Devil's Lawyer

This is Sharon Kinne.

Camilla Kinne was a kid who ran away from home, like thousands of others around the world. She left her house when she was fifteen years, not escaping from bad parents, but because she thought she had found the love of her life and the couple decided to live together. She had lived her whole life in a glass box: ignoring the evil of the world and the unfortunate, who undoubtedly exist. Her boyfriend was the opposite. He grew up watching his father beat her mother over and over again, without her protesting. He also witnessed all her childhood to her addict mother inject herself with h****n, to then fade unconsciously in the bathtub. Its young and innocent mind assimilated those as normal behaviors and soon he was a violent young man who liked to get high. He was not in love with her girlfriend, he was unable to love, he was simply delighted that he had finally found a "good woman", one of those who doesn't talk if you don't ask them something, who doesn't complain when you hit them and always takes care of you. 

When Camilla ran away from home, she stole some money from her parents and when she ran out of cash, she began modeling for low-profile jobs that only left her a few dollars. All the money she gained was administered by her boyfriend, who would use it to pay the rent in the fielty places where they lived, buy drugs and pay for s*x. Hygiene was non-existent, there were roaches and rats everywhere, if you killed one, four more would appear. Despite living among drug dealers and prostitutes, they would always find a way to stand out: engaging with their neighbors in violent fights with broken windows, rivers of blood, kitchen knives, and occasionally someone ending up at the hospital and this was the reason why they constantly changed their residence. 

Soon they were caught in a carousel of s*x and drugs. First thing in the morning they would snort a little bit of white dust, they organized parties where everyone would bring and share drugs, they even resorted to painkillers mixed with vodka when nothing else was available. He tried to become a dealer, but the business was not profitable because he used almost all the drugs that he had to sell; so the only thing he obtained from his job was a black eye when he couldn't pay his drug debts. 

Things were not better in the s*x department. He only worried about being able to reach the c****x. His attention was not focused on caressing or kissing her, the only important thing for him was his own pleasure, and being able to do everything that turned him on. He pulled her by the hair, beat her, and asked her to tell him that “she had never been with another man”, which made him feel good. She ended up crying most of the time, but that didn’t frighten him; what scared him was the idea that she could have libido or that she would satisfy her desire with someone else because that would mean that she was no longer pure, that she had become corrupted and contaminated with lust. He believed that he was a better man if he managed to sleep with many women, but if she sleeps with some other men, she would become worthless. 

Things got turbulent when he started taking girls home. He used to lock his girlfriend in the bathroom so she couldn’t interrupt his love affairs. She stayed there trapped, crying and cursing, but always thought that these other girls were "just s*x" and she was “his true love”. Slowly the pain built up inside her. When she couldn't take it anymore, she decided to end the source of the problem that, according to her, were those women who seduced her man. She managed to escape from the bathroom through a tiny window, took a knife and went to the room where his man was and found his mistress with her back to the door, so she tried to stab her aiming to pierce the heart, but he reacted quickly and the knife only reached the girl's right arm. Someone else called the police and she was arrested. 

They were deciding whether to charge her with murder attempt or physical injury, but she couldn't afford a lawyer so she had to settle for those bad lawyers that the state provides. So accepted her destiny, the bad lawyer, the attacks of the other prisoners, her bad decisions, how much she missed her parents, and also accepted that he did not love her. She was no longer a human being, she became an orange sack of bones and meat, without a will, without strength and even without a voice. She was like a zombie who just stood up, moved, and ate if the guards ordered her to.

The prison staff thought her lack of vitality was because she was sick, so they took her to the doctor for examination and they did not find any disease but a baby. She was two months pregnant and had not noticed because she was so disconnected from reality that she could not remember when was the last time she had her period. The idea of a human being growing inside of her pulled her back to reality. For a whole week, she was lost in her thoughts, trying to find out how she felt about the possibility of becoming a mother. On the eighth day, she wrote a letter to her parents and the first thing she said was that "she was in prison, but she was happy". She begged for their forgiveness, asked them to visit her, and told them what she had experienced in the last months. Two days later, their parents appeared in the prisión, discussed her situation, and outlined some plans for the future. 

Her parents got her a better lawyer, a family friend, with a very good reputation, who managed to save the girl from being charged for murder attempt. The trial was unexpectedly delayed, so when it could finally be carried out, her pregnant belly was enormous and this made everyone feel compassion for the girl. This helped her obtain a benevolent sentence of eight years, which was a good deal, considering her intention was to kill another human being. 

Using her contacts, her parents managed to locate her in one of the country's good prisons, where you can work, study and do exercise; they also got her a place in a courtyard with non-dangerous prisoners. Many people say that a crisis should be an opportunity to grow and is what she did. As soon as possible, she immersed herself in the world of literature, which had always been her passion, but abandoned it when she ran away from home. She started reading “the classics” on her own and the pen of the best writers in history took her back to the 1920s to meet Gatsby, allowed her to get on the Pequod whaling ship, introduced her to Frankenstein, and provided her countless adventures. Her mind was now in a feverish and poetic state and this encouraged her to forge plans for the future in her mind. She often imagined a big house full of love and peace, herself teaching classes at some school, the pet she would buy for her baby, but what she most imagined was her baby. 

All the literary vivacity and happy imagination of the woman was interrupted by a letter by her baby’s father. On the paper he said that he was in rehab and things were going well, he also promised that everything was going to be better in the future because he was learning to become a good man. Also, he argued that he had not been able to write to her before because he didn’t know to which prison they had taken her. She only wrote back a few lines, telling him that she was having a baby and if he wanted to get to know his daughter, he better proved his love was real and that he had changed for the better.  

Any given night, Camilla dreamed that she fell into a pool, wearing a dress and it became very heavy because of the water that soaked it. When she woke up she realized that her bed was actually wet because her water had broken and the official time to become a mother had arrived. It is common to think that as soon as a pregnant woman breaks her fountain, she must go mad and run to the hospital, but real life is nothing like that. At first, there are only mild, irregular, contractions, which will increase in frequency and intensity until it is time to push, which could take hours or even days. So, she had plenty of time to call their parents, dress appropriately and listen to a round of relaxing and happy music. But this peace comes to an end at some point because the last stage of labor is very painful. At that point the room was flooded with noise when it was time to deliver the baby: her yelling, her mother’s crying, the doctor's voice giving instructions, the nurse’s voices talking to each other and the noise of the hustle and bustle in the hospital corridor.

A baby girl was born. She had light eyes and deep dark hair, but the young mother didn't care if the baby had light or dark eyes, blonde or dark hair, withe or brown skin, the only thing that mattered for her was knowing that the baby was a part of herself and they were going to be very happy together. The little creature had made her feel totally happy, like floating in a cloud of satisfaction and with the certainty that the only thing she needed in life was that baby. They named the newborn Sharon Kinne, using her mother’s last name. Very soon after birth, the grandparents took the baby to live with them and being away from her baby pushed the new mother into a dark abyss, but she quickly recovered her vitality and began to study a degree in literature, because she wanted her daughter to be proud of her. She always went to bed thinking that the prison was temporary bad weather and that better times would come.

Sharon’s story can be told as the tragedy of a baby who grew up without her parents; but it can also be told as a fairy tale where a baby who was destined to live in poor conditions, was rescued by her grandparents. The Kinnes lived in a beautiful house, with high ceilings, bright spaces, and a pool in their backyard. The girl was happy and noisy since the day she was born and the grandparents encouraged her to stay that way when she grew up. They bought her any toy that fell into their hands, they also filled a giant closet with small pieces of clothing and they got her a young babysitter to be her playmate. When the girl was four years old and started going to the school, they made sure she had good friends and promoted her friendships by making legendary children's parties where there were trampolines, ice cream machines, and people dressed up as giant plush dolls. When their granddaughter turned five, they considered her old enough to choose new decorations for her room. They granted her any luxury that could be given to a little girl, but they were happier than the baby with all this because they felt that their lives had started again and their house was full of happiness once more since their grandchild arrived.

They were not very old, so pretty soon everyone began to believe that they were not the grandparents, but the parents of Sharon. She also believed that. The mind of a little girl is not capable of understanding the complex world of adults and simply loves whoever is there to take care of her. Her grandfather was a retired professor from a famous university and he got attached to the girl in an extraordinary way. He liked to feed her granddaughter, read stories to her, and take her for walks. They were happy being best friends. 

Meanwhile, Sharon’s mother was about to finish her degree and get out of prison on parole. Over the years, her daughter's father had been visiting her in prison and they had plans to get a stable job, a beautiful home, and move in with her daughter; but that would not be possible right away. First, the little girl had to gradually get used to them and they had to prove that they were capable of being responsible adults. 

The day Camilla gained her freedom, she went to her parent’s house to live with them. She didn't really like the way Sharón acted, but it seemed normal to her that a young child still doesn't know how to behave properly. The girl was old enough to manipulate people and that is what she did with her mother: in exchange for kissing or hugging her mom, she asked for gifts or favors. The mother just tried every day to earn the girl's selfless love, but it didn't seem to be working.

As the days passed, the young mother witnessed more rare and uncomfortable episodes. One day, through the window she saw her daughter push another girl in front of a car that, luckily the car reacted skillfully. When she asked Sharon why she had done that, she said that "it was an exciting game" and the mother thought it was normal for a young child not to understand how delicate life was. Shortly after the incident, while they were both in the car, the girl said that she would like to “jump out of the moving car, as they do in the movies” and this amused her mother very much, who in the midst of laughter asked her daughter if that would scare her, but when the girl answered without hesitation that "she had never felt fear", her mother frightened because fear was a natural feeling in human beings. Another day, a teacher called from Sharon's school to report that she had punched one of her classmates in the face, so the next day they wanted to reunite the two girls and their parents to work out the problem. No one could get the girl to apologize for assaulting her mate, she just said on multiple occasions that "she was not going to apologize because she did not feel sorry".

The young mother concluded that her daughter was a spoiled kid and promised herself that she would try to educate her to be a better person. But her alarms went off because Sharon's hamster was found dead and the girl said with a satisfied face that she had strangled it with her hands. Everyone laughed when the kid said that, they thought it was some sort of joke because a little girl can’t be evil, but her mother was in shock because she knew deep down that it was true. She immediately got her daughter a therapist. Perhaps Sharon's monstrous nature could have been contained or shaped by her mother, but her desire to accompany and guide her daughter was never fulfilled.

Sharon’s parents would meet very often. Her father used to spend a lot of time with her, apparently, he was working all his issues and they were doing everything possible to become a family. She had just been hired as a secretary when he disappeared and a week later he was found dead in his house – most likely, someone from his past wanted revenge – and she collapsed into an abyss from which she could never get out. A week later, she swallowed with vodka more than sixty painkillers and ended her life. The girl was nine years old when her parents died. She did not drop a single tear at the wake, the only thing that bothered her was that her birthday party was canceled due to mourning. Her grandparents thought this was due to the fact that she was still very young and did not understand death; they even considered that it was unnecessary for her to continue going with the psychoanalyst because they saw her as a normal girl and were too blind to see the warning signs.

Soon the little girl became a teenager and her grandparents were proud to see that she was beautiful, intelligent, friendly, and charismatic. So all this psychoanalyst madness had been unnecessary, as they always thought. But actually, her granddaughter had not overcome her grisly oddities, she had only learned to hide them: her games were now creepier and darker, but her teachers and grandparents never discovered it. In fact, she would go unnoticed for a long time, even after having hurt many people. 

She had an extraordinary intelligence that always made her stand out in school, without having to try too hard; but her intelligence was not limited to the formal or academic field, she was able to analyze all the matters of daily life with the greatest insight, even her grandparents would ask her for advice on the most varied matters and she was always right. Her intelligence was combined with a tendency to be a perfectionist: she loved that her house was tidy and clean, she played tennis with a supernatural devotion, always got excellent grades and dressed impeccably; but beyond this, she liked that her social relationships developed exactly as she wanted, so she was always busy with some complot and manipulating people, to shape reality to her liking. Besides, she was reckless and fearless: more accurately we could say she could only feel small doses of fear. 

These characteristics made her someone who was not afraid to argue or challenge other people, who did not mind playing with life or destiny, someone who did not hesitate when she had to take radical decisions, and who easily achieved her goals. While being a teenager she was a golden girl with the perfect grades, wealthy family, and astonishing beauty. But beneath this facade laid an evil genius. Her favorite hobby was pranking her friends, she would frame them for theft, fake-kidn*pped them, or she would blackmail them with serious matters (once she threatened to kill her friend’s pet). In her free time, she also liked toying with boys: she was capable of spending weeks flattering them with compliments and attention to finally throw them away like a piece of garbage. These innocent and harmless games were only the training that prepared her for what she would do after graduating from college.

Greed and avarice also inhabited her, she wanted to be richer than her grandparents and she wanted to have real power. The obsession with the idea of becoming a powerful woman started when she was thirteen years old. She had artistic talent and she liked to draw herself as if she were a Greek goddess inhabiting Olympus. By the time she turned fifteen she realized that high school would be over soon and by then she had to have a plan that would allow her to become a feared, respected, and desired woman. After thinking for some time, she still could not decide her future and felt a lack of the appropriate information to make any decision, so she asked for advice from his grandfather because he knew her well. The old man told her that "an intelligence like the one she possessed could not be wasted: it had to be refined in a university” and after some meditation, she concluded that graduating from a prestigious University would endow her with status and prestige. 

Soon her grandfather introduced Sharon to some of his friends, so they could talk to the young woman about what they had studied at university and what they did for a living; this way she could get to know real life a little. Her grandfather also took her to know the campuses of some universities and hired a coach to help her make a decision. He was very happy to see her committed to her future, especially because he always dreamed of seeing his own daughter go to college but that never happened. This was like having a second chance to raise and support a daughter. 

Some of the people his grandfather introduced her were lawyers and soon she noticed that there was a pattern of conduct among them: they were all strong-willed people, elegant and powerful. Anyone can notice that lawyers have great power in their hands, either to do good or to do evil. They are in charge of making the law, they decide on an asset as precious as the liberty of the people and they have important jobs within the government, they might dominate the country. So Sharon began to like the idea of becoming a lawyer because it could give her money and power, if she did things the right way. 

One of these attorneys explained to her details about the different areas of law and she was delighted when he started talking about criminal law. Of course, criminal law was not a career, it was a specialization, to become a criminal law attorney you had to be a lawyer first, which means spending more time learning, but that didn’t bother her because she knew she was capable of quickly becoming an expert in that area of law. She did a little research to get to know a bit more about those attorneys who work among criminals. She discovered that white-collar criminals and killers desperate to get away with murder pay well. She read biographies where some criminal law attorneys were presented as immortal avengers. And she found out that in criminal law class they taught about crime, evidence and litigation techniques. She was excited by the idea of studying the criminal mind, watching crime scenes and learning about handling evidence: being a criminal law attorney implied taking her passion for the creepy to a professional level. She could be powerful and wealthy while doing something thrilling. 

Many school girls don’t take charge of their lives or care about the future and are like a leaf lost by the wind. She was nothing like that, she kept counting the days left until her high school graduation because that would be the time to leave everything behind and focus all her efforts on becoming a powerful lawyer. This determination to become a lawyer was not because their parents were lawyers, they didn't attend college, she did not inherit her profession. 

Before finishing high school, she began to study law on her own. It became a habit of hers to visit his grandfather’s friend, the one who was a criminal law attorney. She would ask him to let her see files, to explain to her legal concepts, and even accompanied him to hearings. She was obsessed and wanted to be the best. She even stopped wasting time making superfluous pranks and became distant from her friends. While the other high school girls waste their time browsing fashion magazines, doing manicures, and chasing boys, she had much more serious occupations. She constantly studied at some point, her library was filled with law books and folders full of legal documents; she also dedicated her time to decide which university would be best for her by analyzing multiple facts, such as the area where the school was located, its teachers and its libraries. When she chose her favorite universities, she started preparing for the admission exam. She didn’t want to leave her future to chance, nor wait for God to designate good things for her, she wanted to be the craftswoman of her destiny. 

Faster than she expected, she found herself living in a small apartment on her own and attending classes at law school. It had only been around three months and she already had everything under control. The young wannabe lawyer was like a chameleon that knew how to blend into its environment very quickly. She changed her wardrobe for a less childish and elegant one; she practiced speeches in front of the mirror, to be able to make brilliant interventions in class; she bought the books that the professors recommended for the first-year students and organized them in her study room. She soon forgot about her old life: it was like everything that had happened before law school was just a drill or training to prepare her for her true life.

A call from a monotonous and distant voice woke her up in the middle of the night, asking if she was Sharón Kinne and then informed her that her grandparents had died in a car accident. She let her cell phone slide down her neck and onto the pillow and cried quietly. It was Friday. A sister of her grandmother called to tell her that the funeral would be on Monday and she spent the whole weekend lying in her bed, getting up only for vital things, hidden under the sheets, wanting to hide from the fear that lurked her because she knew that from that moment on she was alone in the world. The day of the wake, she got up, put on a lot of makeup and groomed her hair a lot, hoping to dissimulate her pale skin and cracked lips. She promised herself that when she returned to her apartment, everything would be left behind and indeed she forgot the whole issue. Her grandparents designed her as their only heir. 

She got to know a lot of people at University and they were all beautiful and wealthy. Although, she did not think of her as "her friends", but as "contacts". There were two that stood out within the pile: a man who threatened to be better than her; and a woman who had managed to get close to her and she actually cared about her. Sadly, her only friend was messy and unambitious, she settled for the money her parents would inherit and made no effort to become a good lawyer. Her nemesis, on the contrary, was fearless, he had already learned that it takes courage to succeed in law. 

After finishing law school, her goal was to found her own lawyer’s firm, but she needed a business partner to support her and battle by her side because, if the firm was to grow enormously, more than one person in charge was required. She spent one year trying to find the right partner, but she never did. Out of the blue, her nemesis appeared next to her in a cafe and after chatting for a while they decided to jump together: they both would start a criminal law firm. No one else had the intelligence and tenacity that was required for that.

It only took them five years to become a legend in the city where they lived. They were a lot like the lawyers in the movies, not only because they looked like a Hollywood star, but also because they were on the news or on the internet gossip pages all the time and they always looked like they had everything under control, indeed, the duo hardly ever lost a case. But life is made of chaos, human beings are finite and imperfect, and pain is the supreme god of the universe. No state of grace and perfection can last forever.