Mr. Corporate Law

2.5: L&W Rules - Meetings must be kept Professional

Over the weekend, despite my efforts to get a hold of either Hamish and Erika, neither of them picked up any of my calls or replied to my messages. I forced myself not to think about it and went on to spend some alone time while Dominic did the same, even though we wanted to spend time together, turned out quite the opposite.

After having lunch with his Parents on Saturday, I got called in by my client, Mr Gonzalez, and have a second to last briefing before meeting the opposing client for the settlement. And don't get me started on Sunday, as we barely spent any time together due to him being called by his Uncle Nathaniel, and to his dismay, he got called into work on a Sunday - which I commented was a result of karma. Hah, but actually, I spent my alone time working on my case with Mr Gonzalez and his big screw up, and he wasn't cooperating anymore.

By Monday, I reunited with Erika as there were no signs of Hamish anywhere, I wanted to ask for her advice about how I should approach Mr Gonzalez, and maybe get the scoop about what happened. All I heard from my Father was that things were officially signed, sealed and delivered, and that was that. Fortunately, my best friend wasn't going to cut me off since our discovery. We both hid in her office, no one in the room and her secretary left for a toilet break, so it was perfect to gossip.

"You won't believe what I found out, Annie," She started off as she sat beside me on her office furniture, her hands grasped onto mine with a tight grip, as though she was scared. Her eyes showed the same thing. "You know how we found those signed ownership contracts and stuff done by Nathaniel. Well, the cosigner was his ex," She explained with some sort of excitement in her voice.

"Janina Miller is an ex? Was this before or after they signed those documents?"

"They signed it way before they formed Lawler & Walsh, Nathaniel helped her with her business, but a few years later, she disappeared." Erika gulped and her eyes shifted about to see if anyone appeared out of nowhere, she then leaned closer when it was clear and whispered, "Janina Miller is dead, hence why Nathaniel desperately wants a merge with a smaller company so he can give everything up. He must love her a lot to try and get rid of any signs of her in his life."

"Boo, Mr Langley said he's known Nathaniel for a long time, do you think Nathaniel chose Mr Langley's company on purpose?" I tried not to make it so obvious that I knew a bit more from talking to Mr Langley on Saturday, but I needed to seep it into the conversation to at least get something out of Erika.

"I think so. After yesterday, on the car ride back here, your Dad and Hamish were talking about Nathaniel and they weren't happy about the topic either."

"What did they say?"

"Hamish just said he got called by Nathaniel and told to do all he can to make the merge happen or else his job and his future was on the line-"

"Wait, so Nathaniel threatened Hamish?"

She nodded. "And your Dad looked mad about it, because as of Saturday, your Dad considers Hamish an asset to the firm. Then they started whispering about something else. I wasn't even allowed in the meeting room for half an hour because they were talking about Janina Miller."

"Who is she? Did you do some research?"

Erika nodded once more and reached over to her bag, she pulled out her leather diary and opened to a page, there were scribbles everywhere, and they didn't make sense. She used her finger to trail along a few important notes and read a few out to me.

Janina Miller wasn't a lawyer, but an entrepreneur and went into business with a lot of people in hopes to build one big corporation, she assigned Nathaniel for the sake of being a lawyer for her and the said big corporation when it hapoened. Then Nathaniel and her dated for a lot of years until abruptly breaking up some time after they had a child, and she disappeared after that. In 1999, she reappeared, but only because she was murdered while on an errand in Chicago. Coincidentally, she was killed near the Chicago office of Lawler & Walsh, no one knew who killed her and no one suspected Nathaniel.