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ChapterTwo
Eden
“Miss Rochere? We’ve got another file for you.”
I held my hand out for the manilla envelope, but the woman dropped it on my desk. I slowly looked up at her, studying her forlorn face and the heavy black bags beneath her eyes. During my out-of-office hours, I volunteered my time at a non-profit on the outskirts of Los Angeles. They specialized in pro-bono work for those who had been wronged by the very justice systems set up to protect them, and they operated solely off donations to keep their lawyers on staff funded as much as possible.
But the secretary that worked for me who donated her time for that same non-profit looked more downtrodden than usual.
“Is everything all right?” I asked as I scooped up the folder.
Kaori sighed heavily. “How do you feel about taking on personal cases?”
I furrowed my brow. “What am I going to find when I open this folder?”
“It’s… my brother.”
I couldn’t get those damned papers out quickly enough. “Jiro? What’s wrong? Did court not go well last week?”
She blinked back a few tears. “They declared a mistrial, like you figured they would. And then, as we were walking out of the courthouse, they—”
My eyes scanned the first few lines of the document. “They’re charging him with attempted murder?”
Kaori plopped down into the chair in front of my desk. “Please, you have to help him. You know they’re targeting him because he’s here on a school visa. If they charge him, they’ll rip away his potential citizenship, not to mention his visa. I won’t be able to protect him. Please, you have to do something.”
I picked up my office phone. “Consider it done. I’ll put it at the top of my list. Let me make some phone calls really quickly.”
She put her hands together. “Thank you so much.”
However, the man that I called shot me straight to his voice message inbox.
“You’ve reached the mailbox of Judge Michael Donovan. Please leave your name, number, and a—”
I hung up the phone and gathered my things. If the man didn’t want to pick up the phone for me, then I’d go straight to his office and stalk it the fuck out. I knew the ins and outs of Jiro’s case. He had been doing nothing but studying in his god damn dorm room when a fight broke out, and all he did was pry someone off his roommate. It’s not his fault the asshole tripped and stumbled into a broken bed corner. It wasn’t his fault that his university didn’t want to keep the rooms up to code in the first place.
It wasn’t his fault that the boy bled out once he was impaled. All he had been trying to do was save his roommate from getting his ass beat.
“Where are you going?” Kaori asked.
I shoved the documents into my bag before slinging it over my shoulder. “To see a judge about a case. I’ll be back.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Just leave it to me!” I called out to her.
I stormed through the small building the non-profit occupied and charged through the glass double doors. It poured me onto the sidewalk, and I took a hard left, setting my sights on downtown. My phone started vibrating in the pocket of my slacks and I ripped it out. Maybe it was the judge wisening up and returning my fucking phone call.
However, when I saw my sister’s name lighting up on my phone’s screen, I tried to still my voice as much as possible.
Emily had always been sensitive to other people’s tones of voices.
“Hey there,” I said as brightly as possible.
But she heard right through it. “Bad time? I can call later.”
I flagged down a taxi. “No no no, you’re good. Everything okay?”
She squealed so loudly in my ear that I had to hold the phone away. “I got the job! Can you believe it? That bastard gave me the job!”
