Divorce Attorney

Chapter 1: The Start to a Beautiful Partnership

Alissa Lauren's POV

The cold chill of the New York air caused a chill to roll down my spine as I shivered stepping out of my vehicle in the parking deck at my job. I fixed my red colored jacket that had slightly slid down my shoulder before slamming the door of my black Range Rover. The clack of my heels sounded through the parking deck as I made my way inside the tall office building filled with different types of businesses. The petite redheaded woman who sat at the front desk of the building every morning smiled at me. I simply returned a brief nod before making my way to the elevator and riding to the 11th floor, the floor that was basically my second home. Once the doors opened up, I was immediately greeted with the familiar office of Stillwater Law Offices.

"Good morning, Miss Lauren," our secretary, Gianna, greeted me with a flash of her pearly whites.

I walked up to her desk, giving her a similar smile, "Do you have my caseload for today?"

She nodded and turned away from me, reaching into her desk and seeming to scan the contents before pulling out a file with my name on it. "I laminated the papers you gave me yesterday on the custody agreement you worked out for your client from yesterday and I cancelled the lunch with Mr. Holiday, he called and said that he and his wife decided not to split up."

I took the file from her and rolled my eyes, "He is staying with her even though she's addicted to drugs and cheated on him with her dealer?"

"He said that his wife promised to get treatment," Gianna smirked. "Either she's really good in bed, or he's kind of stupid."

"We'll go with option B," I joked. "I'll talk to you later, have a lovely morning, Gianna."

"Same to you, Miss Lauren."

I walked away from Gianna's desk and down the hallway, passing by a few other offices before reaching my door at the end of the hallway. 

"Morning, Alissa," I heard.

I turned behind me to see one of my colleagues, Justin, unlocking the door to his office that was right across the hall from mine. I didn't know Justin well, apart from the occasional run-in in the hallways or the break room. From all I knew, he was the nice guy of the office. 

"Good morning," I greeted in a monotone voice as I unlocked my door and made my way into my office, shutting the door behind me.

Most divorce attorneys were cold and heartless, Justin was an odd exception to the rule. 

Pretty much everyone in this office and who was working in divorce law, myself included, was here because they had been hurt before. I sat down at my chair, memories flooding in. It all started two years ago. I was happily married to the man of my dreams, or so I had thought. Tom and I were young, we were high school sweethearts who got married when we were nineteen. I was already in law school, a first year at the time so I still had a long road ahead, while we were together. Before the divorce I had planned to go into medical malpractice law. I wanted to take down sleazy doctors and get justice for average citizens who were taken advantage of when they were at their worst. And then... I was taken advantage of. One night after a particularly long night of studying, I came home to find Tom and another woman in the bed that we shared. Once he was caught, Tom tried to blame it all on me. He blamed my long nights studying and at the library, he framed me for abandoning him which 'forced his hand' to cheat on me. Long story short, he served me with divorce papers not even a week later. I had never felt so much pain, I was only twenty-five years old at the time and dealing with a divorce, most people my age hadn't even been married yet nonetheless divorced. That was a dark time in my life and I wanted to make people like Tom pay. So, I switched it up, I changed from medical malpractice to divorce. The bright side? I had a lot more time to devote to studies instead of dealing with a clingy husband. After finishing the remainder of law school and passing all my exams, I was finally ready to make people who hurt their spouses pay, and that's what I've been doing ever since.