“Really?” she said, surprised. “Hmm. But this lawyer, this Mr. Kosianos, can’t demand a hundred thousand dollars for his client because I scared his dog, can he?”
Hazel’s stomach tightened. “The lawyer who contacted you is named Kosianos? Billy Kosianos?”
“Yes! How do you know his first name?”
“Fuck! Shit! Fuck!”
Her mother gasped in shock. “Hazel! Watch your language.”
“Sorry, Mom, I know him and…” …the last time I saw him, I spat on his shiny shoes. She cleared her throat. “Let’s just say he doesn’t like me. So if he saw your name and connected it to me…”
“I couldn’t care less. He can't charge me a hundred thousand dollars for a shaken dog with a scratch on its paw!”
Hazel narrowed her eyes, nausea flooding her stomach. “Yes, he can,” she muttered. “If he does it right.” And Billy Kosianos might have been an asshole who had aggressively treated her like dirt throughout her college years — but shit, he was a smart,sly, shitty lawyer who would walk over dead bodies when it suited him. The only man whose wrath he’d ever been afraid of sat on the other side of the glass door. Gareth might have beaten him up once — and Hazel might have been the reason. But that was eons ago, and…
Okay, she needed to focus.
“Shit,” she whispered before squaring her shoulders. “Mom, I’ll come right over and help you with this.”
“No, no. I just want a recommendation for a lawyer. You’re busy enough, honey.”
“Fine, but then let me pay him.”
“Honey…no.”
“Mom! You’re not going to pay several thousand dollars for a lawyer to get out of this ridiculous lawsuit when your daughter’s a lawyer and, as you so graciously pointed out, makes an incredible amount of money.” Besides, she was almost certain Billy was only pushing hard because he’d read the last name, done some research, and decided he could get one over on Hazel. Hazel’s father had died when she was a child, and her mother had always been poor. She had worked herself nearly to death to pay the remaining college expenses, which none of Hazel’s three scholarships had covered. And even now, she refused to accept any money from Hazel, even though she would gladly repay her for all that blood and sweat. Her mom had done everything she could to give Hazel a better future. The thought that she had almost willingly given up on her goal during college still sickened Hazel. She owed it to her only family to give her best and not a single percent less. She had owed it to herself to ignore all the mean comments from her classmates, to prove the professors wrong – the ones who told her she wouldn’t graduate – and to give the middle finger to anyone who gave her tattered backpack and threadbare clothes a disparaging glance. Harvard had worn her out — not because of the classes or the workload,but because of all the privileged rich kids who had judged her with their askance looks and put her down with their words. But she would have betrayed her mother and her hard work if she let that unsettle her, or let anyone deter her from her goal of graduating at the top of her class. She had wanted to show the whole world that she had earned respect and success through hard work and intelligence. Alone, without help.
“Honey, I don’t want to burden you. You’re already overworked. I want you to make more time for your personal life, not for my little aches and pains.”
“Littleaches and pains?”
“Besides, you said that civil law was never your strong suit. So you wouldn’t be the right person to talk to anyway. Just set me up with another lawyer.”
Hazel pressed her lips together. There was, unfortunately, some truth to what her mother was saying. Civil law had been the only subject in which Gareth had beaten her every time, and if Kosianos knew she was his opponent, he’d be all the more likely to ruin her mother. He'd do it just to show Hazel that he still possessed power she could never have because she was a woman and grew up poor. Shit.
“I can google it. I just wanted to know if I really needed to get a lawyer, so…”
“No. I know a very good lawyer who owes me a favor,” Hazel interrupted her mother impatiently. “He’ll help you for free. Would that be okay?”
“Oh, yes. I guess so. If you don’t mind asking him…?”
Oh, she did mind because it would cost her more than just her pride. But she wanted to be there for her mother and show her that all the things she’d given up for her daughter had been worth it.
“I don’t mind,” she croaked. “It’s no problem at all. We’ll be right over, okay?”
“Great. I’ll bake some cookies! See you soon.”
Her mother hung up, leaving Hazel feeling like she was harboring a giant balloon in her stomach that was about to burst. And, God, that would hurt.
She had no choice but to bite the bullet – and that was waiting on the other side of the door.
Groaning inwardly, she hurried into Gareth’s office.
“I have comments,” he called out, sliding the revised set of papers toward her.
She laughed. “I’m shocked. But fine, go ahead.”
“The gummy bear clause is gone. So is the hand kiss. I’mnotgoing to do a dance of shame whenever you win an argument.”
