The Society

Chapter 29: The Decision Part I

The Decision - Cassie Cassadaga

The week passing after the trial had been filled with its failure. It had been tugging at me constantly. Every time my mind wandered the failure of the trial would tear through me again afresh. I felt like every single ounce of my energy was used to keeping up and keeping in control. Just when I thought that the only thing I had to deal with was analysing what went wrong in the Broffman trial, I realised that the Lieberman trial had been pushed forward. He had threatened me and The Society by insinuating in his note that we would not be able to beat him in the faster than expected approaching trial.

And maybe we wouldn’t? I shouldn’t think like that.

I shook my head at my own thoughts and continued to stare out of the window, the day was grey and the tea in my mug that I held close to my chest was already cold. Mr. Rosenthal had convinced the office that I was working from home for a few days, that I had caught some sort of virus and needed to work from bed. I didn’t know if the rest of the office believed this. I was just happy to be out of there for a little bit. It’s been too much over the last few days and I need a break. I should just try to focus on the Lieberman trial and what we can do, what The Society can do to make sure that he gets punished for what he did to my Mum…

A knock on the door interrupted my unfocused gazing out of the window, I put down the cup on the window seal and went to answer it.

“How are you feeling?” Precious was looking at me with eyes tainted with worry.

I had cancelled a few breakfasts with her lately but last night on the phone she had finally convinced me that she needed to come over. Her offer of bringing food had sounded tempting as I had not left my apartment for a couple of days and my supplies were running low. She stepped in, handing me a big brown bag of groceries and I followed her towards my kitchen. I felt like I was moving without any sense of direction and purpose, holding the bag and staring around the kitchen in the fashion of an old lady who’s forgotten why she walked in to the room in the first place. Precious pushed me down on a chair and took the groceries from my arms. She turned around and started loading them in to the cupboards and the fridge. Before I knew what was going on she was in full force, steaming ahead with French toasts and scrambles eggs. She handed me a cup of coffee and from the look on her face I knew that it would be best for me to drink it without protesting.

“So tell me what have been going on with you lately?” Precious threw a glance at me over the shoulder.

I was sitting at the kitchen table gingerly sipping at the coffee, “Last week I lost a really big case…” There is no point in trying to hide that fact.

“Oh I’m sorry Cassie. I’m sure you did everything you could. Sometimes things just don’t work out…,” she returned to flipping the French toast.

Yes, sometimes things just don’t work out but it wasn’t because I did everything I could. Even if I didn’t agree with it I could have done more. If I had done more would the Lieberman case be rushed to trial the way it is now.

“So why are you so upset about it?” Precious took her focus from the frying pan and looked at me again.

“I guess I didn’t expect it to go the way it did. I thought that my efforts would be enough but they weren’t. I guess I thought that being good at my job is enough.”

“Of course being good at your job is enough. Don’t think like that, you had a job to do and you did it.”

Her words echoed through my ears. I do have a job to do, two jobs in fact… Have I been good at my job with both of them not just one… I stared in to space as she handed me the plate of steaming French toast and scrambled egg.