Power of Attorney: A Novel (A Greenburg Family Book 1) (5 page)

“I promise you
, Mrs. Terres, we will win this for you and Daisuke.”

…

Patrick’s face had remained the same ever since they returned to the office to wait for any development. He seemed thoughtful and on edge, as if their time with the Terres family had brought back haunting memories. Sarah wondered if Kanade reminded him of anything or perhaps anyone from his past.

Sarah’s hand clutched her copy of Daisuke’s book.
This was the first time she had gotten really emotional over her client. She felt protective of them and was growing more determined to win this case by the second.

Piles of pictures and other evidence flooded
in, and they spent the rest of the week analyzing and verifying each piece of data that was sent their way. The evidence came from people all across the United States and even other countries. These were the people Daisuke had touched with the words of his books. Sarah underestimated the overwhelming power of Daisuke’s fan base. Even Patrick was surprised by the number of pictures flooding into his inbox. Selecting and trying to prove each picture’s validity would be harder than they thought.

When they weren’t looking through the documents and pictures, Sarah would read Daisuke’s book. She finally understood why he
was respected as one of the best romance authors of his era. Daisuke truly believed in pure love. It was the kind of love he grew up with after all. He truly believed in the eternal love his parents shared. His parents became the example he tried to live by. The way he described Kanade and Aiden was made believable by his words. It gave hope to the readers that true, pure love exists in the world.

On the fifth day of pouring through photographs and other evidence,
Patrick decided to call it a day. Sarah was relieved as they both were exhausted from the time intensive work and gladly closed up office to head home. They were taking the elevator down together, talking about the contract when Sarah broke the conversation.

“Daisuke love
d his mom didn’t he?” Patrick had that same expression again, the one that he wore when he was listening to Kanade talking about Daisuke. There was something about Kanade that affected Patrick deep down. Ever since that day, he argued a bit less but at the same time was easier to be irritated by little things.

“He did write books about them after all
.” Everything Daisuke wrote about his parents was so beautifully. His untimely departure must have hit the Terres family hard. They must have tried to be strong without Daisuke as the pillar of the family. Diana became the new foundation for the family, and Shunsuke the caretaker of the grandmother they loved so much.

“It isn’t fair. They
are good people,” Sarah said.

“Nothing is fair in real life, Blake.”
Sarah smiled as he gruffly called her by her last name.

“I know but
…” Kanade’s raspy voice flowed into her head again, and she found her eyes welling with unshed tears. She couldn’t help it; this family had touched her and the emotion of the past few days surfaced like a huge tidal wave that overwhelmed her control.

She began to cry tears of remorse over Daisuke short life. It wasn’t an ugly sob or a loud one, but a silent mourning.
She mourned for the boy he was and the man he had become. She mourned that the world would never read another of his stories. She mourned for the family who was being victimized by a business whose only concern was in making a profit.

As the tears slipped down her face, she felt a
warm hand on her head and felt Patrick’s lips pressing into her forehead. His tenderness was such a surprise that she stopped crying, shock taking over her emotions. What was Patrick doing? What did he just do?

Patrick seemed
as surprised as she way. He quickly dropped his hand and stepped back a couple of steps. They stared at each other with wide eyes, unable to believe what just happen in the last few seconds.

The sound of the elevator’s bell
brought Sarah from her shell. She darted out of the elevator without a word and ran from the building. She ran all the way to her apartment without stopping, the adrenaline rushing in her veins. It wasn’t until she reached her room that she stopped moving. Her legs finally gave away as the rush died down.

She placed her hand on her forehead, touching the place where Patrick’s lips had been. “What just happened?”
was the only thing that ran through her head all night.

A
week had passed since the ‘kissing’ incident. Neither Sarah nor Patrick mentioned it, never brought it up. They continued their daily arguing and bickering on the case like good office buddies though people would think that ‘partners in crimes’ was a way more suitable description.

Memorandum to set trial date remained indecisive as the two attorneys and their clients still could not
reach an agreement. They had to face the reality that they were not the only one who had a case. Selecting and scheduling the jury was even worst and for the first time in his career Patrick was glad he didn’t have to handle it alone. Even with everything ready and Sarah looking as if she was itching for action they could only just wait. Patrick found himself watching her while they worked, amused at her habit of reciting her internal monologue as if practicing in front of a mirror. He would watch her hands as they flipped through papers, watch her mouth as she talked. He found himself drawn to her, a feeling that he wasn’t very comfortable with.

It
’s been said that when you realize you have a connection with someone, you will have this feeling of little butterflies fluttering in your stomach. That was mostly untrue in the case of Patrick Greenburg. He had dated women in which he had felt attracted, had even cared for a few of them. But no one had every affected him like Sarah.

The realization that he and Sarah Blake could actually start something came to him at full force like the wings of
a giant albatross swooping down into the ocean of abyss. He didn’t know if it was because of her way of challenging him or of accepting his challenge. Or the way she could handle his temper better than anyone he had ever met. Or the fact that she was just such a great lawyer. Patrick loved his job. He loved being a lawyer. And to see someone who was as passionate in law career as he made him feel as if something clicked together.

Sarah Blake was the first person he genuinely like
d to work with. She wasn’t kidding when she said that she was one of the top students in her class. She was smart. But more than that. She understood him, and he understood her. Sometimes it was as if they read each other’s minds. She was one of the people who didn’t felt intimidated by his prowess and challenge. Instead, Sarah embraced it. She welcomed his insulting words and criticism and forged them into the strongest weapon to counter him right back. She surprised him in every way.

Patrick couldn’t deny that working with her made his normal work even more interesting. He enjoyed bickering with her. He enjoyed testing her skills and knowledge because he knew that Sarah was the only person who could exceed his expectation. For the first time, Patrick felt what it was like to not
be alone. As long as he could remember, people often left him because he was the kind of person who wandered too far ahead, running too fast for people to catch up. Everyone gave up on him eventually. They could not handle his intensity or the way he handled his work. Patrick wasn’t the kind that took work lightly. He didn’t need people who would draw him back.

Even if Sarah started
off drifting behind him, she eventually caught him up. She was the one of the first to be able to stand by his side and walk with him at the same speed. In this marathon, he was sure that she would either finish the race with him or would run farther ahead. And if he could, he would rather finish this line with her.

Patrick
knew that he could get along with Sarah because she was a nice person. It wasn’t hard to be friends with her, even for someone like him. She was able to talk with anyone and was quick to form a friendship; she had quickly formed a friendship with Diana and Shunsuke Terres. He had heard her speaking to the Terres sibling about social things.

She even had a friendship with his brother of all people.
Henry often barged into his office with an extra Starbucks in his hand for Sarah, which she always gladly accepted. In fact, he could consider that Henry was closer to Sarah than him. Sarah was kind. That wasn’t hard to spot either. The way that she mourned the late Daisuke Terres and how she was angry at the Golden Dome for taking the advantage of his untimely death. It took a great strength for someone to cry. She could truly sympathized and expressed her empathy without trying. In the other word, Sarah Blake was everything that Patrick wasn’t.

The theories of ‘opposite
attract’ screamed into his brain upon the realization. ‘She completes you’ said some sub-conscious thought that embedded somewhere in his brain. He knew he shouldn’t give himself permission to open up. He knew what happened the first time he did, and he vowed himself never to fall for that ever again. Being alone wasn’t something new to him so why would he need to have someone now? Even if he knew that Sarah was a woman he could get along with in both work and personal life, he knew he could not let her be the center of his life.

‘You can’t or you won’t?’
Asked his sub-conscious brain. Patrick couldn’t even answer himself back. His fingers froze when that question played in his head. He was writing a letter to the management office of the firm. A letter that asked for Sarah to be transferred back to her original branch in Richmond. It was a selfish move and Patrick was known well in the whole building for his selfishness. They all expected this letter to be written by either him or Sarah anyway. He couldn’t see a reason for him to delay the inevitable.

Patrick knew himself well
, or at least he thought that he did. He understood his strengths and even his weaknesses but what he understand most was that he was as human as everyone else. He enjoyed Sarah’s company and worked well with her. He could easily see her as someone he could settle himself with. But the question was… could she do the same? Going into a relationship wasn’t meant to be one-sided. Would someone like Sarah want to start a relationship with a jerk like himself? Their starting point was already a wobbly one. Even if they finally managed to work together, were able to perform in a perfect synchronization that spiked from total chaos of regular arguments and office spats… could that really be enough for them to start a relationship?

Patrick
had been alone for most of his life, which never bothered him. Now it wasn’t enough. It felt good to have someone who thought as he did; who you felt alignment with, as one with. He realized that part of it could be because Sarah had studied about him so attentively when she was a member of his ‘fan club’. Part of it simply because she was Sarah Blake, one of the biggest rising stars in the industry.

Patrick knew he was about to let go of the brightest gem in his
life because he was afraid of taking an unknown path. He wasn’t brave enough to hold on, and he knew it. Give him a hard case that seemed impossible, and he could fight it head on. Give him an emotional and personal problem involving his heart and Patrick would shut down and wave a white flag. He had been unsure of himself since the time his parents’ divorce. He knew that the only way he could solve this problem was to throw it away. So he decided to throw Sarah away too.

As he was half-way through
the letter, he decided to take a break because his brain couldn’t think of the right words. He couldn’t think of why she should be sent back. She was hands down the perfect person for the job.

Some coffee could help him
think; he hoped and walked out to find himself a cup. The loud overacting voice of his brother exploded into his ears the moment he stepped out of the office. Henry had become a regular visitor since Sarah moved in. Sarah also visited Henry on occasion. They seemed to have joined the cult of “sharing everything embarrassing concerning the grumpy Patrick” which brought them even closer.

“He used to believe me when I told him that there’s an alligator in
the sewer.” Sarah was giggling with Henry until she noticed that Patrick was right behind him. Her mouth closed, and she pulled in her lips in a thin attempt to hide her smile. Her eyes opened wide as she attempted to warn Henry to be quiet. But Henry laughed on, unaware of the specter of his brother looming behind him.

Patrick gave a warning cough and Henry spun around, he eyes as wide as saucers.  He glanced back at Sarah
. “I said it too loud didn’t I?”

With a sigh of resignation, he turned back to Patrick and said,
“Hello, brother dear. I was having a good chat with your partner about you and your childhood antics.”

“Yes,
I can see and hear that. I would appreciate if you stop before I make sure your partner knows you’re slacking off.” Henry was still smiling, which kind of annoyed him. His brother was always smiling. Sometimes he just didn’t understand his younger sibling at all. He was always cheerful for some reason.

“C’mon. Jane’s case
wasn’t that hard. She’s already prepared everything that I need. Hell, she prepared an actual script for me.”

“Because you’re an idiot
.” Patrick knew his brother’s style of settling things off court. He didn’t like it but it was how his brother worked. Jane probably knew about this, too. Sarah looked uneasy between the two and silently slid off as the two brothers began a staring match with each other. One with a smiling eye that resembled the fox and another with the intense eye of the tiger.

“Well, I need to go back. Nice talking to you
, Henry. I owe you another coffee treat.” With that Sarah disappeared into the blue, leaving the two brothers alone. Patrick could see how his brother looked at Sarah. Patrick didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that Henry liked Sarah very much.

“I
wish she was here earlier. She is amazing in her own way,” Henry said to Patrick though Patrick was more than sure he was talking to himself. “You know, I was thinking about asking her out.”

Henry’s word caused
a flap of albatross’ wings in Patrick’s stomach. “What? You barely know her and you want to ask her out?”

Henry gave him a shrug “I thought that’s the whole point of asking people out
, right? Because you want to know more about them, get close to them.” He paused and eyed Patrick for a moment. “Why do you care? Are you sure you should be lecturing me about, erm, relationships? They aren’t in your field of expertise.”

Henry was right for
once. He couldn’t lecture him about how to date someone when he had never really experienced it for himself. Dating was awkward enough, not to mention falling in love, getting to know another human being on a deeper level. Still, he felt the need to hold Henry back for some reason. “She just met you for God’s sake. She just arrived here half a month ago.”

“I know.
I’m not asking her to be my girlfriend. It’s a simple date, hanging out, getting to know each other better. The baby steps into a relationship. What are you, the dating expert?” Henry rolled his eyes and laughed out loud. He was having fun with this. This was one of the things that Henry could best Patrick on, forming a relationship or essentially doing anything that required social engagement.

“If you peel your eyes from your work for a second, Patrick, you will know her life doesn’t always revolves around work like you. Did you know that she
has become the receptionist’s best friend? They go to get coffee together on break with me. They also chat on her free time.”

Henry was on a roll. “Did you know that
she loves birds and once had a canary that she left back in Romania to move here? Oh, and she drinks black coffee because she hates sweet stuff. Yes, she just arrived here for about two weeks now. But guess what, she’s friendly, and she loves people’s company. She needs a life outside work too, y’know?”

Patrick stared at his brother. No, he
never knew about all those things. He realized Sarah had an actual life outside work. Patrick just never asked her about it. The only time he saw her outside work was the first day he invited her out for a quick dinner.

“And why are you telling me all this?”

Henry fidgeted a little and clicked his tongue in the tune of Devil’s Sonata. “I don’t know. I guess I was just hoping for your brotherly opinion. Not that I need your opinion since Sarah is a grown woman. She can make her own choice.”

Patrick didn’t know what to say. It was clear that Henry and Sarah would make a perfect couple. Henry made her laugh, engaged her in conversation she seemed to enjoy,
and entertained her with his wit and banter. Everyone loved being around Henry because he was simply fun. Sometimes, Patrick was jealous of his ability to connect with the people around him. Especially his connection to Sarah. Patrick was sure she would love to have someone like Henry by her side.

“I don’t see why you need to ask me,”
Patrick ground out. It wasn’t like he should interfere with them anyway. He was prepared to cut Sarah out of his life, had been in the middle of a letter to do so. Maybe he should just leave her to Henry. “Are you sure she’ll agree?”

“Hey, sometimes you just have to take the leap of faith
, you know. And I have faith in Sarah and myself.” With that, Henry disappeared into the elevator to his workplace, leaving Patrick all alone with the coffee he never liked. Perhaps he should start to go to Starbucks with the others.

The difference between Patrick and Henry
was evident at that moment. Henry would leap while Patrick ran in the other direction. He was afraid of the unknown, detested things he couldn’t control. With a sagging spirit, he realized he would never be brave.