Thank you so much for having read and like my story. It made my day.
Here is the second chapter.
And as you know the characters are not mine but the story is.
Enjoy !
When Elena entered, the conference room was very quiet. Elijah and his new customers had not yet arrived and there were only two other fellow lawyers, their back to the door. They were sitting close to one other on the small section of the L shape arranged dark tables. Their heads were low as they were both typing on their Smartphone. She recognised Andrew Spane from his short dirty blonde hair and his slightly too large suit on his small frame. On his left, she spotted the slim form of Katherine Pierce dressed in her trademark very tight red suit and creamy white blouse.
Andrew Spane was a nice albeit a little shy man. Elena often heard the assistants gossiping over him with his shining green eyes and gentlemanlike attitude. He had joined the firm recently having moved from another state. On the few occasions Elena had worked with him, she had enjoyed her time. Andrew Spane scarcely talked but it was always insightful and well pondered.
On the other hand, Katherine Pierce had always been the bane of her existence. They had been hired almost at the same time a couple of years ago. Since then, the two women have been competing on every project with the objective of becoming one day a Partner. Sometimes Elena wondered if Elijah was not encouraging this competition by turning a blind eye to their behaviour.
It did not help that the two women shared an uncanny resemblance. They were both brunette with chocolate brown eyes and a medium height. Some of the clients were even mistaking them for sisters. But the resemblance stopped there. Personality wise they were polar opposite like the plus and the minus of the same magnet.
Elena was the quiet discreet type whereas Katherine was the flirtatious obnoxious centre of the universe type. To say that they liked each other would be a complete misunderstanding. Most of the time, they were just ignoring the other but in some cases like this morning they had to play their part and be civil to one other.
Deep down Elena knew that Katherine despised her and the feeling was mutual. Katherine represented everything she did not want to be: selfish, lonely and heartless.
Elena made her way to the seat at Katherine's right with a "good morning" to her colleagues that only Andrew reciprocated.
She set down her coffee and folder on the table but the pen she was holding bounced back on the table and landed on the floor. Sighing Elena pushed back the chair and bent down to recover her blue pen that had made its way to the other side of the table. A little bit more and she would have had to crawl under it. Hopefully, she managed to grab it easily. She slowly stood up and proceeded to put the pen on the table next to her notebook. When she raised her eyes, Katherine was smirking at her. Elena frown wondering what was happening but decided against asking. Katherine was just being a pain as usual.
Elena sat down next to her and the two women resumed their ignoring each other act.
However, they did not have to wait long. Soon the handle of the door on the other side of the room was pushed down and the three lawyers stood to greet their boss.
Elijah opened the door but moved to the side to let a young woman and an older man enter first. Elena stared at the woman she supposed to be Meredith Fell and was surprised by how young she looked like. She was expecting a woman in her mid-thirties but the beautiful dark haired woman that stood in front of her must have been hardly thirty.
She was dressed with a cotton black dress that reached her knees and covered her shoulder up until the middle of her arms with a white Peter Pan collar. It was classy but screaming money. She had dark rings under her bright black eyes that her make-up was concealing with difficulties. She was walking with a noble poise, her back completely straight and her feet barely touching the floor. She looked like she was floating.
Elena understood instantly why this woman had been the headline for years of mode magazines. When she entered a room she was attracting the attention of all the people. Men could not resist her and women could not help their envy. She was truly the heir of a rich businessman that had been born into luxury and worriless world. She almost completely overtook the two men that followed her into the conference room.
Elena noticed that Elijah was still his usual self, a confident, good looking dark blond man in his constant dark grey suit and blue tie.
But what really intrigued Elena was the third person. Logan Fell was the head of the Fell conglomerate and he was the richest men of the city, even maybe of the country. He had inherited a small shoe factory from his father when he was twenty five and ten years after he had turned it into a worldwide company. They were still making shoes but they had expanded towards clothes, accessories and home furniture. Now at the age of fifty, he was trying to enter the very selective world of top fashion by launching his first luxury brand.
Elena was surprised at how normal he looked like. Of course, his clothes were sending the "I'm filthy rich" vibe. But his face was kind and his grey and white hair was giving him a sexy look. Hell, she was finding him attractive!
Elijah closed the door behind him and mentioned for his two guests to sit down. Being in the small conference room, there were not many chairs and Meredith sat on Elena's left with her father on her right and Elijah to the end.
"Well, I suppose you all know why I called you here." Elijah's voice was calm but authoritative. The lawyers nodded and Elena silently thanked Bonnie for her thorough early work.
Elijah smiled at seeing the dedication on his employees' face. He knew that he could count on them. He took pride in his abilities in finding the best among the best. Once he had chosen someone he rarely failed.
"Today, we will decide which one of you will represent Mrs Fell and her son." He kept on.
"Actually, Mrs Fell will choose one of you." He finished looking at the woman with a kind smiling face.
"I have already discussed this morning the particular of the case with Mrs Fell and her father. The one that will be in charge of the case will have freedom to go in the direction they want but always in respect to our client best interest. Mrs Fell is our most important client and I want you to gain her respect and her trust. The sooner you disappoint her, the sooner you lose the case. This is matter of truly importance and as much as I know your worth, I want complete success from you. Of course the one that will be in charge will be removed from all his other cases that will be dispatched to the other two."
Andrew and Katherine were completely under Elijah's spell looking at anything else but him. Elena, on the contrary, was more interesting into checking Meredith Fell and her father reaction to the whole ordeal. The two have followed Elijah with a serious expression, but when Meredith had smiled a little along the way, Logan Fell had been nodding in parts and had straighten himself to look more menacing she presumed. At one point, he had looked at her and had raised his eyebrow questioning but she had nodded and offered him a kind smile than he slowly returned.
Elijah mentioned to his three employees to sit down but before Elena could do it, he turned towards her.
"Elena my dear, before taking your seat, can you turn on the light it is rather dark in the room?" He asked with her usual kind voice.
She nodded. "Of course."
She went back to the door from which she entered the room and immediately the light erupted in the room casting a more animated atmosphere to their meeting.
When she came back to her place, Meredith Fell was looking at her with a strange expression on her face.
"Do you have kids?" She asked with soft slow voice.
The question came a little out of nowhere and Elena felt her mouth dropped in surprise. However she recovered quickly and after a quick pondering, she decided to go with the truth.
"Yes." She answered
"How many?" Meredith inquired further with a small encouragement of her head.
Elena was surprised by how nice Meredith's voice was. She was talking with a soothing tone articulating each word.
"One boy and two girls."
Meredith nodded. "I thought so" she said with a small smile showing up on her face.
"You have the mark of a hand on your back." She added with a quiet laughter.
Elena's eyes opened in horror and she heard Katherine chuckled on her other side. That was why the devilish bitch was so smug before. She had seen it when she bent to recover that damn pen.
Elena slowly turned her head, her hand lifting the back on her vest to give her a better view. Sure enough, she could spot right away the small handprint done with jam. It must have been Emma as she was the only one to eat jam in the morning.
Well now, she knew where to stand with the case. There was no way she would be appointed to it anymore. She had already failed without even starting.
At that moment, she just wanted for the Earth to swallow her.
"And you, do you have children?" Meredith asked the same question to Katherine interrupting Elena's self-consciousness.
"Oh no! Hopefully! I prefer staying concentrated 100% on my job. I don't want to lack commitment." The devil answered with a confident smile.
Elena groaned internally. Trust Katherine to take every opportunity to belittle her.
Meredith just stayed quiet with an undecipherable look on her face.
"And you?" She asked also to Andrew.
He looked a little like an animal trapped at night in the light of the car but answer back nonetheless.
"No, maybe one day." He answered quietly.
Elijah coughed a little bringing everybody attention back to him.
"Let me present my team and then we will fix some meeting with each one of them so you get to know them and decide who you want as your lawyer."
"I will start with the ladies."
He gestured to Elena.
"On your right, let me introduce you Elena Gilbert. She has been working for our office for seven years now. She is a pure Mikaelson's Lawyer having done her internship with us and being offered a job here afterwards. She has a 92% success in her cases. Most of them are settled and won out of court."
Meredith looked at her with a kind face and Elena felt her face blushing under her gaze. Logan Fell's face brightened with the "out of court" comments. It screamed discretion and Elena knew it was a strong bonus for him. Maybe she could still be in the competition if she played her cards well.
"Then you have Katherine Pierce. She came to work with us six years ago after her internship in the Flemming Practice. She has a 97% success most of the time in court."
Logan was listening intently and Elena knew that the better record of her nemesis was a key point. Katherine had a lot of defaults but she was a real shark in court and Elena knew better than to underestimate her. Some of the male lawyers in other offices had done that mistake once they noticed the sexy young woman as their opponents. They were still trying to recover from their heavy defeat.
"Finally, here is Andrew Spane our newest employee. He came last year from Chicago and is already a valuable asset for our firm. He had only managed a few cases with us but had won them all."
Elena was not leaving her boss' face while he was presenting her two colleagues but she could see Meredith's nod from the corner of her eyes. Her face was blank not showing any passing emotions and Elena could feel her nerves gathering in her stomach.
"I will let you have a meeting with each one of them this morning. I suggest following the same order as the presentation and then we will discuss at lunch time. My assistant already booked a table for the three of us at La nuit étoilée. Of course if you have any questions, I will answer them with pleasure." Elijah finished with a smile.
There was a slight silence while everybody waited for the Fells to talk. Finally Meredith took the lead.
"Thank you Elijah. I do not think that the meetings will be necessary." She said with her now usual soft voice.
Elijah opened his eyes in surprise but did not say anything.
"I have already made my choice." She finished assertively.
Logan Fell looked at her as if she was crazy which was not far from what Elena was thinking.
How could she have already chosen when she did not even talk seriously with one of them?
Logan Fell was about to argue back when a giggle coming from the corridor broke the silence. Suddenly there was a knock on the door and all eyes turned to see the flushed red haired middle aged assistant of Elijah entering the conference room.
"Sorry to disturb you but the lawyer from the business branch is here."
Elijah looked at her with a knowing smile.
"Thank you Amanda. Let him in. We were waiting for him."
Amanda gave way to her companion, not without checking him out one last time and she closed the door after him.
The first thing that Elena saw was the dark messy hair and the intense blue eyes as the man entered. And she internally groaned.
