Chapter Forty-Four

"What do you mean he doesn't know?"

"I haven't told him."

Sarah's confession that she hadn't told her husband about the baby yet, surprised both Diane and Will. They weren't used to having secrets between them and Diane could only imagine how hard it must have been for Sarah to keep something like that to herself. She already noticed the tears in the younger woman's eyes and silently asked Will's permission to hug his sister on his behalf as well. Sarah welcomed the comforting gesture and she didn't hold back her tears any longer.

"Everything will be fine," Diane said, stroking Sarah's hair gently.

"He's going to hate me and the baby," Sarah cried.

"No, he isn't. He's going to be happy."

"He doesn't want to be a father yet."

"But he will be and the sooner you tell him the more time he'll have to get used to the idea. Not that I think it would take long. He'll be thrilled."

"I wish I could believe you."

"Would you believe if I said the same?" Will interfered and it made Diane smile. She let go off Sarah and gave her place to her brother, who hugged her, "And if he won't be, you can always stay with us. Emma wants a little sister anyway and we are in a desperate need of a babysitter," he joked and Diane was relieved that it was working, because Sarah let out a slight chuckle.

"I'm sorry for dragging you into this, I'm such a wuss, I ran away instead of telling him."

"You've come to the right place," Will reassured her and Diane never wished for having a brother or a sister more than in that moment, when she saw the two siblings hugging each other.

"We are here for you," Diane said when their hug ended.

"Thank you, it means a lot to me," Sarah reached out to grab her hand.

"And of course you may stay as long as you want, but…"

"I know, I'll talk to him, just give me some time."

"Of course," Diane smiled at her and she was glad to see Sarah smiling as well.

"And now I'm gonna go find my bed, it's been a long day," Sarah stood up and so did Diane and Will. They both hugged her again and wished her good night.

After Sarah left Diane immediately felt Will's arms round her waist, pulling her into a hug.

"You are amazing, I hope you know that," he said, holding her tight.

"She is a part of this family and you are lucky to have her," she replied, enjoying the warmth of his body.

"I'm lucky to have you too," he placed a kiss on her cheek and it made her smile.

She couldn't have been more grateful that their marriage was based on honesty, that she never felt the need to hide anything from him. She was lucky to have him too.

"So am I."

o-o-o

"I need to talk to you," Elsbeth entered Diane's office with a rather nervous look on her face, which suggested nothing good.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm afraid we have a problem, with the case" Elsbeth's voice was slightly trembling and it made Diane feel even more uneasy, "Our client just called me and accused us of slipping information to the other side."

"What?" Diane jumped up from her seat at once.

"They basically fired us from the case, but there's actually no case anymore, because apparently Stern, Holt & Gardner blackmailed them into settling."

"They did what?" Diane sat back in her chair, because her legs just weren't supporting her anymore. Elsbeth couldn't have delivered worse news to her.

"I have no idea how it happened, I thought we were doing fine with the deposition. Well apparently we were otherwise they wouldn't have gotten this desperate."

Diane barely grasped her words, she felt like she was spinning, she was holding onto the side of her desk tightly. She was unable to understand how all this happened in such a short time and most importantly she couldn't believe that the person who she trusted the most in this world was able to do something like that to her.

"Will you give me a moment?" she squeezed out the words and used all the strength she could gather to walk up to her bathroom and enter, slamming the door behind her.

She had never felt so sick before, not even when she had been pregnant. She opened the tap to get some water on her face, but the next minute she had to run to the toilette to get rid of the content of her stomach. She felt like crying or breaking everything around her, or screaming as loud as she could, but she was unable to do either.

She washed her face and drank some water, then faced herself in the mirror. She remembered the last weekend, when Will was lovingly holding her in his arms. He couldn't have done this to her, there had to be an explanation that cleared his name, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to look into her eyes anymore.

She should never have taken this client on the first place, she should never have let them go on separate ways. She suddenly felt the burden of all these decisions and it made her feel sick again.

It took her a while to regain herself and feel strong enough to leave the room and face the consequences. She knew that she had to talk to Will first and as she checked her cell that she'd left on the table there were already three missed calls from him.