Chapter Eleven
Thefollowingfewweeks had been beyond stressful for everyone involved. Isabel had been pulling away a little bit every time they lost a client. Micah was worried about her mental health. Now that he knew how much she had struggled in the past, he found himself more in tune with her moods and things that could bother her. The thought that at one point she believed she didn’t deserve to live haunted him. He struggled with all of it because he never would have thought that the feisty woman who worked alongside him for years was battling all of this on her own. To make matters worse, he was failing at putting off a visit from his cousin. Dante was scheduled to arrive the next night, and he claimed he was bringing someone with him that Micah needed to meet. Since he and Isabel lived together, it was going to be hard to keep everything from her.
Today was another tough day. They had an in-person meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Morales in an hour. Instead of sending them the letter, Isabel wanted to meet with them in person. They had signed their contracts to move their estate to the firm, but she asked them to wait on moving forward until they met. Her bravery astonished Micah throughout all of this. He knew it was weighing on her heavily at night, but during the day, she was the epitome of a professional employee. The Monday after she disclosed everything, he called an all staff meeting to explain what he was doing. He had expected to tell her story for her, but she stepped up and shared what had happened, as well as her decision about not coming clean. Afterwards, the entire ordeal left her completely drained, and he begged her to go home and take the afternoon off, but she refused. They made it through the day without much damage. Since then, he kept a close eye on her but allowed her to make her own choices. She had more experience gauging what she could handle than he did, so he needed to learn to trust her judgement.
His phone buzzed on his desk and looking down, he saw it was Luca.
“Hey what’s up?”
“How are you holding up?”
“Fine, we are fine.”
“That good?”
“Well, we aren’t good man, we are in a shit storm right now and I’ve got Dante arriving tomorrow. Honestly, I’m pretty fucking far from good.”
“Okay then, fine it is. Are you sure you don’t want me to come down there for a few days? Jenny can stay with Bella if you don’t want the girls there.”
“No, it’s not them I’m worried about. I just... fuck man I don’t know. I’m just taking everything an hour at a time right now.”
“How many clients?”
“Only six, and not even big ones. These people love Izzy. It’s not the firm I’m worried about, it’s her.”
“What’s wrong? Is she okay?”
“She keeps saying she is, but I can tell this whole thing is taking a toll on her. When the Walkers came to sign their account closure forms, she didn’t even come out of her office. She had insisted on handling the fallout completely on her own, but it’s getting to be too much. The only clients I’ve spoken with are ones who requested to meet with only me. One moved their business and the other two chastised me for not doing background checks on my employees, but ultimately decided to stay.”
“Izzy is a strong person, Micah, but reliving a past she ran from years ago and facing the truth would be hard on anyone.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Maybe this whole fake engagement the two of you have going on couldn’t have come at a better time. Could you imagine doing all this and not having her with you every night?”
“I don’t even want to think about that. It’s already getting harder to face that this will end soon.”
“It doesn’t have to.”
“Yes, it does. You know I love you, but you are all the way in New York, living your dream and I am still down here dealing with our crime lord cousin and the shit our father left behind. Izzy deserves more.”
“Don’t let him hear you refer to him as a crime lord. It will only go to his head. And don’t you think Izzy gets to decide what she deserves?”
“You know what I mean. I already have no idea how I’m going to handle tomorrow night. Dante’s flight lands at seven and it’s not like I can meet with him and not tell Izzy. We haven’t been apart in weeks. If I meet with a client she comes with me, if she goes to see her family I go with her, and I hate to break it to you, Bro, but other than her family and the firm we lead pretty boring lives.”
Luca’s laughter was so loud Micah had to pull the phone away from his ear.
“What is so funny?”
“You two are. I swear if cupid shot you both right in the ass, you wouldn’t even notice it. Micah, give it up already, Izzy is yours... forever. Hell, you’re already acting like an old married couple. Tell her about the family and get it done with. It’s time you got your head out of your ass and admit you’re crazy about that woman.”
“I’m not...”
“Yeah, go ahead and try to finish that sentence. I promise you can’t even deny it anymore.”
“Fuck off,” Micah said, pressing the end button as he heard his brother laugh again.
“Mr. and Mrs. Morales, I wanted to start by thanking you both for coming in,” Isabel started as Micah reached for her hand under the table.