Exhibit Laws - JB

Chapter 32 - I'm back, baby

I could feel the warmth coming from the cup I was holding, the hot coffee Justin had poured me warmed my entire body by itself. He was sitting next to me but the unusual part was that his hands weren't anywhere near my body.

If I knew him right, he wanted to touch me. He rarely was around me without having his hands somewhere on me, despite if it was only my arm. Justin was always being touchy, except for right now and I kind of understood why. He was trying to show respect because, in the car ride on our way home, I had told him I needed some time to think.

I knew he took that as in I wanted to finally break things off with him. I wasn't sure whether or not he was counting on the fact that we were together right now but I never truly believed we broke up, our break was intentionally non-realistic. It wasn't the case, I was not going to leave him before I had gotten some sort of proof. I needed it to believe his ex-girlfriends side over his, it wouldn't be right for me to believe her words over my boyfriends. She was crazy, I had to remind myself that she had lied to him for two years about his son being dead. That said something about her and I had to keep that in mind.

"Are you going to want custody back?" I asked, turning to look at him and Justin's eyebrows raised at my voice being heard in the room. He looked surprised that I had spoken.

"I don't know," he shrugged, unsure about my question and I felt my heart momentarily sink whenever I looked into his eyes. The pain he was experiencing was showing straight through him and he was usually pretty good at hiding his feelings, it only further proved that this was all killing him, "I really don't know what to do right now."

I nodded, pursing my lips as I failed to come up with a fair answer. I wanted to help him, be there for him and give him advice but I had never been in this situation before. I had never even heard of it. Which made me uneasy about giving him the advice he needed, instead, I had already suggested for him to seek a therapist. It would help his problems but when I brought it up, during our car ride, he laughed and said I was ridiculous for suggesting that.

Justin's very independent and he's not interested in talking to a therapist, clearly seeing himself as a stable person who can make his own decisions and doesn't need people's help. He wasn't wrong, he's always been very successful when choosing his own path and I knew that his ego was too big to seek professional help for a matter like this.

The silence grew again and it wasn't until Justin suggested something horrendous that it was broken again, an immediate shocked reaction coming from my side.

"Please come back to work with me."

I choked on the sip of coffee I had taken only a few moments earlier, "What?"

"I need you back in the office, I don't wanna go back alone." His eyes were avoiding mine and I could see him fumbling with his fingers, indicating that he was nervous about the discussion. I didn't blame him, the last time we had this talk it didn't go that well. "I need you there," he mumbled quietly, "I won't go back without you."

I sighed, " Justin-"

"No," he interrupted me, making me regret trying to avoid it but I gasped when his next words came out, his voice slightly more stern and his eyes desperately seeking a reaction out of mine, "It's an order as your boss. Come back to the office, your vacation is up."

I tried to catch my breath to tell him that he could go fuck himself if he was going to continue bossing me around like that but I stopped myself, his intentions completely different than before. He didn't want to be alone in the office, especially not with this new information about his child still being alive. I don't think anyone knew yet but people are going to figure it out eventually, which is going to cause whispers and rumours because of the fact that the attorney is like a kindergarten.