Unchained Memories (3 page)

A scowl inched over Brad’s face, not a rare occurrence from the senior partner in the medical malpractice group of her firm.

“That’s a tough case. I’m putting Tom O’Connor on it. He has a few more years of experience.”

Charlotte pushed on. “I’m a fast learner. And I just won the Patterson case.”

When he didn’t respond, she slid forward in her seat. “I can do it. You know I can. That’s why you hired me. Besides, how can I gain more experience if you don’t give me a chance?”

“I am giving you a chance. On smaller cases. They’re the ones on which to hone your skills.” He turned to his computer, ignoring her. Was she dismissed?

But she couldn’t leave. Her mind spun, searching for a more persuasive plea.

He cut into her thoughts. “You can work on the Belton matter.”

Her head snapped up. She didn’t know much about the case, except Brad had been personally working on it, so it had to be major. “Great. Thanks, Brad,” she enthused, unable to contain her triumph.

“Don’t thank me yet. It’s a tough case. Gina Belton is a little younger than you. She had the world at her feet before she had surgery. Now she’s a quadriplegic. I’m still going to stay involved in the case, but I think Gina could use a strong woman like you in her corner.”

Perfect. Charlotte smiled, as Brad’s hard to win trust in her ability buoyed her spirit. “Do you have the file in here or is it in the cabinet?” She’d spend ten hours a day if she had to working the file to prove he’d made the right decision.

Brad pointed his thumb in the direction of his credenza. “Part of it is over there. The rest is in the file cabinet. Start reviewing it. The deposition of Dr. Gallway, the anesthesiologist, is scheduled for next Thursday at 1:00. See what you can do with him.”

Charlotte’s stomach tightened. Less than a week away. “No problem.” She picked up the massive redwell and headed toward the door.

“If you have any questions, I won’t be available until 7:30 tonight.”

Of course she’d have questions. She didn’t know anything about the case, and she only had six days to pore through the files and prepare to take a doctor’s deposition, a difficult task in any case. Yet, that’s what she wanted. And she thrilled at the chance.

“Okay. I’ll see you later.”

Striding down the hall toward an empty conference room, Charlotte raised her eyes heavenward. She prayed to the only angels she knew: her parents.
Please watch over me. Maybe give me a hand.
This was her chance to prove to her employers—and herself—she had her parents’ genes and intelligence, that she could walk in their footsteps.

While it had never been her intention to return to Princeton with its painful memories, when faced with the moral obligation to help her sister, Renee, she’d convinced herself she’d feel closer to her parents by working at their old firm. Maybe it would even allow her to come to terms with the heartache of the past, as an adult, and enable her to move on.

Eric, her ex-boyfriend, would have scoffed at that. In his eyes, she needed much more than a trip down memory lane to smash the fortress she’d built around her heart. Warding off emotional ties had been her specialty, and she’d been very successful.

The problem was, she desperately wanted to experience the loving relationship shared by her parents. She just couldn’t seem to be vulnerable like that. The two people she’d loved most in her life had departed her world in a flash, leaving her alone and rootless. Allowing herself to love someone again, with the risk of losing them due to some quirk in the universe, was just not something she could easily do. Instead, maybe even unconsciously, she continued to add brick and mortar to her walls.

Charlotte sighed. Analyzing herself had never worked before. Besides, she had more pressing matters at hand.

Removing the pleadings insert from the file, she turned to the complaint. Staring at the caption, she blinked and read it again. Gina Belton vs. Dr. Philip Gallway, Drs. John Doe, and Nassau General Hospital.

Her heart hammered. Nassau General. Where her mother died. Where Charlotte healed. Where Clay worked. She closed her eyes and exhaled, trying to rid herself of conflicting emotions. But what difference did her feelings make?

This was her job. The job she’d wanted. The job that could give her some sense of satisfaction for dealing with what had allegedly happened to her mother, since she’d never be sure. Although, her plan had not been to attack Nassau General. It had been a loftier goal, to help people who had been injured due to medical negligence. In honor of her mother.

But she didn’t get to pick the defendants. She worked for the plaintiffs. And because of another family tragedy, she was back in Princeton.

The complaint confirmed something went terribly wrong during Gina Belton’s surgery and she was now paralyzed from the neck down. She had a catastrophic injury, which required compensation.

Charlotte drummed her pen against her legal pad. Nassau General was a big hospital with competent counsel. They had to be used to these types of lawsuits. No one there would blame her for doing her job. If she happened to come across one or two of the doctors who knew her during the course of the case, they’d probably be proud of how far she’d come, what she’d achieved.

Her mind strayed to Clay. She could almost feel the sparks that had assaulted her as he’d held her close and guided her around the dance floor. She smelled the clean male scent that only belonged to him, the heat that came from his lips as he whispered against her temple, an invitation she’d desperately wanted to accept.

But how could she?

The other night, when she’d sidestepped his invitation, her hesitance had come from the fear that as soon as he learned she was a medical malpractice lawyer, their rekindled bond would be broken.

Now, it was even worse. She was directly involved in a suit against his hospital.

She sighed then pushed away any thoughts that might lessen her resolve. This is what she wanted, what she’d spent years preparing for.

Pulling the medical records insert from the file, she began taking notes. She had limited time to prepare for an important deposition. And she’d be damned if she’d let this client—her client—down.

Chapter Three

Charlotte’s heart squeezed the minute she walked though her sister’s front door. Renee sat on the floor, in semi-darkness, tears streaming down her cheeks as she sobbed. Piles of paper were spread around her in a semi-circle. She held what appeared to be a bill in her hand, then methodically ripped it into tiny pieces, and tossed the remnants on the floor with disgust. “I can’t do this,” she croaked.

“What can’t you do?” Charlotte kept her voice even and calm, hoping to soothe her sister’s nerves. “Maybe I can help.”

Renee gestured at the piles. “Payment on all these bills is late. More than late. I’ve been trying to organize them, thinking this routine task would take my mind off Jason. Here’s the AMEX bill.” She angrily grabbed at a statement. “There’s a charge on it from Nassau Jewelers. Jason’s Christmas gift to me.” Renee hugged herself, as if holding her body together as the anger rushed out and agony replaced it. “They were diamond hoop earrings. I should take them back. How could I wear them now? His last gift to me. His last ‘I love you.’”

Charlotte felt the sting of tears in her own eyes. “Maybe that’s why you should keep them.”

“Damn you, Jason. How could you do this to me?” Renee was oblivious to Charlotte, speaking to her husband as if he was right next to her. “I loved you. So much. We had our lives ahead of us. We had plans. Children to raise. I can’t do this alone.” She buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking with her sobs.

Charlotte searched for something to say, but nothing came to mind. After a few minutes, Renee unfolded her long limbs and walked toward the kitchen, stepping on whatever paperwork littered her path.

“Where are the kids?” Charlotte called through the wall. Hopefully they weren’t within range of their mother’s unstable condition.

Renee returned to the living room, blotting her eyes with a tissue with one hand and holding a can of soda in the other. “Next door at Donna’s. She offered to take them for a while so I could deal with this mess. She shouldn’t have bothered.”

Renee sipped her cola, apparently her only sustenance, for she looked even thinner than she had just a few days before.

Charlotte heard the despair hidden beneath the anger, and a jolt of pain shot through her at her sister’s plight. Just thirty-one and her husband dead, leaving her with two children under the age of five. Although three months had passed, she seemed to be getting worse with time. Her hair clung listlessly to her head in unwashed clumps, and her skin had taken on a grayish hue. Once manicured nails were bitten along with the skin surrounding them, and her shoulders slumped with the weight of inconsolable sadness. The only thing keeping her from fading into nothingness was her need to take care of Eva and Jake. And Charlotte wasn’t sure she was succeeding at that.

“Why don’t you go rest a while?”

Renee couldn’t have been sleeping well. The telltale smudges under her eyes were evidence enough.

When Renee headed upstairs, Charlotte took up Renee’s former spot on the floor and picked up the closest pile. At least her sister had organized them by creditor.

For the next three hours Charlotte dialed, waited for numeric prompts, listened to music and spoke to customer relations personnel. She retold the facts of Jason Peters’ sudden death and his distraught wife’s inability to focus on the mail. Charlotte promised to send out a check immediately if they would be so kind as to remove the penalties, service charges, and other usurious fees they had added to the bill. For the most part, she had been successful and the piles were dwindling, as were the blank checks.

Rolling her neck to stretch her aching muscles, she thought briefly of the work waiting for her at the office. The work she’d intended to get done today, so she wouldn’t be so overwhelmed on Monday when the phones were ringing off the hook, and her calendar was full of appointments and court appearances. “Oh well.” She sighed. “There’s always Sunday.”

“What’s the matter?” Renee asked as she came downstairs, looking no better than when Charlotte had sent her away.

“Nothing. I’m just a little sore from sitting in the same position.” She pushed herself up from the floor and twisted her body to get the blood moving. “But I’m getting close to the end. I’ve called everyone but Visa. All the checks are written and just waiting for your signature. If you do it now, I’ll take it all with me and mail them out.”

Renee looked at her with dull eyes and didn’t respond. As if she didn’t understand her.

“Renee. did you hear me?”

“Yes.” She didn’t make a move toward the checkbook Charlotte held out to her with the filled-in checks.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s not much money in the account.”

“So, you’ll transfer it from savings.” Charlotte felt like she was talking to a child.

“There’s nothing in there, either.” Renee stared at her hands twisting her wedding ring.

Charlotte held her exasperation in check. “Okay. So where is your money invested?” This was like pulling teeth.

“We don’t have any investments. We put everything into this house.”

Charlotte balled her fists and took a deep breath. Could that be true? Jason had been a reputable architect in the area. And Renee was the comptroller of a major pharmaceutical company. They had to be pulling down six figures each. Of course living in Princeton was not cheap, and Renee and Jason had enjoyed a very nice lifestyle. Neither of them would have contemplated an early demise. Who would?

Charlotte exhaled. She had just spent three hours making nice to cold-hearted customer service representatives, promising payment if they would only knock off the service charges, and now Renee was telling her it was all for naught?

“What about Jason’s life insurance? What did you do with that money?” There had to be funds somewhere.

“I never sent in for it. I couldn’t. I’m sorry. Would you do it for me?” Renee’s voice broke and Charlotte’s frustration immediately turned to sympathy.

Renee stood there helplessly, eyes downcast, and Charlotte felt the unfamiliar urge to hug away her sister’s embarrassment as well as the pain.

But that wasn’t the way they dealt with each other. Over the past ten years, since their parents’ deaths, they focused on their own lives, rarely reaching out to pull themselves closer together. Renee’s refusal to leave Harvard for a semester after the accident to be with Charlotte, set the stage for the years to follow. Instead of allowing the hurt to destroy Charlotte’s psyche, she built a thick shield around herself to keep Renee at a safe distance, never allowing her near enough to slip through any untended cracks.

And Renee never tried to penetrate that shield. Months segued into years, and the once close sisters—who in their happier teens shared clothes, friends and secrets—had found themselves on opposite sides of the country, with three thousand miles proving their divide.

No, she wouldn’t be hugging Renee.

Instead, she latched onto the frustration vying for the surface and kept her distance. Old habits died hard.

“When are you going back to work?” Charlotte asked, injecting a calmness in her tone she didn’t feel.

“I was supposed to go back a few weeks ago, but I changed my mind.”

Renee’s voice was so thin and powerless Charlotte let the last bit of irritation go.

“I think it might be a good idea if you get out of this house and do something productive. It can’t be good for you to wander around here all day feeling sorry for yourself.” Charlotte bit her lip, hoping her uneducated psychological advice wouldn’t hit the wrong button. “Maybe you should see a therapist. Someone to help you through this.”

“I thought that’s what you were doing.”

Charlotte didn’t miss the sarcasm in Renee’s voice.

“I’m trying to help, but I’m not a professional.”

Besides, Charlotte was beginning to lose her patience. It had been three months since Jason died. Three months since Charlotte had upended her life, quit her job in San Francisco, and started all over in Princeton. Yet, Renee hadn’t seemed to notice she was doing all she could in the little free time she had, while trying to prove herself at their parents’ old firm.