Aftermath (26 page)

Maria heard the running of feet
overhead
and shook her head. Carmen
babysat
her granddaughters. Their mother
had a medical appointment. Maria couldn’t believe the amount of days the children missed f
rom school
, not from parental neglect but school closings
.
Every year there were new holidays, as well as
Staff Development Days, Brooklyn, Queens Day…yet the
children resided in the borough of Manhattan…aye…t
he public school system was falling to pieces
. The Board of Education blamed poor student performance on
a
lack of parent involvement, when the truth
is
it’s the
result of
awful
teachers and
t
esting oriented
curriculum making the children rote fools.
Add the shortened school year and there’s the cause of the children’s failure, not the parents.

Parents send their children to school to
be taught by so-called professionals,
otherwise why not make the parents the teachers, pay them the salary
, give parents summers and holidays off
since they’re expected to have the degrees in teaching and
the children would learn
…yes indeed
!

 
Carmen waved ‘bye’ then hurried out the door.
Maria
heard
her
climb
the stairs and slam the door and the running stopped.
The poor girls were in for trouble.

Maria went back to folding laundry, sorting socks
and folding
fine linens with mechanical precision
into neat piles atop the coffee table
. She was an expert in domestication as most mothers with children, regardless of
whether they worked outside the home or not.

She scoffed, Alfonzo offered to hire a housekeeper and
Maria
found the suggestion ridiculous. There was nothing wrong with her hands, she enjoyed doing things for herself, besides, she could afford to hire someone if she wanted to and did not need his help.
Her son was trying to make amends, she’d give him that, but after their squabble, she realized he was right. Sophie made her so upset, she wasn’t thinking straight when she took the kids out of the house
without Selange’s permission. It’s just she didn’t want them around the wicked woman, they might become contaminated.

To think, she’d been played for a fool and led to believe Sophie had her best interest at heart when what she wanted was Luzo in her bed.

She neatly placed the final
garment atop the others
. Suddenly she
gasped
, “Oh no!”  The handsome doctor
Paolo confesse
d to his girlfriend, he was in love with her mother.

Shocking!

                                         ****

“Nico, come on
…
this is a bad time…
thanks Cecily,” Ariana paused to say when the legal assistant emerged from her little office and handed
her a folder and
then Ariana continued walking. Nico charmed his way past the receptionist once again. He was taking advantage of their verbal agreement big-time.

S
he had to admit, coming home and having dinner on the table and
seeing
the
boys
with their father
and having their
hom
ework
done
was pretty nice.

It
was more than nice. E
xcept
,
he did go on mysterious jaunts late at night and last weekend took a trip out of town, which gave her a few days reprieve, but shit,
she was getting accustomed to having him around and in the back of her mind she wondered how long it’ll last.

“Anytime
and
any
where’s the deal.”

Ariana
looked back over her shoulder
at him and Nico and that damn sexy mouth was smiling from ear to ear. Oh, he liked putting the pressure on didn’t he? Her heels
click-clacked
their
way to the conference room where the attorney for the respondent awaited to discuss a settlement
offer and Nico followed
.

Ariana halted at the closed door, “Nico this is as far as you go, this is money honey and I can’t blow this for my client.”

Nico
reached for the doorknob turned and gestured for her to enter, “Ladies first,” and the look she gave him could’ve blown off the roof, but she pulled it together when the attorney rose from his seat at their entry.

“Ms. Mattheson, nice to see you again.” The spectacled man said with the stiff formality of a mortician.

“Thank you Mr. Levy. How is the family?”

“They’re doing well,” his eyes were on the tall dark man with the five o’clock shadow and the expensive suit. No tie, an intimidating glare in his eyes and the physique of man who preferred boxing over golf.

Nico saw the inquisitive glance and stepped forward,
extended his hand, “Good morning Mr. Levy, I’m Anthony Giordano, Ms. Mattheson’s new partner. I’ll be sitting in during the settlement negotiations I’m sure you don’t mind.”

“No…that’s fine Mr. Giordano.” He then took a seat and Nico followed Ariana to the opposing side of the table where they sat side by side.

Ariana kicked him under the table and he kicked her back.

The door opened and the legal assistant entered and passed Ariana a legal pad and pen then disappeared again. “So, let’s get started.” Ariana began the moment the door clicked shut.
She tapped her pen with a thumb, opened the file and the negotiations began.

Nico
l
oved
observing
Ariana at work.
Here, she was
take charge, no-nonsense
and in her element.
He leaned back in the
black leather
seat, discreetly watching the Levy fellow
fidget with his the edge of his eyeglasses and he vomited the legal lingo and it made Nico sick.

“I’m authorized to offer a settlement on my client’s behalf. With the contributory negligence element we believe our number is fair. Ms. Sanchez was aware of the risks when she ignored company policy and went into an area of the plant which requires protective gear.”

Nico discreetly read the case summary
from the document in front of Ariana that she knew by heart and didn’t bother to scan.

“What does your client believe is fair and equitable to compensate a young woman with chemical burns on thirty percent of her body, ten percent visible on the face?”

“Seventy thousand dollars.”

“Let’s see that’s about four and half years salary, which does not account for the continual medical expenses, pain and suffering or emotional distress. Does your client intend to insult the injured employee on top of that?”

“Come on, you and I both know this is a very generous offer. Your client was a new hire and disobeyed company policy which led to the injuries sustained.”

“Blame the worker.” Ariana tapped her pen, scribbled a number then
counter-offered, “Two hundred seventy-five thousand sounds fair and equitable.”

Levy laughed, “You’re kidding right?”

“I’m very serious.”

“My client will not agree.”

“You’re authorized to agree isn’t that what you said earlier?”

“Yes, but not to a ludicrous amount.”

Ariana frowned. “That’s unfortunate.
Five hundred thousand
sounds like a bargain compared to the one point two million my client’s suing for. Does your client like paying legal fees and receiving bad publicity for not safeguarding its employees? I would think a multi-billion dollar corporation with unsafe working conditions bordering on inhumane within the United States would generously compensate a hard-working single mother who went to work, followed her supervisor’s order when he reassigned her to the processing department without any other instruction o
ther than she was
to
fill-in for sick worker
for the day and not review the safety equipment she needed to wear or the proper handling is
negligent
.
The supervisor works as an agent for the company and Ms. Sanchez’ injuries occurred within the scope of employment. Thus the supervisor is responsible, I-E, the company.
Juries
have women
on them who often sympathize with other working women with children whose lives are put at risk in the course of doing their jobs.” She leaned in and her last statement struck a powerful blow, “When it comes time to select jurors keep that in mind on your pick Mr. Levy and by the way
–men they’re
worse
. They
think about their wives and daughters and once they see the injuries to Ms. Sanchez, the one point two we’re suing for we’ll get and then some.”

Mr. Levy’s subtle discomfort registered when he touched the rim of his glasses. Ariana had him thinking, Nico mused. The woman was good.

The pregnant pause gave Nico the opportunity to interject. “I was married once to a beautiful woman,” goddammit Ariana kicked him in the shin! He brushed it off by moving his chair closer to the table and pouring coffee into the monogrammed cup set out for them. Well, there were only two and he hijacked Ariana’s. He dropped in two cubes of sugar, slowly stirred the black mud and gulped. Levy’s attention was on him, wondering where he was going and eager to hear.

Nico frowned and set the cup down. Nasty ass coffee! “Yep, and I have two pretty sisters
. Have you ever been burned?”

Levy shook his head negatively.

“I have.” Nico reached for his collar and pulled it down to display the shiny tight skin, the scars from the fire when he blew-up the Three Kings. “Shit hurts like hell. Man, it destroys tissue and muscle and it gets so bad you want the pain to be over you shrivel up begging for something strong to kill it.” He fixed his collar in place, “But, I’m a man and not a woman and I didn’t get burned on my face. Women’s self-esteem is tied into their appearance.
Look at the numerous beauty ads geared toward women. There’s a reason, they know women want to look good and spend money to do it. Now, Ms. Sanchez,” Nico unclipped the picture of the burns on the pretty young woman’s face and flicked it across the table like he was dealing cards, “the emotional distress and the psychological impact from knowing she’s scarred for life must be devastating, don’t you think?”

Levy’s hooded eyes were trained on the picture.

“The company cares about its
employees;
we both know that, right?”

“Yes, they do. They have a stellar track record in employee safety.”

“A few hundred thousand to help this woman get the care she needs both psychologically and medically isn’t going to make a dent in their profits will it?”

“No, not really.”

“I can’t imagine if this ever happened to my beautiful ex-wife or pretty little sisters, can you imagine
that happening to the women you love?”

Levy’s Adam Apple bulged, “No.”

“You’re the man in control here. You’re the
legal professional, you weigh the risks versus rewards, you see no one really wins here. Ms. Sanchez hasn’t gained anything really, quite frankly she’ll be the loser but with a little money maybe she won’t
be a bitter loser. You’re the
man of reason for your client. Advisors are men of truth
and
the bottom line for your client is money, I understand I’m an advisor too. But, reasonable men act in their client’s best interest, don’t we?”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“Seven hundred thousand we can say is reasonable. Yes, it’s more than Ms. Mattheson suggested, but between us men we know
its
proper compensation for a young mother with three
kids who didn’t do anything wrong except go to work and try to make ends meet. It’s also saving your client a helluva lot of money in the end,
so you see in fact the company wins,
don’t you agree?”

Levy sat back, Ms. Mattheson’s partner was damn good…damn good. In court with
his persuasive
tactic
s
, her client would surely win
a bigger amount of cash
. He sat forward, “Have the settlement papers drawn up. Send them over and I’ll inform my client seven hundred thousand is the settlement we reached.”

He stood, they all shook hands and when the door clicked shut Ariana locked it
, “Damn Nico you should’ve been a lawyer, you’re convincing as hell.
We make a super team.
”