The Cost of Happiness: A Contemporary Romance Read Online Free Page A

more than twelve thousand dollars. We believe she bilked people out of more than a hundred grand. That money has to be repaid. Plus, there’s the matter of the fines.” He let his voice trail off.
    “None of which I’m responsible for, in either sense of the word,” Meghan pointed out.
    “Perhaps not. But those people deserve to get paid back. So here’s the deal. We drop the charges, in exchange for which you agree to be jointly responsible for the fines and restitution.”
    “No way,” Meghan said. She stood up. “The fines are going to be well into six figures. I don’t have that money.”
    Walczek stood to face her. She looked up at his fleshy face, shiny despite the air conditioning. “Okay, we drop the fines. Agree to help Bianca pay the restitution.”
    Meghan calculated. If she could finish law school, she’d be making decent money. Maybe she could defer her clerkships for a year or two to work in the private sector, pay the victims their money. She’d be poor, but that wouldn’t be much different from her life now.
    “When you have a conviction against my mother, I’ll agree to help repay the restitution, up to one hundred thousand dollars. No more.”
    “Deal.” Walczek shook her hand.
    Meghan tensed, quelling the urge to wipe her palm on her black pants.
    He opened the folder he’d been holding and pulled out a form. “Your mother has agreed to a plea bargain. We’re submitting the paperwork to the court in a couple of weeks.” He handed the form over. “We’ll add your agreement then. Sign at the bottom.”
    Meghan opened her mouth to protest, to ask for the extra year she needed to graduate, but closed it without complaint. She’d gambled that she could handle this without a lawyer, and she’d lost. The feeling of failure, of losing something good, stung in too many familiar ways.
    She reached for the pen and scrawled her signature next to the “sign here” sticky tab.
    Once again, her mother was ripping the toy out of her hands. Only this time, it wasn’t a doll or a stuffed animal. It was her law degree.
     

     
    Dan packed another box of books. He loved his apartment at the eastern end of Arch Street. A Victorian warehouse cleverly converted into flats that took advantage of the huge windows facing south. Only a few blocks from his office. Which was why he had to move. He needed to be closer to the Fergusson offices. Anyway, it was time for a change. He’d been in one place for far too long.
    He stopped mid-afternoon to make a phone call.
    “Hey, Dan.”
    “Happy Father’s Day.”
    “Thanks. Your mother is here. Do you want to talk to her?”
    Dan rolled his eyes. “No, I’m calling you. On Father’s Day.”
    His father laughed. “Yeah, okay.”
    “So, how have you been?”
    “Your mother and I have been great. She tells me you have a new job?”
    “In a couple weeks. I’m going to be a partner at Fergusson and Leith.” Dan could have explained that Fergusson was one of the top firms in Philadelphia, but his father had the usual doctor’s attitude toward lawyers.
    “So you’ll be defending the people you’ve previously been trying to put in jail?”
    “Nope, I didn’t want to do white-collar criminal cases any more. I’m taking over Georgia Moran’s complex litigation practice group. She’s heading to Washington and can’t take any of her clients with her.”
    “And this law firm is putting you in her place? That seems risky.”
    Deep breath. “Why do you say that, Dad?”
    “You’ve never done this work before. I would have figured they’d promote someone else, then slip you in as a, you know, a more junior guy.”
    A more junior guy . Didn’t that just sum up everything. “Believe it or not, they wanted me enough to give me Moran’s practice group. It looks good on Fergusson’s website to have a former federal prosecutor as a partner.”
    “If you say so.”
    Dan looked at the sweep-second hand of his watch. Twenty seconds. Ten. Five.