“Definitely.”
She crossed that off her list, too. “The interview you gave is published today. Do you want to read it?”
“Will I like what I read?”
“No. They call you a heartbreaker and New York’s most eligible bachelor. They should have interviewed me. I would have told them that no sane woman would date you.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. So do you want to read the interview?”
“No. Next?”
“Next is Elisa. Oh, and congratulations.”
“On what?”
“The Tanner case. You won.”
“In a contested divorce, there are no winners. Everyone is a loser.”
Marsha studied him. “Is everything all right? Now I think about it you’re later than usual, and you look different.”
“I’m good.” Braced for marital drama, he walked into his office. There were plenty of days when he wondered why he did this job. Today was one of them.
But Elisa Sutton wasn’t crying. Instead she looked animated.
Even Daniel, experienced as he was in handling the emotional roller coaster that accompanied divorce, was surprised.
And suspicious. Was Marsha right? Had she taken a lover?
“Elisa?” Anticipating a confession of a sexual nature, he pushed the door shut. If his client was about to fill his office with her dirty laundry, he intended to contain it. “Has something happened?”
“Yes. We’re back together!”
“Excuse me?” Daniel put his laptop down on his desk, playing catch-up. “Who? I didn’t know you were seeing anyone. We talked about the risks of you getting involved with someone else at this point—”
“It’s not someone else. It’s Henry. We’re back together. Can you believe that?”
No, he couldn’t believe it.
Elisa had cried so many tears over the past few months he’d considered issuing a flood warning for midtown Manhattan.
“Elisa—”
“You’re using your serious lawyer tone. If you’re going to warn me this isn’t a good idea, don’t waste your breath. I’ve made up my mind. At first when he said he was going to change, I didn’t believe him, but after a while I realized he was sincere. We’re making a go of it. He is still my husband, after all.” Tears welled in her eyes and she pressed her hand to her mouth. “I never thought this would happen. I didn’t see it coming. I thought it was over.”
Daniel stilled. He hadn’t seen it coming either. From what he’d observed so far, Elisa and Henry’s marriage was so bad that if they’d been able to bottle the vitriol there would have been enough toxins to poison the whole of New Jersey. And although he’d learned that the blame was usually shared, if not always equally, in this case the lion’s share belonged to Henry, who was the coldest, most selfish man Daniel had ever met.
He’d employed a lawyer who was known to be as savage as a Doberman, and he’d set him on his wife, the woman he had supposedly once loved and with whom he shared two previously happy, but now traumatized children.
Fortunately Daniel had no problem being a Rottweiler when the need arose.
He frowned. Since when did he use dog analogies?
Walking Brutus was clearly getting to him.
“Last week you were in here crying,” he said carefully. “You told me you didn’t care what it took, but you never wanted to see him again.” He kept his tone free from emotion. Clients invariably brought so much emotion into his office he’d learned not to contribute anything extra.