Here's the next chapter . . .

Despair

Mia sighed loudly and buried her head in her arms, slumping over her desk. Tomorrow, tomorrow? How can the trial be then? I-I practically know nothing about the case. This thought was on permanent loop hole in her mind as if she couldn't quite grasp how little time she had to prepare…and then there was the little voice in her head; constantly reminding her You could drop the case…let someone else do it…after all it's your first day and you're taking a case that senior attorneys turned down. No one would blame you, you're just a rookie… She got up and walked out of her living room, biting her lip anxiously as she walked over to the phone in the kitchen.

Picking it up slowly just as she was about to press the first digit; it rang. She quickly caught the phone after dropping it from fright and answered it.

"Hello?" she said nervously hoping it wasn't her conscience asking her how she could drop the case like this.

"Sis, is that you?" the voice replied.

"Oh, Maya, it's you!" Mia said, warmly happy to speak to someone who was in no way linked to her law office "How are you?"

"I'm okay, I guess…" she paused. "It sucks here now without you though, I really miss you!"

"Aww, you'll get used to things as they are soon, if I'm honest it's strange living here on my own…" she replied soothingly.

Secretly Mia felt exactly the same as her sister and hated being away from Maya. She'd always been so close to her sister, especially as their mother had disappeared. Mia had to do her best to be like a mother to her sister, which hadn't always been easy).

"Mia…Why are you on your own? Why did you leave?" Maya asked sadly.

"Because…listen Maya, don't you want to know what happened to Mum? I…I just couldn't see a future there, at Kurian." though this was true she also had seen what the position of Master had done to her mother and her aunty Morgan. Mia cared too much for Maya to have her argue that way and so had rejected her position and left to become a defence attorney.

"Yes, but…what about the position of Master? It was yours…Why did you give it up?"

Mia paused; she didn't want to tell her the complete truth, she knew Maya would just promise that that would never happen to them. She knew it was better for them to stay the way things were now; Maya to become the next Master in a couple of years and her to stay in the city and find out what exactly had happened to their mother and why she had disappeared.

"I…I didn't want it. Maya just believe me; you'll make a much better Master than I could ever have. It's better this way…"

"I don't see how…but I guess if you're so sure…" Maya trailed off, "So…err how's everything where you are, wasn't it your first day today? How did it go?" she continued, changing the subject.

Mia groaned, "It was terrible! Apparently I've committed carrier suicide and on my first day too!"

"How on earth did you manage that?" Maya asked, with a giggle.

.

"Don't laugh! I took this case that no one else would take and now I think I know why no one would take it…"

"Oh…well can't you back out? It is your first day after all."

"That's what I was thinking…but now I can just picture the poor guys face when he finds out no one will defend him and I, the one person who said they would defend him, has just deserted him because they're afraid of losing".

At that moment the door bell sounded, Mia picked up the portable phone and went to answer it.

.

"Mia if the case is that difficult they shouldn't have you on it anyway, someone more experienced should take it!" Maya continued to speak as Mia advanced towards the door.

"Yes, but no one would and my boss even attempted to dissuade me from it…but I didn't listen! I'm such an idiot." Mia said as she opened the door to find Diego Armando's smug face greeting her.

"Well that I completely agree with." he said smugly.

"Shut up!" Mia said, indignantly.

"What? Well sorry I was only trying to help." Maya said sounding upset.

"No, no I wasn't talking to you!" She said, rolling her eyes.

"Well who were you talking to? Are you with someone?" Maya asked.

Mia scowled, "I was talking to some moron from my work; he just insulted me, kinda lamely though if you ask me…"

Diego was now leaning against Mia's door frame smirking and looking generally pleased with himself as he said "Yes, and calling me a moron is very original and a fantastic comeback…In fact I should congratulate you on your comeback from earlier as well; "Shut up!" was truly a stroke of genius!"

"Oh, I'm guessing you didn't understand it as you're still talking…" Mia snapped back before putting her ear back to the phone.

"Ooh a guy from work eh? And from what I can hear you're flirting with him as well!"

"Don't be silly, if you think that's flirting then you don't know a lot about it do you?" Mia retorted.

"I know enough to know that's what you're doing…Well anyway I should go now, I think I'm disturbing your "conversation" with" she paused "your boyfriend!" Maya said now giggling uncontrollably down the phone.

"You're actually disturbing me…but not in the way you think you are..." Mia said, raising her eyebrow.

Mia could see from the amused expression on Diego's face he was enjoying this immensely and clearly could hear what Maya was saying.

"Well anyway," Maya said, her laughter dying down now "I really should go, I'll phone you again tomorrow, love you!"

"Bye Maya, love you too." she said finally hanging up and turning to look at Diego "Now what are you doing here?"

"Has anyone ever complimented you on your warm, sunny persona before?" he asked her sarcastically.

She rolled her eyes, "Get on with it."

"Why of course I came to see how you were doing with your case."

"How do you think I'm doing?" she inquired raising one eyebrow exasperatedly.

"Well if I knew the answer to that I wouldn't be here would I?"

"If you've come here to gloat . . ."

"Relax, I haven't-"

She softened a little, "Look, I'm not too proud to admit it, but I wouldn't have taken that case If I'd known the trial was tomorrow…I can't win it…we both know that." She said sadly.

"Don't give up so easily, nothing's impossible. All you need to do is believe you can do it. Think how confident you were earlier; before you knew the trail was tomorrow. Nothings changed, you can do this . . . probably." he added.

Despite his final word, Mia was quite taken aback by Diego's sudden show of compassion, so much so she turned around and walked away, back to the kitchen, trying to think of a casual way of showing she was actually touched. "Th-Thank you." she said as he followed behind her as she put the phone back onto the hook. "Would you like a drink?" she asked him politely, unable to think of anything else to say back to him.

"A drink? Usually I'd say yes without a thought but no, today we have no time. We'll be too busy!"

"Busy doing what exactly?" she asked, feeling puzzled Is this guy an alcoholic or something? I meant tea, not Whisky…

"Busy figuring out what you're going to do on that case."