Chapter Four
Helen Gamble was famous for her closings, she just had this unique skill to easily convince the jury of her side of the story. It wasn't the first time Diane was a witness to this magic of the ASA, but each time it was annoying to see how the spell worked again. She could actually see jurors getting under the influence of what the long dark haired, white skinned, slim and elegant woman told them about the trial, the evidence and their own strategy. She managed to point out the holes in the latter so well that she quickly had to run through her notes again to make sure her closing would explain those properly.
The soft touch of his hand on hers made her look up to him and his lips curled up to an encouraging smile. She knew he would have offered to give the closing, but they had agreed in advance that the best strategy was to have her close. As a woman she was supposed to come down more effectively in the jury's eyes, taking the floor after the infamous ASA.
She returned the smile and as Helen took her seat she stood up to do her part of the job. She wasn't less slim or elegant than her opponent of course. Even as a mother she'd always took care of her figure, made sure to reach her original weight again and keep it with exercise. She needed to look her best at the workplace and in the courtroom, but she also needed to look her best for her husband.
Not because he wouldn't have loved her all the same had she gained some weight or dressed a little less fashionably, but it was a fact that he was a few years younger than her. She knew that this number didn't matter to either of them, but she still wanted him to always have a woman on his side that he could be proud of.
And he was definitely proud of her when she basically had the whole jury eating out of her hands by the end of her closing. She was capable of doing magic as well and she was hoping to have convinced them not to send an innocent man to prison for the rest of his life. As she walked back to her seat, she glanced in the ASA's direction, who obviously seemed worried at this point.
Even though they couldn't show it in the courtroom, they actually liked each other with the woman who was only a few years younger than her. Helen was smart and funny and one of the few people in the State's Attorney's Office who had never been sitting on a high horse. Of course she was cruel when it came to putting criminals away, but that resulted from her compassion for the victims. Out of work she was as normal as any lawyer could be and Diane and Will considered her a friend.
After Diane sat down, Judge Kittleson instructed the jury and while she was talking to them Will leaned closer to her ear.
"Amazing job," he whispered and she couldn't hide her smile.
Even after seven years of marriage it was still a pleasure for her to be appreciated by him.
o-o-o
"Stern wants to talk to me," he said as he put his phone away.
"Now?"
"Yes, he asked me to go over to the office during deliberation."
"I was hoping we could go somewhere else instead, I'd really love to finally show you something," she said even though she knew perfectly well there was nothing he could do, since Jonas Stern was a name partner of the firm.
"I'm sorry, I hope we will finish soon, I really can't wait to finally see my anniversary present."
She hadn't told him what the present was, she only told him he would have to see it with his own eyes, but they hadn't had the chance to visit it the previous day. She couldn't wait to finally show him the place where she imagined their future.
o-o-o
"Are you all right?" she asked when he entered her office about an hour later.
He clearly didn't look all right, she saw right away that he must have heard something agitating in that meeting.
"I'm fine," he obviously lied, although he should have known she wouldn't have believed him anyway.
"What did he want?" she tried to ask him calmly, but the expression on his face made her anxious as well.
"It's just a about a new case, nothing to worry about, really," he tried his best to sound calm, but she still thought that he wasn't telling the truth to her, "We really should go now, you know to that secret place," he added quickly.
For a moment she considered if she should start a fight about him lying to her or let it rest and wait until he comes up with the truth on his own. He barely kept things from her, so she figured he must have had a good reason to do so this time. She didn't like when he kept certain things to himself that slowly started to eat him up from the inside, because he just chose not to talk about them. She had tried to teach him how to open up, but sometimes he still ended up doing this again.
"Let's go then," she decided finally and chose to ignore the sign of relief on his face.
o-o-o
As they stepped out of the elevator on the 11th floor of the building first he didn't understand what was going on, he just stared at the empty rooms in front of him.
"Where are we?" he asked, looking at her curiously.
"We've been talking about this a few times and I thought there's no reason we should postpone it any longer, so I took the liberty and looked at a few places, until I found this one."
"I don't understand," he seemed a little perplexed.
"I thought this could be our future," she said smiling and took out a small board from her purse, "Welcome to Lockhart&Gardner," she showed up the board that had their names on it and she waited for his reaction, but he seemed to take things rather slowly that day.
"I…I don't know what to say," he finally said after a short pause.
"You don't like it? We could still look at more places together, I just thought I spare you the trouble, since you…" he gently placed his hand on her mouth for a short moment to shut her up.
"I love it," he finally said with smiling eyes and folded his arms around her waist, "Thank you, I have no idea what I would do without you," he said with the most loving voice and she finally started to smile again.