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Araceli asked. “We have to do the dry run in fifteen minutes.”
    Special squinted. “Dry run? What dry run?” Special worked as a manager for Telecredit, having recently been promoted to the Credit Services Department.
    “Wednesday’s meeting with Citibank. Remember?”
    Special flipped the pages of her desk calendar. “I completely forgot.”
    Araceli sighed. She had been covering up a lot of Special’s screw-ups lately. “You know the proposal better than I do. You can just wing it.”
    “No, I can’t. I’m here, but I’m not
here
, if you know what I mean.”
    Araceli’s expression softened. She closed the door and took a seat in front of Special’s desk. “I know your cousin’s death was really hard on you, but everybody’s starting to talk. You’re either mad all the time or in tears. And this isn’t the only meeting you’ve forgotten. Maybe you should take some more time off.”
    Special sighed. “I don’t have any more vacation time. I used it all up helping my aunt take care of Maya.”
    “I’m sure you can get an unpaid leave.”
    “Unpaid?
I’m already behind on my rent as it is. And don’t even mention my credit card bills.”
    “I’ll handle it this time,” Araceli said, standing. “But this is the
last
time.”
    When she left, Special went back to gazing out of the window. Both Ronald and Eugene needed to pay for their deceit. She’d had no success tracking down Ronald’s ass after seeing him on that website, but she had Eugene squarely in sight. Suing him was just the warm-up act.
    She turned away from the window and dialed a five-digit extension. “Are we still on for tonight?” she said, when her coworker, Eddie Chin, picked up. A senior at University of Southern California, Eddie worked part-time in the Information Technology Department and was the troubleshooter for Special’s group.
    “Yeah, but like I told you, I’m only going to walk you through it. You’ve gotta actually do it yourself.”
    “You’ve told me that a million times,” Special replied. “I’ll see you at eight at your place.”
    Special hung up and smiled. Eddie was helping her plan a nice big surprise for Eugene. It was just too bad she couldn’t be there tomorrow morning to see the look on his face when it arrived.

Chapter 10
     
    N ichelle collected three folders from her desk, then headed for her law firm’s main conference room, just east of her office. 
    She was a total ball of nerves, realizing that she had done things in precisely the wrong order. Instead of approaching Maya’s mother about suing Eugene, she should have first sought the approval of her law partners. She’d put off talking to them because she wasn’t sure how they would feel about filing the wrongful death lawsuit. But she couldn’t delay this discussion any longer.
    Russell Barnes was already seated when Nichelle walked in and plopped a thin folder on the conference table. Her other law partner, Sam Howard, who would be the tougher sell, was late as usual. The three partners met every two weeks to discuss firm expenses, new cases, anticipated billable hours, and any other issues related to the administration of their six-person law practice.
    “I have something I want to discuss before we go through our regular agenda.” Nichelle opened one of the folders, then inhaled and hoped her good luck, hot pink pants suit didn’t fail her.
    Russell nodded but didn’t look up from the brief in front of him. He was a solid family man who abandoned a lucrative partnership at one of L.A.’s mega firms to spend more time with his family. He arrived at the office at the crack of dawn, but rarely worked past six.
    Nichelle heard Sam approaching and her stomach fluttered. You could hear him a mile away. He was the size of a linebacker and walked like he had tree stumps for feet. A well-regarded litigator, he spent several years at the District Attorney’s office prosecuting everything from white collar crime to capital murder