Take a Chance on Me(38)

Mitch had avoided thinking about this part of his life for so long, he was surprised to find himself viewing it from a distance, as though it had happened to someone else.

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Maddie looked pensive but not ready to run screaming from the room.

He gathered his thoughts and continued, “Long story short, Thomas was corrupt, and when I was working under him, he’d named me assisting council for some of the clients he was accused of swindling.”

It had been one of the worst days of his life: one of those before-and-after tipping points when the world had tilted off its axis and never quite righted again. “By then, I was high up in the firm. I’d created a lot of press and brought in a ton of billable hours. I’d just won a high-profile case and was up for partnership.”

“What happened?” Maddie asked, her voice soft as she twisted her hands.

Mitch wanted to touch her, feel her satin-smooth ivory skin under his hands. It wasn’t just sex, although he wanted her like wildfire. Something about her grounded him. He cast one wayward glance at her thighs and laced his fingers over his stomach to resist the urge.

“The senior partners called me into the office and informed me I was being indicted and suspended until further notice.” He scoffed, a hard, scornful sound as his chest squeezed. “Of course, I had no idea what was going on. It’s strange, parroting the same lines of innocence I’d heard from every client I’d ever represented. Needless to say, they didn’t buy my story any more than I’d bought my clients’. Only difference was, I wasn’t paying them to defend me, so they didn’t bother pretending.”

Fiddling with the comforter, she watched him in that careful way of hers, measuring his words. He didn’t expect her to believe him—why would she? He’d listened to countless people spit out the same lines of bullshit time and time again. Sure, he’d gotten them cleared of their crimes, but he’d rarely believed them. In the world he’d come from, almost everyone was guilty of something.

She cocked her head, tucking behind her ear a lock of that long red hair he wanted to wrap around his fist. “So you didn’t do it?”

He’d done plenty of other things, but on this point he was innocent. “Nope, and if I did, I’d never be so f*cking stupid about it. I sure as hell wouldn’t lay blatant tracks pointing in my direction.”

“But why you?” She narrowed her eyes, staring at the intricate woodworking of the headboard, trying to piece the puzzle together. “You said yourself that Thomas was like family, so why? What could he possibly have to gain?”

He shook his head, gritting his teeth. He’d been hoping to avoid this part. No wonder he’d stuck to women with low expectations for the last three years. “I haven’t always been a nice guy, Maddie.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She waved her hand in dismissal. “What’s your theory?”

“I don’t have to theorize,” he said, shrugging. “I know why.”

“So?”

“I slept with his wife.”

She froze, blinking at him like a deer caught in headlights. “How stupid could you be?”

For the first time in three years, he laughed about it. “Pretty f*cking stupid, Princess.”

She wrinkled her nose, her gaze darting away as she ran a hand through her hair. “Why would you pick her, out of all women in Chicago?”

How could he explain to a good, Catholic girl who’d only had sex with one guy her whole life that sometimes you’re just an idiot? That’s how things had been in his world. He’d moved in a circle of entitled, privileged people who took what they wanted, and he’d been one of them. Consequences hadn’t even been part of the equation.


“I didn’t pick her. It was more like she fell into my lap and I didn’t say no.”

She rolled her eyes. “Give me a break. You weren’t eighteen. You’ll need to do better than that.”

He thought about Charlie’s comment earlier about his preference for unavailable women. He blew out a breath. “I worked sixty to seventy hours a week. It didn’t leave a lot of time for relationships. Sara was his second wife and not much older than I was. I took her home one night after a benefit we both attended and it just . . . happened.”

It sounded like the cop-out it was. They hadn’t stopped after the first night or the second. They’d screwed every second they could, the riskier the circumstances the better. Two bored people, desperate to break up the monotony of being handed everything they’d ever even thought to desire on a silver platter.

The mistake had blown up in his face and cost him everything.

If he’d left Sara alone, he’d have made full partner by now and would still be dressing in custom-made suits and dating women so glossy that it was hard to remember them as real.

Those strawberry-stained lips of Maddie’s pursed, and her eyes narrowed. “Still, Thomas was a family friend and mentor.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “I grew up with powerful people. That kind of life, it’s a different world than you’re used to: everyone f*cked everyone over. No one expected loyalty and trust.” The statement made his old life back in Chicago sound ugly and made him wonder what the hell he’d been pining for.

“Ah, I see,” she said, her tone unreadable. “I guess he got the last laugh.”