Past Transgressions - Mature 18+

Chapter 4

Jake grabbed 4 glasses and the top shelf bottle of whiskey from their parent's study bringing it back to the living room. He poured a generous amount into each of the glasses and handed them around to everyone, taking a seat on the opposite end of the couch from Brace and Lex, who was still cuddled on Lex's lap.

"Alright Brace, I think we are ready. Start at the beginning and just take your time." Jake instructed taking and squeezing her hand in a gesture of support.

Brace took a gulp of her whiskey, gasped and started to cough, feeling the burn on the way down in the hopes of finding the courage she was going to need to get through this. She slowly lets herself drift back to the memories she's tried so hard to put behind her, some are bitter sweet and she wouldn't trade those ones for anything, but others she would give anything to be able to forget.

Her voice starts out as little more than a whisper, a little over 2 years ago I had applied to and received an internship at a law firm in the city, I had thought to turn it down she said, looking down and away from Lex which Topaz picked up on but the boys seemed oblivious to, but I changed my mind and decided that it was an opportunity that I couldn't risk passing up. It was at Clarke, Suttingham and Fine in the city just for the summer, the experience would be good for me for practical work and provide direction about the type of law I wanted to practice with the added bonus of looking good on my university applications.

My first day there I was giving a division to work in, contract law with the main partner I would work under being Vice Clarke. I was shown to the "intern room" where all of the interns are "housed" together. Most of us had different supervisors, working for different division throughout the firm and in turn falling under the different partners depending on what division we were working in. We were all told that while we worked under one main partner not to expect to meet the partner as they didn't associate with the interns and orders, requirements and work flow would filter directly down to us through our supervisors.

Working that closely with people you start to get to know them, the other interns, with a few exceptions were there for the same reason I was and we started to have our own little world. Hanging out after work, drinks and clubs together on Fridays. Bitch fests about the supervisors and bosses on Saturday nights as we hung out at each others apartments.

It was early June, so I had been there about 4 weeks when my supervisor called me just before I left for the day one night. She was on her way to the airport but had forgotten to leave one of the case files for one of the partners on his desk for his morning meeting and could I please take it up before I leaving. She told me not to worry that Mr. Clarke would be out a meeting now so I would not be disturbing him by just putting it on his desk.

I found the file she had said he required and did as she asked, took the file up to the partner suites, his secretary had left for the night so I just entered his office and left it on his desk. I was turning around to leave and wasn't watching where I was going when I ran smack into Mr. Clarke, he was just returning from a meeting and was grabbing his stuff to head home for the night. I was so surprised that I could barely stammer out my reason for being there, he told me to relax and thanked me for the file. As I was leaving he asked my name, I told him and he smiled and said he would have to visit the intern room if there were more fascinating people like me.

I was flattered, as over the next couple of weeks he made several trips to the intern room at the end of the day when everyone had pretty much left, always asking me for something. It felt good to have someone pay attention to me, to want to spend their time with me. This went on for a couple weeks, until one night my supervisor had asked to work late to prep for a case that was coming up and needed a lot of contract re-writes. My phone rang shortly after everyone else had gone home, at the time I didn't think of how odd it was that I was the only one asked to stay or that the phone rang just after everyone had gone home. It was Mr. Clarke, or Vice as I was allowed to call him when no one else was around. He said he was working late as well and that he hated to eat alone, he was ordering dinner and since I was working late did I want to join him?

I told him sure and he said supper would arrive in 20 minutes so come up as the table in his office had more room than my desk. We had dinner and talked about my family, home, school, my friends, really anything and everything in regards to me but there was something off, an underlying tension that I could feel although I couldn't put a name to it. As we finished up dinner and I still had a few more portions of the contract to work through I got up and started to clean up. Not being entirely aware of my positioning I kind of trapped myself between him, the table and the wall and when I looked into his eyes I could feel the spark of attraction between the two of us.

Brace paused looking down at her hands in her lap.

"Hey, it's alright" Lex soothed rubbing her back, "we are all here for you!" Only Topaz could see his clenched jaw and that he had to work hard to remain calm during the recital of what had taken place.

Talking another sip of her whiskey and a deep breath Brace continued. He pulled me to him and we started to kiss. Brace avoided eye contact with everyone, quickly skimming over the details of the intimate things that took place that night, things quickly got out of control fast but at the time I didn't regret it, I thought he cared about me, that I meant something to him. Our "relationship" continued along this vein for about a month, meetings after work or he would come out to my apartment on weekends. I assumed he wished to keep our "relationship" between us due to our age and the fact that I was an intern but assumed once the summer was over there would be a discussion about the future, but then the rug was pulled out from under me.

When going up to meet in his office one day after work, I was surprised to find a very elegant woman and two kids similar in age to myself, there waiting for him in his office, comfortable, like they belonged there. I think I suspected then although I didn't want to admit it, I wanted to believe it was his sister and her kids, or really anyone else but I think deep down I knew I was lying to myself. As his secretary wasn't there I felt it was my duty to inquire as to who they were, the lady smiled warmly at me and politely informed me that she was Mrs. Clarke and the two kids were their children.

Apparently they had shown up at the office as a surprise for his birthday to take him out for dinner at his favorite restaurant. I gave her a polite smile, assured her that he should be along shortly as he was just finishing up a meeting in the boardroom, I reached blindly for a file on his desk making an excuse that I was there to retrieve it. Pasting a wooden smile on my face as I turned back around to face them, I wished them a wonderful night and bolted from the office. I dropped the file on his secretary's desk in reception as I headed back down in the elevator to the intern room. I typed up my resignation, emailed it to my supervisor, making some excuse about missing home and wanted to prepare for college, gathered up the few personal belongings I had at work and left that day, never going or looking back.

"Brace, it's okay. Lots of people get duped into affairs with married individuals" Topaz reasoned.

"Brace, I am going to call Detective Martinez before you continue" Jake quietly interjects.

"Thanks, Jake."

Sighing, "Your support is appreciated Topaz and I wish I was deserving of it, but what I did next well it wasn't something to be proud of. I am so ashamed of what I did that it is one of my deepest regrets."

********

Author's Note:

Sorry I know it is a short chapter I am trying to figure out the best times to have breaks in the story.