My Father's Boss (The Family Affairs)

I raised an eyebrow, amused with his intuition. “I suppose we’ve been working together long enough for you to know what I’m thinking.”

“Sometimes,” he chuckled. “You certainly don’t give any hints with your expressions. Then again, that’s what makes you the best lawyer in Miami. But I know how you hate change and disruptions.”

“True,” I agreed. Then, happy to have something to change the subject, I pointed at the folders he’d set on the chair next to him when he took a seat. “The Lowe case?”

Ellis nodded and picked them up, handing one to me and opening the other on his lap.

For the next two hours, we went over a particularly difficult case that we were litigating. Once he left, I tried to work for a while but gave up when I couldn’t focus.

Something about Ellis’s daughter being here was itching my brain, but I didn’t have the first clue as to why. I shrugged it off, sure that I’d more than likely never even meet her and resolved to put her out of my mind permanently.

1

Isabella

I’d been so worried to tell my dad about my internship falling through. I needed it to graduate, and I thought he’d be disappointed in me. I’d been surprised when he’d told me not to fret about it because he’d find me something else.

I hated to let him down. My dad was a bit of a perfectionist, which was probably a big part of what made him such a great lawyer. But that also meant he expected a lot from his only child—me.

I earned straight As, participated in plenty of extracurriculars, and was the captain of the cheerleading squad. I had racked up more than one hundred volunteer hours and scored a fifteen hundred on my SAT. All signs indicated that I’d be accepted to every college I applied to. I was on track for great things, or at least that was what my dad liked to tell me.

What I’d never shared with him was that I had no desire to go to a fancy school and earn a specialized degree. He wouldn’t understand why I was looking forward more to what came after my education—falling in love, getting married, and building a family. I wanted to earn a degree, but I was happy to go to a local community college because what I wanted most was to stay home with my kids like my mom had done with me.

But ever since my dad had gotten me an internship at his office, all he’d been talking about was how I had the chance to discover if I might want to go to law school after college. As I followed him into the building where he spent at least ten hours a day unless he was in court, he was going on about it again. “This is a great chance for you, Izzy. The paralegal you’ll be helping was top of his class at Harvard Law. He can give you tips about the campus.”

I’d gotten my acceptance letter to Harvard in mid-December as part of their Restrictive Early Action program. I didn’t have to give them my answer until the first of May, but my dad already had it in his head that I was definitely going there. He hadn’t pushed for me to reply to them yet because I was waiting on decisions from a few other Ivy League schools.

“I know this is a great opportunity, Daddy. Thanks again for talking your boss into letting me do my internship here.”

His gaze darted toward the Mercedes parked in the spot closest to the door. Lowering his voice, he said, “Try your best to stay out of his way. You’re the first high school intern he’s allowed in the office, and he didn’t seem thrilled by the idea when I asked.”

I came to an abrupt stop, my eyes widening as I stared at him. “Why are you just telling me this now? I would’ve found something else if I knew your boss didn’t really want me here.”

“I didn’t want you to worry about it too much over the past month. You had more important things on your plate like making sure you kept those grades up during your last semester. Ivy League acceptances aren’t a sure thing until after you’ve registered for your first semester.” He patted me on the back before nudging me forward.

“Yeah, but now I’m freaking out right before I start my first day,” I muttered as I followed him into the building.

“You’ll be fine. Kevin will keep you so busy, you probably won’t even get the chance to meet Beau.” He flashed me a reassuring smile.

I made a mental note to avoid his boss at all costs. I didn’t want to do anything to mess up my dad’s position here when he’d worked so hard to become a partner. “If things go horribly wrong today, at least I’ll have the entire weekend to recover from the embarrassment before I come back on Monday.”

“Nothing is going to go wrong,” he insisted as he led me toward a cluster of desks. “Isn’t that right, Kevin?”

A young man in his mid-twenties jumped out of his chair and nodded. “I’m sure it is, sir.”

Kevin was exactly as I’d pictured him in my head when my dad told me who I’d be working with for my internship. His brown eyes were earnest as he stared at my dad. His brown hair was trimmed short, there was no hint of a beard on his face, and he was wearing a three-piece suit. He had Harvard Law written all over him and was the male version of what my dad hoped I would be in eight years. Maybe if I’d had a brother like Kevin, he wouldn’t have been pushing me so hard to follow in his footsteps.

“I was just telling my daughter that you have plenty of tasks for her to do while she’s here,” my dad explained, tilting his head toward me.

Kevin nodded, looking relieved. “Absolutely, sir. I’m glad for the help.”

“Her paperwork for human resources has already been filled out, so I’ll leave you two to get to work.”

As my dad walked away, I found myself wondering if he’d brought home all those forms for me to fill out in advance because he wanted to make it more difficult for his boss to back out on my internship if he changed his mind. With that on my mind, my smile was weak when Kevin gestured toward the chair next to the one he’d been sitting in. “I thought it would be best if I showed you the systems we use before I give you a few things to do on your own.”

“Sounds like a great idea to me.” I figured they couldn’t be too hard to learn since I used a ton of technology in school, but my dad had mentioned the specialized stuff the law firm needed. I sat down and swiveled my chair to see his computer screen as he walked me through the email software, messaging platform, document management system, task management software, and legal research tool they used. Once I was familiar with everything, he showed me to a desk at the end of the row.

I spent the next hour reading through the information Kevin had provided about his first big case. By the time I was done, I had a list of about twelve questions to ask him. Pulling out the login information my dad had brought home for me last week, I logged into the messaging platform and sent Kevin a quick note to update him on my progress. Then I dived into the next task he’d given me.