Read Online Hanging on a String by Janette M. Louard - Free Book Online

client’s name and not having the good sense to feel bad about it?
    The associates who came to my office also mourned his loss, but a good percentage of them seemed more intrigued about who would inherit his formidable caseload or, more to the point, his clients. I was disheartened, but not surprised. Although the world is full of many good, decent, caring people who happen to be lawyers, I had come across my fair share of sociopaths with a briefcase, who answered to the title attorney at law. Nevertheless, I admonished the associates, none of whom were as senior as me on the food chain, and who therefore had to take it, that a bright and promising life had been taken, Chester’s caseload be damned. As much as I’d personally disliked Chester, I found the casual callousness with which these people treated his death as another reason I probably should have bypassed law school when I’d had the chance. The Peace Corps started to look more and more appealing to me.
    The telephone rang, and I answered it automatically. Immediately, I regretted my actions. It was my mother.
    â€œJasmine, how could you let Thea and Reese stay with you?” she said, without any greeting.
    I took a deep breath and counted to ten. I knew what was coming.
    â€œHer place is with her husband,” my mother continued.
    â€œWhat did you want me to do, Mom? Kick them out on the street?”
    My mother sighed loudly over the phone—a long suffering sigh—then she said, “One divorce in this family is more than enough, Jasmine. You need to talk some sense into her, not harbor her and her child like fugitives in that apartment of yours.”
    I truly love my mother, but there were days when I had to work hard to remember that.
    â€œMom, have you talked to Thea?”
    My mother sighed again. “I’ve been trying to talk some sense into her all day, but she won’t listen to me.”
    â€œDid she tell you about Brooks?” I asked. I didn’t want to betray my sister’s confidences.
    â€œYes, she told me some madness about another woman.”
    Now it was my turn to sigh. I could not believe that my mother, as feisty as she was in her own marriage, was going to start singing some “stand by your man no matter what he’s done” craziness.
    â€œMom, please do not tell me all men do this and—”
    She cut me off. “You know me better than that. If that is what Brooks did, well, then he made his bed, so to speak, and he’s got to lie down in it without his wife. But I don’t believe that Brooks is that kind of man.”
    â€œThea feels pretty strongly that he cheated on her.”
    â€œHmph! She hasn’t even talked to him. She doesn’t know what he’s done, if anything!”
    â€œHow do you know all this?” I asked, although I was fairly certain I knew the answer.
    â€œBrooks called me. He’s beside himself with worry! He tried calling her on her cell phone, and she won’t answer. It was Reese who called him this morning to tell his father where they were. Can you imagine Reese having to do this? I don’t know what’s gotten into your sister. I would have expected this from ...”
    She stopped her sentence abruptly when she remembered that she was speaking to me.
    I won’t lie and say my mother’s words didn’t hurt. I was used to them, but they still hurt. I tried to remind myself that sometimes her mouth got a little ahead of her brain, but Lord knows, the unspoken words felt like a slap in the face. It wasn’t as if I sold crack on a street corner, I wanted to yell at my mother. I’m a lawyer. A respectable member of society. Just because I didn’t follow the life you mapped for me doesn’t make me a failure. But this was a battle I’d have to wait another time to fight.
    â€œI’ve got to go, Mom. I’m really busy this morning.”
    â€œBut what about Thea?” she asked,