I blinked at the woman I’d admired for years, completely caught off guard by her compliment. “Well, thank you, Yara. That means everything coming from you.”
“Have you considered what you are going to do about your career now that you’re married to one of the most infamous mafiosos of our time? It might hinder your job prospects at Fields, Haring & Griffith slightly.”
I winced, because I’d thought about that. “Honestly, everything has happened in such a whirl, I’m trying to take it a day at a time right now and be grateful for what I have.”
She nodded, but her gaze was sly, considering. I watched as she took a sip of her martini because I could feel her gathering the words to speak. “Have you ever considered starting your own firm?”
My heart stopped. “Fleetingly. I never thought it would be a real possibility, at least not anything close to short term.”
“Well, now you are one of the most famous lawyers in the country. Most fourth-year associates don’t end up on the front page of The New York Times,” she pointed out.
I blushed slightly. The paper had featured a photo of Dante lifting me in his arms and kissing me savagely in the middle of the courtroom after Judge Hartford had declared the mistrial. The heading read ‘Mafia Lord & Lawyer Claim Victory And A Happily-Ever-After.’ It was stupid and cheesy, a gimmick to sell copies, but it worked.
Apparently, todays issue was one of the bestselling in the last two years.
I guessed everyone loved a good love story.
And I had to admit, ours was the best.
“I only ask because I want you to consider opening a firm with me,” Yara continued calmly, as if she wasn’t blowing my mind. “I want to focus on female lawyers and criminal law. We just defended a notorious mafioso so we have to go into this knowing we would attract a certain kind of clientele…” She studied me with her rich brown eyes. “But I have the feeling you don’t see life in such stark black and white as you used to.”
I laughed, because it was absurd to think of how much I’d changed the last four and a half months. It didn’t feel as if I was a completely new person, only that the secret things I’d kept hidden in the darkness of my soul had finally burst free like a black butterfly from its chrysalis.
I felt more like me than I ever had before.
“I hope you aren’t laughing at the idea,” Yara drawled with an arched brow.
Immediately, I sobered. “No, no, far from it. I’m sorry, I was just overwhelmed by how much life has changed in the last few months. Opening a firm together would be more than a dream come true. It was dream I never even thought to form it seemed so outlandish.”
She graced me with a small smile, stepping closer to squeeze my hand even though she wasn’t a tactical person. “Sometimes the darkness in someone else brings out the best in us. That’s what my Donni did to me and I can see its what Dante has done to you. I’m no rush, but let’s talk about it further sometime next week after you’re settled. I’d like to strike while the proverbial iron is hot and people are still talking about us.”
“I agree. Okay, thank you, Yara.” I hesitated then decided to go for, following my mandate to be more open with people. “It means a lot to have a woman I respect to highly believe in me.”
“I hope it will teach you to believe in yourself even more,” she countered. “I really believe there isn’t a limit to the success you can achieve in this field, Elena. You’re truly a talented lawyer.”
She moved away then, leaving me with an enigmatic smile as I tried to digest the beauty of that moment.
I’d thought that in loving Dante, I would have to give up my second love my career. It wasn’t a hard decision to make though I knew it would be a painful one to see out.
There was an Italian saying, non si può avere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca, which roughly translated to ‘you can’t have a full cask and a drunk wife’ or in English, ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it too.’
But it seemed after a lifetime of injustices and heartbreak, I had the opportunity to do exactly that.
I stood there beaming with joy for a few minutes before I thought to look for Mama to tell her the news. I spotted her in the kitchen, because even at a party that was her domain, but she was backed against the corner of the cabinets by none other than Salvatore, who had stayed with me at the apartment while the younger men went to take care of business. She looked angry as she spoke to him about something, but when he lifted his hand to tuck back a lock of loose barely greying black hair, her entire face softened.