Chapter Thirty-One

Diane couldn't believe her eyes when she realized it was her daughter waving to her from the other side of the glass door. Of course she didn't come alone, Diane's aunt accompanied the girl to the firm, which would have been fine with her, hadn't they turned up without a warning. They were in the middle of a meeting with a client, she didn't exactly have time for visitors. Of course she couldn't ignore their presence either, but instead of waving back to her, she decided to excuse herself and go talk to them.

Emma greeted her with a hug and was obviously very happy to be in her mother's office again, while someone else was actually there for the first time.

"I know we should have called, but I thought you wouldn't mind a little surprise. Will asked me to pick Emma up, he has a last minute meeting and since I haven't seen your firm yet."

Diane knew she should have invited her aunt to visit and she had planned to do it a couple of times, but something had always come up and she'd forgotten. And the elderly lady made sure she felt guilty about it right away.

"I know, I'm sorry, I've been meaning to invite you over, but it's been really busy around here ever since we opened."

"Well, it looks lovely, so it's certainly not the reason you've been hiding this place from me."

"I haven't been hiding…"

"Is that Christopher?" the woman cut in, noticing the man inside Diane's office.

"Yes, would you mind waiting a little, until we finish this meeting? Evelyn will bring you a cup of tea."

She didn't want to start a discussion about her ex boyfriend in front of her daughter and she was hoping her aunt would understand.

"Sure, but what is he doing in your office?"

"I'll be right with you," she sent a desperate look in Evelyn's direction, who stood up from her desk immediately, "Evelyn, this is my aunt, Mrs. Bennett, this is my assistant, Evelyn Young. Please make sure she has everything she needs."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Bennett," Evelyn shook hands with the lady.

"Please, call me Diane, Mrs. Bennett makes me look so old. Besides I'm divorcing that bastard anyway, so there's no reason I should hear his name every time someone talks to me."

"I knew you two would get along," Diane said smiling then gave a kiss to her daughter, "Mommy needs to go back to this meeting, but it won't take too long, all right?"

"I can't wait to tell you what happened in school today," the girl said with a huge smile."

"And I can't wait to hear all about it."

As she entered the office, she caught Chris looking in their direction. It was the first time he saw Emma, which made Diane feel a little uncomfortable. But what made her feel even more so, was her aunt's presence. She had always liked Christopher, she had been devastated when Diane had broken off the relationship. It had taken her a while until she'd been able to accept that Diane had chosen Will instead of him and this meeting might have been enough to open up those old wounds.

"I'm sorry, where were we?" she asked, taking a seat at her desk again.

"I was just telling Mrs. Colson that her case would be top priority with us," Chris replied, smiling at the client, which made Diane think of what had happened the previous day.

She was still a little angry with him, even though she would never have shown. It was the firm's interest that they got on well with each other no matter what. It had been her decision to hire him after all and it was no question that he was a pretty good lawyer and she simply needed him.

o-o-o

"Your daughter is beautiful," Chris said after the client had left the office a little later.

"Thank you."

"She takes after her mother," he added and Diane already felt uncomfortable again. She wasn't used to getting compliments from him, they had been doing so well staying formal with each other.

"And her father," she added quickly and started packing her things so that she could leave the office as soon as possible.

"Listen, I'm sorry about Jason Parker, I had no intention of stealing him from you."

"I know," she replied without looking at him.

"I don't want this to cause any tension between us."

"It won't," she finally looked at him, "He's still our client, right?"

"Of course."

"Then everything's fine. But if you excuse me, my family is waiting for me."

"I got engaged last weekend."

She was surprised to hear his words, they hadn't discussed any personal things with each other lately, keeping the distance had seemed like the better choice.

"Congratulations," she said, resting her eyes on him for a short moment.

"Thank you," he replied smiling.

"I really wish for you to be happy," she smiled back at him.

"I know. Good night," he said then turned around and walked out of her office.

Of course it didn't take long until he bumped into her aunt on the corridor and although Diane felt like interfering, she decided to stay out of it instead. She knew she owed her aunt an explanation, but she was actually tired of explaining herself, especially because some things simply didn't have an explanation.

"Can we go home now?" Em ran into her office the next moment.

"Yes, sweetie, we're going home," she hugged her daughter, "And on our way you'll tell me if it was worth getting out of bed this morning."