"What took you so long?"
She questioned, redoing her lipstick, eyes on the makeup box mirror.
He got inside, closed the door, and settled in, putting on his seatbelt.
On receiving no response from him, she continued. It was very odd for them to stop by such a departmental supermarket.
But for Shasha Walish, he had to. She felt her underwear dampen and only remembered later that it was her monthly cycle call.
So they had to stop by the grocery store to use the washroom. And when she excused herself inside the washroom, he wandered along only to be collided by a little girl with a cart and come face to face with someone he had never been for five long years.
"Can you believe that?"
He was too lost in his mind to listen to her, the woman sitting beside him, on the passenger's seat.
"Two kids under twenty-five? No one from our school has even one and if however one, not two at least...she really did live up to her name huh?"
Shasha laughed at the last part as if mocking Janet, back in the store, watching her juggling with two kids, being so young also at the same time.
"What?"
He asked, absent-mindedly and it was only then she had realized that he was not even paying attention to her in the first place.
"Never mind!"
She rolled her eyes at him and they finally drove away from there after he restarted the engine.
_____________________________________________
But even if your past reappeared in the most uncalled time, the present would not stop ticking away with time.
After driving her daughter to the preschool and dropping her baby boy in the daycare, she rushed to her office.
The morning hours were always so hectic for her. Getting herself ready, along with the two kids, preparing their lunch and snacks, feeding them breakfast, and so on, it was always the most busiest hours of her entire day.
"Good morning, Ms. Johnson!"
As she stormed her way toward her office, the employees greeted her. She smiled back at them.
They were always in awe of how she would still manage everything from work to the kids and the house, all by herself, and still make it on time in the office.
A few of the newly turned mothers in the office would often complain about how hard it was to get to the office after completing all the house chores.
But not Janet. She was the youngest and most successful employee in the office, and also a mother of two.
Starting her career as young as in her early twenties, she was only an intern at the law firm.
Freshly after graduating, she worked under a lawyer, Mr. Sawyer, who was the owner of the law firm with his wife.
When he was working on the most important case of his life, and the most scandalous too in the city, proofing the innocence of some rich mogul, Hunter Siegfried, who was under custody and prime suspect of his wife's demise.
What made the case more difficult to ease down was the fact that most of the evidences related to it had been long gone as the case came to the surface only after five years after the death of Mrs. Segfried.
Making it even more harder to trace how the murder was not connected to Mr. Segfried, who however was known to be violent towards his submissive wife.
And no doubt why the murder was connected to him. Back in those times, many notorious lawyers, the best ones in the country even denied to take up his case as almost all the proofs were against him and they did not want to add a losing case to their list even if the party was the one with lots of wealth.
Janet was only learning under Mr. Sawyer but she had been there in the case since the beginning.
She assisted Mr. Sawyer in every work and also went to court with him at the time of every hearing.
Emily was a toddler back in the time and she was struggling with her personal as well as professional life, finding a for a breakthrough to make her name known as a lawyer.
Who could tell that this case would become the cause of her fame right away?
When the time of the final verdict came, and it was almost established that Mr. Segfried was going to be declared guilty of the murder, the judge had asked if there was any objection before reading out the verdict to the jury, and out of nowhere, Janet had stood up.
She did not know what got in her soul to dare up and speak out. All the eyes were on her, standing in the midst of all those learned and experienced intellectual old men.
The case was televised and it was all over the media. The gruesome murder made everyone sympathetic to the late Mrs. Segfried and to take up a position for Mr. Segfried was as if supporting such a crime.
So it was risky both to the reputation of Mr. Sawyer and herself. He only took the case because the two old men used to be classmates at one point and even though Mr. Segfried was an alcoholic, he kind of knew it that he could not commit a murder.
Janet had followed the case from the beginning and only during that final moment, she had found the part which could potentially leave Mr. Segfried not guilty, and when she did read out that part, the basis of the case got altered right away.
The verdict that was based upon it had to be relooked upon and in the next subsequent hearing, Mr. Segfried was allowed to go as a free man as the basis of the case became null and void when it was established that Mrs. Segfried was not well in her head at the time of her demise and that it could have been an accident all along or a self suicide.
Since the scope of the case widened giving rise to alternate assumptions, the earlier presumption that it ought to be a murder became faded.
Ever since then, the name Janet Johnson became a known name in the law world. Her career took a complete u-turn, also making the Sawyer Law firm very famous.
So even if professionally, she was at her peak, personally, her life had not been any better, with a failed marriage and two kids, being her only driving force to carry on, the resurfacing of the past was only an added salt to her current situation.
_____________________________________________
The story will begin with a soft and static note before all the drama unfolds. It will transition between the past and the present.
If you are liking it, please support the book with comments, drop a review, vote, donate GT, and a small gift to encourage the author :)
Thank you!