Natalie was standing, she held a cup of coffee and was looking around for a place to sit. But since the place was crowded, she couldn’t find one. Eddy didn’t want to be rude and had no choice but to offer her the empty chair next to him. Natalie asked him how he was doing and said “Long time no see.” Eddy forced himself to smile but he was sure she could see it was insincere.
Natalie said she was sorry to hear about his daughter. But Eddy wasn’t in the mood to have a conversation with her or with anybody else for that matter. Still, out of politeness, he asked her what she was doing in the hospital. She said she came to visit one of her clients who was abused by her husband so severely that she had to be hospitalized.
Natalie became a family lawyer more than a decade ago. She decided to change her practice to family law after she went through a failed marriage and a traumatic divorce which left her emotionally scarred. Eddy suddenly remembered that Dylan told him a long time ago that she changed her practice to family law.
Anyway, Natalie said she shares an office with two other female lawyers and that all of them accept Legal Aid clients. In particular, she helps women who were sent by the authorities to shelters for abused women. Eddy was looking at her while she was talking and was amazed at how much she had changed.
There was nothing left of the old Natalie. She looked sincere and there was some sadness in her eyes. Eddy was thinking to himself God knows he could use a really good family lawyer but he didn’t dare tell her anything about his messed up life.
However, at some point, Eddy thought maybe he should compromise and give Anna most of what she wanted in order to reach an agreement and get rid of her. But instead of appreciating his effort, Anna became more greedy and he couldn’t tolerate it anymore.
Although Eddy left the company he established with Dylan, the two of them stayed friends. They would occasionally get together and would catch up. In fact, Eddy met with Dylan a few weeks after he bumped into Natalie. Dylan knew that Eddy was having problems with Anna but didn’t know any details. But this time, Eddy needed to blow off some steam and also told Dylan about meeting Natalie.
Eddy wished to reach an out of court settlement with Anna but unfortunately going to court was unavoidable. Dylan thought he should ask Natalie to represent him. He said she had an excellent reputation and it’s about time he stop being so nice to Anna as he was only going around in circles.
With Eddie present Dylan called a friend of his who went through a divorce and hired Natalie to be her lawyer. He put her on speaker and asked her opinion about Natalie. Without any hesitation, the lady said that Natalie was the best and highly recommended her. After Dylan finished his conversation with his friend, Eddy expressed his concern about his history with Natalie.
Dylan assured his friend that Natalie was a professional and wouldn’t allow their past to interfere with doing her job as his lawyer. He added that the maximum that would happen is she would decline to take him on as a client. He mentioned to Eddy that the interactions between them took place many years ago and she probably doesn’t even remember them.
Eddy decided to take Dylan’s advice and called Natalie when he came home that night. She was surprised to hear from him and after a minute or two of small talk, he told her he was going through a divorce and needed a lawyer. Without any hesitation, she said you’ve got one now and they agreed to meet in her office as soon as possible.
Natalie had an office that was tastefully designed and quite beautiful. The environment had a calming effect which put everyone there at ease. And this was very helpful as Eddy was quite stressed when he entered her office. Eddy waited for Natalie only a few minutes before she came into the waiting area to escort him to a meeting room.
Natalie asked him to tell her everything he could about his marriage, even if he thinks some details are irrelevant or unimportant. Eddy was surprised at how direct she was and he needed a few moments to compose himself. And then he told Natalie how rapidly the relationship between him and Anna deteriorated. He also talked about her ridiculous demands. He kept saying that he doesn’t want a battle with her and doesn’t want the situation to get ugly.
Eddy didn’t mention that Anna started an affair with Adam 3 weeks after Angie went into a coma. For some reason, he felt too embarrassed to talk about it. When he finally finished talking, Natalie could tell he hadn’t told her everything. So she asked him again, is there anything you left out, any details you remember that you could tell me about.
Eddy was unable to look her in the eyes and she said to him, just spit it out. Then he said OK, you’re right. There is something I didn’t mention, but I’m uncomfortable talking about it and making it public………..