Ficorpio
Chapter 1
The coffee had barely finished brewing when the file struck me in the face.
A sharp edge sliced open my forehead, and pain burst through my skull. I stumbled backward and crashed onto the cold tile floor of the break room. Warm coffee splashed over me, spreading a broad brown stain across my pristine white blouse.
“Claire Bennett, are you useless? You can’t even enter a few pages of data correctly? Do it again!”
Vanessa Price, an intern, stood over me and spoke to me as if I were beneath her, despite the fact that I had passed the National Bar Qualification Exam and was a supervised trainee lawyer.
I raised my head and wiped the coffee-slick moisture from my face. The smug smile she was trying—and failing—to hide was perfectly clear.
Not again.
Ever since she had joined the firm a month ago, Vanessa had acted as though she had a personal grudge against me. Even with something as important as the M&A case file, I had checked every line three times before submitting it. That still hadn’t stopped her from inventing a charge that I had failed to enter several pages and humiliating me in front of my colleagues.
At first, I thought it was nothing more than sexist rivalry between women at work.
Then a familiar, deep voice sounded behind us.
“What’s going on?”
It was Adrian Cole, my boyfriend and a lawyer at the firm. He walked in wearing an immaculate suit, his expression calm and composed behind his gold-rimmed glasses. There wasn’t a trace of warmth in his eyes.
I had just opened my mouth to explain when Vanessa rushed over and clung tightly to his arm. Her voice turned so sweet it was almost syrupy.
“Adrian, Claire was so irresponsible. She left several pages out of such an important M&A file. If we sent that to the client, the firm’s reputation would be ruined!”
What a lie.
I braced my hands against the floor and tried to stand. One heel twisted beneath me, and I nearly fell again. Adrian reached out and caught my arm. The instant his fingertips touched me, he pulled away as though he had brushed against something filthy.
“Check it again. Keep the error rate below five in ten thousand, and personally bring it to my office before you leave.” He adjusted his glasses, and the cold glare reflected off the lenses made my head spin.
“I didn’t make a mistake.” I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw ached, my nails digging deep into my palm. “I checked the file line by line three times. Every page has an archived scan. You can compare it with the original documents. There’s no way I left anything out.”
Adrian’s brows drew together at once, his eyes filled with reproach.
Chapter 2
“Vanessa pointed out the problem in good faith. You should accept the criticism and correct it instead of arguing. With that kind of attitude, how can you call yourself a lawyer? And you expect to qualify for practice?”
His words were blades dipped in ice, stabbing into me one after another.
When he finished, he turned and walked away without looking back. Vanessa followed close behind. As she passed me, she lowered her voice until only the two of us could hear.
“Thanks, Claire. If it weren’t for you, how could I have gotten this close to Adrian so quickly?”
Her laughter faded down the hall alongside Adrian’s gentle reply.
In the break room, the whispers of my watching colleagues pricked at my ears like a storm of tiny needles.
“Claire Bennett is nothing but a pretty face. She knows how to dress and wear makeup, but she has no real ability. I don’t know how she ever got into Crownstone Law.”
“She came from Boston and can barely speak polished English. She must have leveraged personal connections to get Adrian in through the back door. I heard they live together, too.”
“Look how close Adrian and Vanessa are now. He’s probably tired of Claire. Once her trainee period is over, there’s no way she’ll be offered a permanent position. She’ll have to pack up and crawl back to Boston.”
A heavy weight pressed against my chest, making it hard to breathe.
Hurt, fury, disappointment, and a deep, numbing chill surged through me all at once.
What did they know?
Crownstone Law was the firm everyone fought desperately to enter. Adrian had only gotten in because I had quietly asked my father to use his connections and speak to one of the firm’s senior partners.
He came from an ordinary background and was drowning in a mortgage and car payments. Without the support I had given him in secret, without the resources and introductions I had secured for him, his current position would have been out of reach.
Back then, even earning a permanent role after his traineeship had seemed impossible.
I drew a deep breath, clenched my fists, and pushed through the crowd gathered around me.
“Instead of standing here gossiping, maybe spend that time improving your work. Otherwise, you might be the next person Crownstone decides it can do without.”
With that, I bent down and gathered the scattered documents. I brushed off the dust and blotted away the coffee stains, then sent Adrian the original data exactly as I had received it, along with a message.
The information is correct. Check the archived scans if you have questions.
Without another glance at my coworkers, I walked out of the break room and returned to the apartment Adrian and I shared.
The scent of his favorite bergamot diffuser still lingered in every room. I had once found it comforting. Now it made my stomach turn.
Chapter 3
I left my suitcase by the door and began packing. Clothes, skincare products, books. I shoved them into the case one after another, determined to remove every trace of myself from the life we had built together.
I was halfway through when the lock clicked.
Adrian was home.
The moment he saw the suitcase, his expression changed. He crossed the room in a few quick strides and wrapped both arms around me from behind.
Bergamot clung to his clothes, mixed with the heavy smell of grease and spices from the restaurant he had visited. The combination was so sharp and cloying that my nose immediately began to itch.
I had always been sensitive to bergamot. I sneezed twice in quick succession.
“Claire, what are you doing?” Adrian softened his voice. “Can you stop overreacting? Let’s sit down and talk.”
There wasn’t a trace of concern in his tone. Beneath the forced gentleness, all I heard was irritation that I had disrupted his plans.
“I’m not overreacting. And you and I have nothing left to talk about.”
I struggled to pull free.
Instead of releasing me, he tightened his grip until his arms dug painfully into my ribs.
“I know you’re upset because Vanessa is only an intern, and you don’t think she has the right to point out your mistakes. But do you have any idea who she really is?” he demanded. “She’s the daughter of one of New York’s most powerful families. Her background is far beyond anything you can imagine, and she isn’t someone you can afford to offend. I was trying to protect you.”
The words daughter of one of New York’s most powerful families exploded in my head like a thunderclap.
The Sinclair heiress was Evelyn Sinclair, my best friend from high school. I knew her better than almost anyone.
Evelyn had moved overseas with her family during our junior year and had lived abroad ever since, rarely returning to the United States. Very few people knew her true identity. I was her closest friend, and we spoke almost every day.
Not once had she mentioned having a younger sister.
I was about to press Adrian for details when he abruptly let go of me. Reaching behind him, he produced a Miu Miu shopping bag and held it out.
“Your blouse was ruined by the coffee, wasn’t it? I stopped at the mall and bought you a new one.”
I stared at the bag.
Adrian had only recently been promoted, and money was still tight. His mortgage and car payments left him struggling every month. He normally agonized over buying a T-shirt that cost a few hundred dollars, yet he had apparently spent thousands on a Miu Miu blouse without blinking.