Chapter 7 Fifteen Years Later

• CHAPTER 7
• Fifteen Years Later
• Leo - I don't believe Louise, that you're going to let me down - he says very surprised.
• Louise - Mr. Leonardo, it's not that I want to, but my husband is going to change his position, and his specialty is only there in the company in Miami, what can I do? I have to go with him, right? - she says the obvious.
• Leo - No, you don't have Louise, get a divorce and I'll get a good deal - he says smiling.
• Louise looks at her boss, making a funny face.
• Louise - What counts, is that I know you're kidding - she says gathering the papers on her desk - and try to find a secretary who does like me, clean this mess that is your table or learn to clean it yourself. there. I don't understand how you can find anything here - she says curiously.
• Leo shrugs.
• Leo - I was never very organized.
• Louise - It never was because you never tried to get a wife, a good wife helped you get organized quickly.
• Leo - Oh, my God, Louise, get out there with that omen.
• Louise left Leo's office shaking her head.
• Leo leaned back in his comfortable black armchair, looked around his room. It was beautiful and had a breathtaking view, at the top of its 55th floor, one side of the wall was an entire large window, overlooking the emblematic Central Park.
• He was a lawyer, a great lawyer.
• "Baker and Hill Lawyers" was his pride.
• When he went to work for the law firm, he had graduated from university six months ago, he was a novice in the professional world.
• Scott Baker owned the firm, at the time he only had about six lawyers working for him.
• Three years later, the firm went through a very bad period, and Scott informed him that he would have to close doors, clients were increasingly scarce, largely because of another firm that had recently opened two floors above.
• At that time, they were located in a small building on the outskirts of Manhattan, and occupied only one floor.
• Leo decided to take a chance and went to talk to Scott.
• Scott was only five years older than Leo, had inherited the small firm, when his father died unexpectedly in a car accident.
• After realizing that the firm's problem was the lack of means to stand out in the market, Leo made a bold proposal to Scott.
• Invested in advertising the firm in all technological means, the small law firm urgently needed to show itself to the world, and nothing like advanced technology to do so, and money, of course.
• Leo would take the risks, if by chance the firm didn't rise in the next six months he would lose his money and Scott could then close the doors, but if the company started to get out of the hole it was in, and to increase its income, Leo became Scott's partner.
• And that's how the success started, and seven months later the firm was being inaugurated, now in this new building called "Baker and Hill Lawyers", with 14 lawyers spread over two floors, now, seven years later, there were 25 lawyers and had five floors.
• They were the best law firm in Manhattan and were known throughout the country for their excellence and professionalism. Rare were the times that they lost a case. The firm's clients were just people with a lot of power, a lot of money, with a lot of prestige.
• It was at this time that Louise came to work as his secretary, with excellent references. Over the years, Louise had known Leo's routine all too well, and when she informed him this morning that she had to say good-bye because she was going to Miami, he couldn't believe it.
• He couldn't get a secretary like Louise and now he felt lost.
• Leo - Shit - he said as he got up from his armchair and went to the big window.
• Outside, the cold was starting to show, soon the snow, the cold and the rain would arrive.
• Grumpy and Hardheaded
• It was 6:00 sharp when Louise knocked on Leo's door to let him know it was her time.
• Louise - See if you don't stay there overnight, you have to rest, tomorrow there's an important audience.
• Leo looked up at her, visibly tired.
• Leo - I'm just planning it, this trial is going to be difficult - he says running a hand through his hair.
• Louise - Well, that's why you have to rest to be at your best - she says with a worried look.
• Leo - What am I going to do without you Louise?
• Louise-Yeah, it's going to be really hard, with that cool personality she has-she says laughing-but I know she'll have a secretary who's equal to her, just stop being so grumpy and hard-headed.
• Leo - I'll find a secretary that's not as brazen as you Louise! Where has she seen herself, talk like that to the boss!
• They both laughed and said goodbye.
• Louise would only stay two more weeks, then leave, and Leo didn't know how he was even going to find the time to teach a new secretary, and with Louise's competence, that was going to be impossible.
• Nightmares
• Leo left the firm at 19:00, he would go home to rest, he felt tired and his head hurt a little.
• Thinking about what was to come made him very stressed, the many judgments he had, where Louise was the perfect help, beyond everything he was used to. Louise was his first and only secretary, he grew professionally with her, she arrived early every morning to organize that desk of his, which, as she said, was a real mess, but oddly enough, he always found everything what he needed in it, but even when she arranged it, he knew where to find all the documents, she kept everything lined up, everything in alphabetical order, so it was easy to find.
• She would bring him coffee in her living room, sometimes she would bring him a snack, because she knew he was sometimes so wrapped up in work that he didn't even remember to eat.
• Leo knew well that he was not used to it, but what could he do? It was Louise who got him used to it and now she was leaving, leaving him full of quirks.
• Both she and he were used to each other's working methods, and now he was completely lost. He would never find a professional like that in his life, and the thought of all Louise's organization and professionalism going away with her made his head hurt even more.
• He arrived at the house, a penthouse situated on Park Avenue on a towering 71st floor.
• He went upstairs, undressed, showered, put on his gray pajamas and went downstairs to make toast and tea, took a pill, decided to go to bed right away.
• His sleep was restless, as it had been over the years, he had recurring nightmares, often about that damn family, the Carters. In his dreams, he saw all of them pointing their fingers and laughing at him, he saw Evy dancing beautiful and glamorous, but then he looked at him with disdain, and said he was a fool, for believing that she someday she would run away with him. In other dreams she cried far away, he called her but she didn't hear him and continued to cry, he saw her sitting in a pool of blood, and with some between her hands and he ran, but the more he ran to get closer the more her image was further away, moving away from him.
• Leo woke up sweaty, tired, stressed and furious that those people continued to populate his thoughts and dreams.
• Damn Carter, he thought.