Reunited with My Lawyer Ex

Chapter 2 Foe Unforeseen

Rolling my eyes and setting my jaw, I let out a huff. "Mr. Vance, you are a pro at pushing people's buttons. No thanks, I'm out."

Just as I spun on my heel and headed for the door, Alexander's cool, unhurried voice drifted after me from across the room. "Out-of-court mediation next week. Be there."

Rumors of Alexander tearing up the legal world in Kingston City had reached me for years, yet it never crossed my mind that my first case upon returning home would set me on a collision course with him.

With the defendant's chances of victory practically zero and almost no room to maneuver, this case offered him nothing but a blow to his professional track record.

Unless, of course, he intended to beat the odds against all hope.

Pulling off an impossible victory was the quickest, albeit most dangerous, path to fame for any lawyer.

I sighed heavily. It looked like my probation period at the new firm wasn't going to be anywhere near as easy as I'd hoped.

Right after graduation, I'd landed a spot at Merilica's most prestigious firm, Insight Legal Counsel, every law student's dream firm. I'd planned to put down roots there, but my parents split when I was young, and last month my mom was diagnosed out of the blue with cirrhosis.

That was what brought me back here, to this city crammed full of old memories of Alexander and me.

To make it easier to get my mom to her appointments, I rented a small place right by the hospital. It was fine, really, save for being a solid distance outside the city.

Mediation was scheduled for nine, which meant I had to leave home by seven. That required rolling out of bed at six to get ready and sort through my case files, leaving me barely enough time to grab a bite to eat on the way.

I got there right at the last minute. Alexander's whole team was already settled in.

My side? Just me.

Vincent had a last-minute conflict, and the firm never bothered to assign me an assistant.

Across from me, Alexander had brought two full-time court reporters just to take minutes.

I drew a slow breath to steady myself and pulled out my chair.

Alexander sat opposite me, twisting a fountain pen between his fingers, his gaze wandering over me with that lazy, unreadable focus he always had.

Once my documents were sorted, I broke the silence. "Let's get started."

Since his client wasn't showing up either, today was just going to be a straight head-to-head between the two of us.

I trusted my own legal skills implicitly, but even I didn't dare let my guard down against Alexander. I'd stayed up all night combing through transcripts of his old cases, mapping out a hundred tricky questions he might throw at me.

There was no way I was going to embarrass myself in front of him.

He stopped spinning his pen, flipped open his case file slow as molasses, and drawled, like he was just musing out loud, "Why did you come back?"

'Wait, what?'

Every head in the room snapped toward him first, then swiveled back to stare at me.

Alexander didn't even blink at the audience. He just kept staring at me, no attempt to hide it.

I cleared my throat and kept my tone crisp and professional. "Mr. Vance, what does this have to do with the case at hand?"

He tilted his mouth up into that familiar teasing smirk. "Everything. One of Insight Legal Counsel's top ten attorneys suddenly moves back home, just to take a no-challenge case like this. Don't you think that's weird? My side is perfectly within our rights to suspect there's some hidden agenda going on here. Otherwise, what makes you think I'd take this case?"

He paused, dragged the moment out, then added, "Don't tell me you actually think I took this case just to go up against you, Ms. Sterling?"

The air in the mediation room went dead still for half a minute. One could have heard a pin drop on the carpet.

The young associate sitting next to Alexander picked up on the tension immediately, standing up fast and herding the rest of the team toward the door. "Mr. Vance, we'll go pull the supplementary documents."

I stood right up after her. "That won't be necessary. It's pretty clear you have no interest in mediating this, Mr. Vance. Next time, just let us know ahead of time so we don't waste each other's time. We'll see each other at trial. I'm leaving."