.

Far From The Tree

Chapter 3


HARUHI

"Mommy?" Emi's shaky little voice echoed in the giant room.

"Who let a fucking kid in here?" Mr Hitachiin frowned as he stared at Emi in the doorway.

I ignored him, as well as the surprised and dumbfounded looks from Mrs Hitachiin and Mr Suoh, and immediately rose to my feet, crossing the office to kneel in front of her.

"Sweetie what's wrong? Where's Auntie Ren Ren?"

She swayed a little.

"I don't feel so good" she uttered, suddenly paling, eyes filling with tears.

Then with a heave, she proceeded to loudly wretch and empty her stomach onto my blazer. Gasps sounded behind me, as well as some choice words from Mr Hitachiin I'd usually be mad about being said so close to my child, but I didn't care.

Suddenly the door swung open once more and a panting, wide eyed Renge appeared, assessing the room, before setting her sights on my frozen, vomit covered form, and little Emi who looked on the brink of tears.

"Haru I'm so so sorry, I took Emi to get some snacks and I got caught up in the hall-"

"This is so unprofessional" I heard Mr Hitachiin grumble, "Who brings their kid to a meeting?"

My blood boiled as I threw off my jacket. And as if spurred into action, Renge hurriedly took it from me as I scooped Emi up in my arms and held her close.

"You're okay baby" I cooed quietly against her forehead.

"Is this seriously how you run your agency Mr Suoh? Don't you have boundaries or rules? Competent workers at least?"

"Hikaru!" Mrs Hitachiin scolded, smacking him on the arm.

At least I seemed to have someone on my side.

Mr Suoh opened his mouth to stutter out a reply, but I was already seething.

"She's sick" I snapped, meeting Mr Hitachiin's eye, my professional mask long gone, "I tried to reschedule with you Mr Hitachiin, however you insisted on going ahead regardless so you could still make it to your basketball game! I had no one to watch my child so I had no choice but to bring her with me. But don't you worry sir, it won't happen again. Because next time I'll just tell you to shove your goddamn meeting up your a-"

Emi suddenly made another gagging sound, and once again threw up, all over my chest.

My eyes flitted to the table. Everyone stared back at me with wide eyes, mouths hung open in disbelief. Aside from Mrs Hitachiin, whose hand hovered over her heart, and a sympathetic look flooded her expression.

I cleared my throat, "Renge, could you please call sanitation"

"Right away" she swallowed.

"Mr Suoh, if you'll excuse me" I bowed politely, and he nodded back sympathetically.

I then shot Mr Hitachiin a bitter look, turned to the door, and stormed out. Emi cradled in my arms, with Renge on my tail.


"I'm going to lose my goddamn job" I seethed, pacing the length of my office.

"Don't be silly, Mr Suoh would never fire you" Renge reassured me, "He knew Emi was sick"

"Emi being sick isn't the problem. The problem is how I spoke to our client"

It was almost 3 and Dad had already come and gone with Emi, thankfully stopping off at home to bring me a clean blouse. I'd thought about going with him, but after the shitshow I'd just partaken in, I decided it was best not to run away. I knew Mr Suoh would want to talk to me.

I'd seriously blown it. This would probably go down in the history books as my biggest fuck up in my entire career.

"I thought you went pretty easy on him. He was a dick. A gorgeous dick. But still a dick"

I whooshed out a breath, still pacing.

Renge wasn't wrong. I did go easy on him. I'd wanted to say a hell of a lot more than just the words that had come out of my mouth. The way he'd spoken around Emi made me want to slap the handsome right off his face.

And it would have had to have been a pretty hard slap, because holy hell that man was perfection.

Mr Hitachiin had not been what I had expected.

Most CEO's I'd met in my career had been middle aged or older gentlemen and women, ones who had spent the better parts of their lives working towards building companies and empires. When I had heard about the large scale of Hitachiin Corp I had of course assumed that the owner must have been of the same age range. However I was surprised to find that he was barely older than myself, perhaps early 30's. He was well built, toned in all the right places, as if he spent half his working week in the gym. He had thick dark red hair, neatly trimmed and combed, as if he'd woken to a team of stylists before he'd even left his house that morning. He had a face most models would die for, sculpted out of marble, a strong jaw, high cheek bones, and intense hazel eyes that seemed to penetrate right through you.

It was a shame his personality didn't match, otherwise he'd be the picture perfect man.

A knock at my door stirred me from my stoop, and I stopped pacing a hole in the floor to look as Mr Suoh entered.

My eyes went wide, "Mr Suoh, I'm so sorry-"

He waved his palm to silence me, and my mouth slammed shut.

This was it. He was going to fire me. All those years of law school wasted, all those case files, all those court dates. It was over. Done. Finito.

"No need to apologise" he said unexpectedly, "I had a toddler once, trust me I understand"

"W-what? But...I yelled at our client. I blew the whole thing and lost us Hitachiin Corp"

"You didn't lose us anything" he chuckled.

I stared at him in disbelief.

"Mr and Mrs Hitachiin would like a word" he said.

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I glanced at Renge who was still sat on my couch. She gave an encouraging nod towards the door. But it did little to alleviate the panic stirring in my stomach.

In the hall outside my office stood Mr Hitachiin and his Mother. Mr Hitachiin regarded me with distaste the moment I sheepishly stepped out with Mr Suoh. His Mother however gave a friendly smile, as if she hadn't watched my child vomit all over me and heard me shout at her son just a couple of hours ago. Honestly, I wanted to curl up into a ball and disappear.

"Miss Fujioka..." Mr Hitachiin cleared his throat, "I…would like to…apologize for how I behaved before" he pursed his lips and paused, only to be reprimanded by a shove to the side by his Mother.

He grumbled something under his breath.

"It was insensitive and wrong of me to speak the way I did about and around your child. And I hope this won't affect our working relationship from here onwards"

I frowned in confusion, "Working relationship? I assumed after the way our meeting ended you would have decided to look elsewhere for legal representation"

"I'd thought that too" he murmured, shooting Mrs Hitachiin a look, "However, after some thought, we concluded that with your experience you're more than qualified for what we need"

I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing.

I hadn't blown it? Was this for real? And he was the one apologising?

"So if you're still interested, I'd like you to start this week" Mr Hitachiin continued, his intense gaze trained on mine as he waited for my answer.

But honestly, I wasn't sure what my answer was. Because I wasn't even sure if I truly understood what he was saying.

"Miss Fujioka?" he quirked a brow impatiently.

I sucked in a breath.

"Thank you Mr Hitachiin" I replied, "I accept your offer, and your apology. And I'd also like to tell you how sorry I am about how I reacted in the boardroom. I assure you it won't happen again"

"You needn't worry" Mrs Hitachiin spoke up before her son could answer, a wide smile on her face, "I raised twin boys, they used to run riot around my office, and that was when they weren't sick. But us Mothers can't help but defend our little ones"

I like this lady.

I smiled back, thanking whatever divine energy was on my side.


HIKARU

Mom hadn't had a single bad word to say about Miss Fujioka. It didn't seem to matter that the young attorney had brought her child into work with her, or the fact that she had spoken to me with such disrespect. Mom didn't care. Not at all.

If anything, Miss Fujioka's outburst had only made Mom more convinced that she was perfect for me. Her argument was that my previous lawyers had only lasted a few months before they broke under the strain of my demands. But the defensive display Miss Fujioka had shown in the boardroom made Mom believe that she wouldn't be like the others. She had a backbone, and a strong one at that. Honestly, I think Mom just wanted someone who could tell me off when I stepped over the line. And she wouldn't take no for an answer.

So Miss Fujioka signed the contract, and just like that, I was looking into the deep brown eyes of my new business attorney. I had no idea how I'd be able to handle working with this woman without imagining her bent over my desk, but I supposed I'd faced worse challenges in my career.

I paced my living room as I looked down at the file Mr Suoh had handed me. Inside lay all of Miss Fujioka's information, all her previous business partners, all her clients, all her qualifications, education, personal details, perhaps hopefully some dirty little secrets too.

Although I doubted it. I bet her record was squeaky clean.

I poured myself another drink and sat down, then opened up the manila folder and skimmed the page.

My eyes immediately found the small photo of Miss Fujioka on the first page, I assumed it had been taken a few years ago. Her hair was shorter, a lot shorter. Usually I didn't find hair as short as my own attractive on a woman, but Miss Fujioka seemed to be the exception.

Her file told me she was 28, had worked for Ouran Legal for 7 years and hired straight out of university where she had studied law on a scholarship. I let out a low whistle when I saw her scores. She was one smart woman. Perfect grades all through school, pretty much bypassing every one of my previous lawyers tenfold. Her qualifications alone seemed to almost make me completely forget about our earlier exchange, as relief and gratitude that she was now under my wing washed over me. Almost.

I couldn't resist leafing through her personal notes, only to find that just as I had expected, she had a perfect record too. No disciplinaries, no warnings. Nothing but praise.

No way could she be this perfect.

I also noted that she was unmarried. For some reason that made me fight a smile. I really shouldn't have been happy about that, it wasn't like I could fuck her or anything since she was now my lawyer. But still, a bit of flirtation couldn't hurt...

I removed the thought as soon as it entered my mind.

She's got a kid you moron, she didn't make it on her own.

I took a gulp of whiskey.

Perhaps the father and herself never married...

I threw the file down on the coffee table, lying back against the sofa cushions and taking another sip.

Regardless of how she spoke to me in the boardroom, I had a lawyer now. A brilliant lawyer apparently. Which meant I was over that hurdle and I could go back to focusing on this upcoming deal. I'd have to brief Miss Fujioka before my meeting with Mr Ootori and get her to write up a contract. I had a draft Yabu #5 wrote up but after seeing Miss Fujioka's experience I knew she could probably pen a better one in her sleep. I'd have to get my PA Hinako to set up a meeting at the office with her.

Although...

My eyes slowly flickered to the file on the table, and I reached for the first page.


HARUHI

"How are you feeling baby?" I cooed, tucking the covers on my bed tighter around my shivering daughter.

Emi gave a small smile, "Chilly" she replied.

"Do you want some more blankets?"

She nodded.

"Okay sweetie"

"Could we watch Tangled when you get the blankets?"

I chuckled, "Of course we can"

Emi had stopped being sick a few hours ago, apparently she'd saved the worst of it for the boardroom and Dad. When I'd arrived home he'd been teary eyed and wearing a pair of rubber gloves after Emi had spent a good hour heaving in the bathroom with him. My poor little girl had really gone through it today, and ended up sleeping for the majority of the afternoon. She was settled into my bed when I got home, snuggled up with her teddy.

"You look a little better" I said as I laid more blankets down on top of her. She looked so tiny all curled up, her mahogany hair cascading in tired curls around her little face.

"Does that mean I can go to Yochien tomorrow?" she asked hopefully.

I smiled apologetically, "I think it's best you don't sweetie, we don't want any of your friends getting poorly. But I'll stay home tomorrow, and we can watch movies, stay in our jammies, we'll have nice chilled out day"

Emi smiled, "Okay Momma"

My heart clenched. She was such a good girl. How did I get so lucky?

I snuggled down beside her and we watched the movie, but after a little while Emi became less chatty and I noticed that she'd once again fallen asleep. I gave her a small kiss on the forehead before heading back downstairs. It was only 7 and I hadn't had dinner since Emi didn't want any, so I quickly fixed myself something to eat and wandered into the living room, not enjoying how quiet the house was. Usually at this time Emi and I would be reading a story before bed, or I was giving her a bubble bath which always included many of her bathtime toys. I switched on the TV, hoping the mindless soap opera I'd put on would drown out some of the silence.

I wasn't sure the events of the day had truly hit me until I finally sat down on my own.

I still couldn't believe I'd officially been taken on as Hitachiin Corp's CEO's business attorney.

I mean, how?

I remembered the distaste on Mr Hitachiin's face in the boardroom. How he'd reprimanded me in front of my boss and my child. And everything I had said to him in response. And yet, they'd still taken me on...

I blew out a breath. I was one lucky woman.

As I replayed the events of the previous hours, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and pulled it out, expecting it to be a message from Dad asking how Emi was feeling. But confusion overcame me as an unknown number popped up on my screen.

Miss Fujioka.

Please come to my office tomorrow to discuss contract arrangements with the companies upcoming deal with The Ootori Group.

- Hitachiin

I raised a brow as so many questions rose to mind.

He was planning meetings with me so soon? Seriously? And tomorrow? He saw my child throw up on me, he knew she was sick. Also why the hell was Mr Hitachiin messaging me himself? Surely he had a personal assistant to do this for him? And why would he message me at this time?

It took me a while to type out my response.

Mr Hitachiin.

As you are aware my daughter is currently unwell and will need to stay home tomorrow, so I won't be available.

It took barely a minute before he replied.

Fine. Thursday?

The bluntness of his message took me aback slightly. I could tell my answer wasn't the one he was expecting. For some reason the image of him scowling at his phone in frustration made me giggle.

I'll have to see if my Dad is available in case she's still unwell. Otherwise, I'll have to get back to you.

I actually knew for a fact that Dad was free on Thursday. So if Emi was still unwell I knew he could watch her. But the temptation to tease was too great to resist. Call it revenge for how he spoke around my child in the meeting.

It may have slipped your mind after all the excitement, but in our meeting I expressed the importance of this deal with The Ootori Group. As my lawyer you are required to work with me with all legal agreements. Are you committed to this role or not Miss Fujioka?

I scowled at my phone.

Of course I was committed. But since when did looking after my own sick child mean I wasn't hard working at my job?

Mr Hitachiin, I value nothing more than my work and my family. But if you expect me to neglect the latter then I'm afraid you and I aren't on the same page. As it happens I am available on Thursday, but if you hope for me to attend then I'd hope you'll reconsider before questioning my commitment again.

He replied within seconds.

I smirked.

Thursday then. 9am.