Chapter 28: Chapter 28

“ Nice place you got here, must be some big shot yourself, attorney” Walking past the foyer into the living room, Val praised as she looked around the magnificent luxury before her.

" I'm only a humble citizen" The attorney chuckled and combed a finger through his neat blonde hair.

The "humble" living room of attorney Chris' apartment looked more like an office with several files neatly stacked about. It was spacious enough to be a master bedroom, but instead of a closet and an actual bed, what took most of the space was a bookshelf filed with several yellow-back folders and old books.

Black cushions formed a semi rectangular shape, facing the TV set with a luxurious glass coffee table sitting in the middle. To the right of the room is a mini-bar to which Attorney Chris headed.

Attorney Chris had recently returned from Washington, and when Val called up to meet up with him, he could only suggest that she come to his place at Harrison street since it was only few minutes away from Citadel's. Val had no reason to not, so she had asked Aidan, the driver Bob had assigned her, to bring her here.

" I'm not blind, attorney" Val pouted her lips and went straight to sit on the sofa.

“ Please, You flatter me.” attorney Chris smiled wryly. " Chardonnay?" With his back to Val, he asked.

" Yes please." Val nodded as she settled in, placing her hand bag on the coffee table.

" Coming right up" attorney Chris cheered, ushering a moment of silence afterwards.

“ The trial?” Val half turned in seat to inquire.

“ Well... It was tough to say the least. It didn’t go quite as planned at first, I must admit that woman is really good. And her lawyer even better. However, we managed to buy us some time.” Attorney Chris explained with a scratch at his cheeks.

“ In any case, Mr Richardson and I have set out to find ways to counter in the next trial. With the motion to challenge Mr Richardson's paternity set, I believe we would need to pull all resources” He hid the fact that Bob already had ways to prove he had no biological paternity to Charlotte.

Val nodded nonetheless, she’d pretty much read enough online, but most of it were all fabricated falsehoods. She could pretty much sum up the court trial process with the attorney's short description. After all, she knew about enough of the case.

" What now?" Val just wanted to know the next line of action.

“ Yes. I returned to San Francisco to see to certain things while Mr Richardson stayed in Seattle to do the same. More so, it seems our need for you has proved fruitful after all..." He chuckled as he made his way to the sofa with two glasses of Chardonnay in hand. He handed one to Val and took one for himself as he took a seat on the sofa adjacent to Val.

" I believe you have something for me?” attorney Chris' gaze became quite serious in an instant.

Val nodded her head as she took a sip of the drink. She let the richness fill her taste before she put down the glass and picked up her handbag.

' Of course, the successful lawyer wouldn’t be where he currently was without such attitude towards his work...' Val thought as she reached into her bag and pulled out a flash drive.

“ Will this work?” Val asked handed out the flash drive to attorney Chris with a raised brow. She wasn't certain about the legal procedures of producing evidence so she asked.

The attorney put down his wine glass and stretched his hand to take the flash drive and observed it for a while before saying with a smile,

“ Depending on what it contains” attorney chris inquired, rather than stating.

“ That’s a conversation between myself and Mark. He suddenly came in and confessed that he’d tit-fucked the CEO” Val pointed as she said without the slightest sign of concern in her tone.

'What a foul mouth!' attorney Chris thought internally with a chuckle.

“ Ahem! Well, I'm glad Mr Richardson ain't here” attorney Chris joked making Val flash a smile. The CEO is still his wife or has been, it would hurt the man to say such a vulgar thing in his presence.

“ How exactly did this happen?” Attorney Chris regained his serious stance and asked. However, seeing the hesitant expression that Val expressed at an instance, he added “ I have to be certain this isn’t a sort of plan made up by Mrs Richardson to fool us, she can be quite cunny you know?”

“ You're right. Honestly, I had the thought as well with the way he had confronted me out of nowhere” Val stared down in thought at the table, finding attorney Chris' words agreeable. She took a moment to process her words before raising her gaze to speak.

" But it's probably Mark just being himself" Val said in a resolute tone.

“ How so?” Attorney Chris creased his gaze.

“ Honestly, I do not know what came over him. But one thing I do know is he’d come in my office with the intent to confront me about how I made it to that position at Citadel’s. No, actually he presumed I had an affair with Bob…or someone told him so” Val still wasn’t certain about it.

“ I see… did you say anything regarding you and Mr Richardson at any point?”

Val stared at the attorney, taken aback for a moment, before slowly replying “ N-no. Thankfully I realized before I would blurt it out”

“ Good” attorney chris nodded and put a finger to his chin as he thought out loud. He gave no concern about Val's flustered face and questioning gaze as to how he knew about her and Bob. He actually wasn't sure about it before, he only just confirmed it now.

“ It's probably an attempt from the opposition. The more the case of adultery, the broader the grounds for an equitable distribution of properties.” He muttered.

“ I’ll go work on this over there. Please, feel free” He urged Valerie as he headed towards the laptop on the desk in the corner. He took his drink along with himself as well.

Val watched as he slowly propped himself into the small high back chair, put on the head phone beside the laptop, lift up the lid of the laptop, take a sip of the drink and inserted the flash drive to work on the audio recording.

Val admired his devotion to his work. She picked up the wine glass feeling a bit thirsty after the long talk, she downed a considerable amount of its content. The Chardonnay tasted slightly bittersweet making Val wonder if the drink had always tasted like that.

However, the taste soon diminished and she passed it off as probably a cause of her lipstick. She put down the glass and said to attorney chris’ hearing,

“ I guess I’ll take my leave then” It wasn't like the attorney would tell her to leave.

However, she was met with silence and no reply from the attorney. Val almost facepalmed when she remembered he had a headphone on and probably couldn’t have heard her as he worked with intent focus on the audio recording of the confrontation between her and Mark.

Val sighed and slowly rose from her seat. However, just as she did, she felt a numbing sense in her head as she stood. It was like a short fuse sparked in her head, and her vision became slightly blurred. Although, it soon receded, but the slight drowsiness still lingered, as her head felt somewhat heavy.

' Has Chardonnay always been this strong. Or am I so intolerant?' Val thought.

Nonetheless, she managed to pick up her bag from the table and held her hand to her head. The sound of her heels on the floorboard sounded out as a distant click until it became a fading echo thumping against her ear drum.

click! clack! bang!

Darkness snuck into the blurry picture as her whole body became numb to feeling. Val felt like she was tumbling all over all of a sudden, but there was this surface restricting her movement.

' Is this... the floor?' She thought she was hallucinating as she saw a blurry, dim portrait view of the floor.

" Shhhh! relax" Val heard from a loud swell that filled her hearing, and perhaps out of subconscious reflex, her view raised towards a distorted image of attorney Chris towering above her with a grin she never knew he could make as her consciousness dimmed in a flash.

...