Saints and Sinners

Twenty:

Twenty:

Alina stared at the large, intimidating building before her. She had already attended the few classes she had for university for the day. Now she was going to her first, real day at her internship which was at The Fold. The law firm that Aleksander had built himself and owned. Matthias had dropped her there, and he stood next to her as she was staring directly at the building with an uncertain expression there.

"Are you alright, Alina?" Matthias asked. "You've been staring at the building now for five minutes."

"I'm...I'm fine." That was a complete lie. Her stomach had been in knots since she had told Aleksander on the previous weekend that she would start the internship on Monday. But since they'd arrived, and before that, Alina had had a million thoughts swirling around in her mind. The first was that she hadn't wanted to be a defense attorney. She had wanted to be a prosecutor. She didn't like the idea of defending criminals, even after the conversation she had with Aleksander.

Then there was another problem. She was going to be working at the same law firm that was owned by her soulmate. She didn't want people thinking that the only reason that she had gotten the job was because of that. It wasn't uncommon for soulmates to work together, or share businesses, but she was so used to doing everything on her own she didn't know how she would handle having someone help her. The plan had been to get a killer internship her final year, pass the bar, and apply to law firms across Ravka or maybe elsewhere. She had hoped, maybe, to work for a non-profit firm.

Not the most famous law firm in Ravka, that had defended some of the most famous killers and criminals in the country.

"Alina?" Matthias said. "Mr. Morozova's expecting you."

"Right. Right. I'm okay. I'm just..."

"Taking it all in?" Matthias said.

Alina nodded. "But it's fine. Let's go."

Matthias opened the door for her, and Alina headed on inside. At the reception desk was a girl with brown hair and brown eyes who did, indeed, have a plate of cupcakes in front of her as Aleksander said that she would. The young woman smiled up at her. "Hi!" she waved enthusiastically. "You must be Alina. Mr. Morozova's told me so much about you."

Alina blushed. "Hi. Are you Marie?"

She smiled. "That I am. I was supposed to show you around, and then take you to Mr. Morozova once you'd seen everything. Hi, Matthias! How's Nina?"

Matthias nodded. "She's good. Stressed. She's waiting on responses from residency programs."

"Tell her good luck for me."

"Of course," said Matthias.

Marie took out her plate of cupcakes. "Are you hungry? I'm working here to save up enough money to open my own bakery, and Mr. Morozova let's me try my stuff out on the staff. No one's complained yet."

Alina smiled. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to take one. I skipped lunch today because I was studying." She took one of the cupcakes, and then she bit into it. "Oh...that is...that is divine."

Marie beamed. "Come on. I'm supposed to show you around."

The two of them made their way around the office, with Matthias following silently behind them at a distance. "So, most of the building is made up of offices, but Mr. Morozova wanted to have places to for his employees if they needed to sleep, or if they needed to work out, or eat. So, the first floor is the lobby, and then the second floor is a full service gym complete with a pool, the third floor is where he has the sleep pods, and on the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors those are where the offices are."

Alina raised an eyebrow. "I thought that the office mostly was defense lawyers. What else are on the other floors?"

"Well, defense his specialty, but he also has some divorce attorneys, and some estate ones. He also has a few people that work environmental cases. And some people that are on the team just for research. He said to let you know you could pick which department you'd want to work in under, and he thought if you didn't want to work criminal defense, you you'd be good in environmental."

"Don't most law firms only practice one thing?"

"Well," said Marie, "Mr. Morozova believes in one thing and one thing only."

"What's that?"

"The power of green."

"Huh?"

"Money," she said, "so he hires a few people from every branch because he doesn't want people going elsewhere. But he won't be a prosecutor, because he feels that would conflict with his other cases."

"Right, of course," Alina muttered, "well at least he's got honor if nothing else."

Marie shot her a smile. "Oh, and you and Mal are sharing an office. He thought that you would like that."

"Interns get offices?" Alina asked.

Marie nodded. "They do have to share them though. He believes it helps build community. And then the longer you're with the firm, the better your office is. Oh, and there's an atrium."

"An atrium?" Alina said. "What for?"

"So that people can get sunlight without having to leave if they don't have the time. It's up on the top floor."

"How many floors are there altogether?" Alina asked.

"Fifty," Marie said.

"What are the other floors?"

"Other businesses owned by Mr. Morozova. There's a detective agency, an accounting firm, our research department, oh and The Tailors."

"The Tailors?" Alina asked. "What's that?"

"It's the line of boutiques that Mr. Morozova owns. Well, the headquarters. The only thing that isn't in this building is his foundation, and that that's because he wanted them to have their own headquarters that only focused on them. But every other floor is dedicated to one of Mr. Morozova's holdings."

"You forgot about the café and the bar," Matthias told her.

"There's a café and a bar?" Alina said, unable to hide the shock.

"Mr. Morozova is nothing if not thorough. He wanted his employees to be extremely well taken care of. Oh, and we're here at your office." Marie stopped in front of the door, and knocked. "Mal? I've got your new office partner."

She swung the door opened, and Mal was there tossing a hacky sack into the air. He froze when he saw Alina come in.

"Shit," he mumbled, "Really, Marie? I told you to text me when she was here."

Marie smirked. "I thought it would be fun to see you squirm a little."

"Nuisance."

She smiled. "Yeah, but you've got to be nice to me or else I won't bake for you anymore."

Alina laughed. "At least I'm not the only one he cons into doing that."

"Alright, well, Mal's supposed to show you the ropes. If you need anything, come find me and Mr. Morozova's office is on the top floor. He said he'd text you when he got a free moment."

Mal smiled at her. "So, he finally lured you into his web. Was it sex that did it?"

Alina blushed. "That's none of your business, Oretsev."

Mal laughed. "It was totally sex."