Free Broken (Endurance) by April Thomas Page B

pain.
     
    Anna, one of the servants, walked into the dining room smiling at Lin. "Hello, darling. Your daughter and granddaughter are here to see you," she said. "Are you ready to see them? I can take you to the family room."
     
    "Yes." Lin Li nodded and set her napkin on the table.  With her hands gingerly set within the confines of her wheelchair, she gestured to Anna she was ready to leave the table.
     
    Anna unlocked her wheelchair and rolled her away.
     
    Maxwell guided Cressida outside. He’d grabbed a blanket from the hall closet and now led her out to the nearby lake. “Here looks like a nice spot.”  He spread the blanket out and gestured for her to sit down.
     
    "What is this all about?" Cressida struggled awkwardly as she tried to rid herself of her shoes.
     
    "Now, come here before you kill yourself, woman." Maxwell laughed. He reached for her hand, taking it with gentle authority as he helped her sit on the blanket.
     
    "Maxwell, you don't have to be so nice to me." Cressida looked at him with tired eyes and smiled.
     
    "No, but I want to." He leaned in to kiss her. He glided his hands along her thigh and down over her calf, slipping off one shoe, then the other. "When I’ve had a really bad day, I come out here and look at the stars. I can lay back and relax, let my mind clear so that I can figure out what's really going on."
     
    "It's beautiful out here." Cressida’s eyes narrowed as she looked over the smooth surface of the lake then settle back on her elbows.
     
    Maxwell stretched out beside her.
     
    "I just don't know how I’m going to make it through this case.  It’s impossible.  My God, if he goes free, how will I ever live with myself?  There’s no winning this.  Either way, I’m screwed.  I can allow a guilty monster to walk the streets again and die of shame, or I can lose the case and say goodbye to my career. "
     
    Maxwell wanted to argue her last point, but kept quiet.  She was too good a lawyer to lose her career over one lost case.  Instead, he silently slipped his hand over hers and   listened as she vented her frustrations.  She was talking instead of just staring blankly into space. If nothing else, he’d helped her out of her stupor.
     
    "What kind of father does that to his daughter?” she was asking.  “What kind of man can look at his little girl and so blatantly lie right there to her face?  What else do you think he’s hiding from me?" She stopped for a moment and caught her breath.
     
    "What do you feel?"
     
    Cressida allowed her muscles to relax and she lay completely back on the blanket.  "Maxwell, do you think my father made a deal with Blake Carter?"
     
    "What do you mean?"
     
    "I don’t know exactly.  I just don’t understand why he lied to me. There has to be more to it that just getting me to take this case. The only thing I can come up with is that he made a deal with this guy.”  She stared at the stars, her gaze heavy and pensive.  “My mom might know something."
     
    "Your brain is going a mile a minute." Maxwell chuckled and gave her hand a squeeze. "But you could be on to something. Someone made a deal with somebody."
     
    "Maxwell, I want to thank you for being so supportive. I really needed a friend today." She propped herself back up on her elbows.
     
    Maxwell turned to face her, his arm stiff as it held him just inches above her up turned face. "I don't want to be your friend." His voice was thicker and huskier than he’d intended.
     
    "What?" Her soft coo of surprise played with the curve of her lips.
     
    "You’re killing me with the 'F' word. One day I hope to be more than your friend."
     
    "You really feel... well… you know… this way for me?" she asked.
     
    "I’ve always liked you. I just didn't think that I was your type." Maxwell thought back to the first night he said these same words to her, remembering she had been drunk and unlikely to remember the entire night.
     
    "Why would you say