”

Nichole was silent for a long minute, and when she spoke her
voice was soft.

“We don’t know where Mom is.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, she left a few months ago, and we don’t know
where.”

“Like left, left, or was kidnapped, or…?”

“We don’t know.”

“Did you call the police?”

“We did, and they put out a missing persons bulletin. We
call them every day, but they just tell us that there’s nothing they can do
about it. Tough luck.”

Richard was struggling to process this information. Details
swam around in his mind and he tried to piece it together. “But, you never said
anything about it. When did she go missing?”

“Four months ago,” Nichole said.

“So a little while after you started working here.”

Nichole bit her lip. “Yes.”

“But you never brought it up.”

“No.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I was afraid…if I brought it up, you would fire me.”

“Why would you think that?”

“I had only just started, and didn’t really know anyone
here.  And…I guess I just…”

“Kept lying,” Richard finished.

Nichole shrugged. “It just seemed easier.  I didn’t feel
like I could tell the truth, and it didn’t seem to matter.”

“It didn’t matter that your mother had gone missing?”
Richard asked.

Nichole looked at the floor.  “It didn’t seem important to
anyone else. I figured you would be no different.”

The words hurt, feeling like a punch in Richard’s stomach. 
“Of course it was important. I would have helped…”

“Helped do what?”

Richard floundered, having no answer. “That’s crazy,”
Richard said instead, rubbing his face with his hands.  “She’s been missing
this long, and no one knows what happened?”

“The police station said it isn’t unusual. There are
thousands of missing person’s cases that get no attention.”

“I had no idea,” Richard said.

“I’m sorry,” she said. 

“Then where are you living?”

“The apartment we’ve always lived in,” Nichole said.  “My
brother and I have been paying the bills.”

“How are you getting by?”

“My brother is working, and I have a part time job as well.”

“Yeah, but even then, how are you possibly paying for
everything on top of your school?”

She bit her lip.

“Nichole…”

She didn’t respond, only looked at the ground.

“You aren’t in school, are you?”

“I dropped out,” she replied.  “We couldn’t afford it and I
had to get a job to help pay for the food and everything.”

Richard blew out a deep breath of air.  “Then why are you still
coming here?” he said. “There’s no sense in showing up if you didn’t enroll in
classes this semester.”

He glanced down at the paperwork on his desk; it was only awaiting
his signature:

“Oh. That’s why. You wanted me to take care of this, and
then you would go?”

“It wasn’t like that,” Nichole said, panicking. 

He felt a surge of anger. “It wasn’t? It sure as hell looks
like that?”

“I didn’t just stay because of that. I
like
working
here.  I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer and I really appreciate the
opportunity. Everything you’ve done for me. I really appreciate it.”

Richard felt heat in his chest as the words sunk in. He felt
betrayed and lied to, both of which infuriated him.

“You never told me anything.”

“No, I—”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he said, anger rising in his voice. 
“First you lied about your Mom. It’s been months and you haven’t told me a damn
thing!”

“I didn’t know what to say—”

“And now you come to me and
lie
about college to try
and get me to do this for you?”

“I didn’t mean to lie!” she said.  “I just didn’t know what
else to do—”

“I could get in trouble!” he said, standing up.  “For
something like this. We can get in trouble with our partners for keeping you
here when you aren’t in school. Do you know how many other students would kill
for this internship?”

“I know,” she said, defeated.  Another tear slipped down her
cheek.  “I know.”

“But the worst part,” he said. “Is that you lied to me. 
After all this time, you lied to
me
.”

“I didn’t think you would help me.”

“So you made that decision for me? You just decided I
wouldn’t come through, and it was better to lie to me about everything
instead?”

“I didn’t plan to lie.”

“But then you kept lying anyway.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Get out.”

“Sir, please let me explain—”

“GO!” he shouted. 

She slipped out the door and Richard leaned heavily against
his desk.  He sat back down in his chair and let out a deep sigh.  Angrily, he
crumpled up the sheet of paper with the forgery on it and threw it in his
trashcan.