Chapter Three

Diego

The leak in my law firm was borderline insane. I ran a tight ship. It wasn't a huge firm but we were successful. Our reputation ran far and wide in the city and I relied on that to keep us going. However, today I was informed of the second client whose information was shared with a competitor and I had no idea what was going on. The only thing keeping me from losing it was Ana. Moving our relationship from only play partners to real life partners was the best decision I had ever made. Just last week she met Alejandro who of course loved her. I couldn't ask for anything more.

"Hey Little One."

"Hello, sir." she said with what sounded like the perfect smile.

"Where are you?"

"Just leaving work and about to head to my place."

"Why don't you go to mine instead. Alejandro is there, he can let you in if I don't get there before you and we can all have dinner together."

"At the apartment?"

"Yeah, I mean unless you want to go out."

"No, I mean… I don't know. I guess that's fine, it just seems a little intimate doesn't it?"

"Dinner?"

"With Alejandro. We just met and I don't want to encroach on your time with him."

"Ana, he adores you. He knows I'm not out looking to go find him a new mom. He's old enough to know what's what and I'm not going to keep hiding you away. Is that okay?"

"Will he tell you if it's too much?"

"I'm sure."

"You have to promise to keep talking to him about this. My mom raised me alone and she was wonderful but the revolving door of men in her life was something that drove me crazy as a teenager."

"Little One, take a deep breath." I listened as her breathing slowed and she began to calm down. "I will remind you that I am not your mother. You are the first woman I've ever introduced to him and that's only because my plan is to keep you forever. I love my son but I have him for a very limited amount of time. Soon he will start building his own life and I would have been left with nothing had I not met you. I will continue to talk to him about everything but promise me you don't let your worries about coming between us ruin what we have."

"I promise, I won't."

"I'll see you at home then."

I closed my laptop with more irritation than necessary. I knew Ana felt as if we were moving too quickly but I felt like I had been waiting my entire life for her. In my mind it didn't make sense to baby step into everything. We were meant to be together. I grabbed my phone while packing up and called Alejandro.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Ana may be there before me, I thought we could all have dinner together tonight."

"Are you cooking?"

"God no."

"Well then I'm down."

"Real quick, you're okay with all this right?"

"Yeah Dad, I already told you that. I like her a lot."

"Okay, and you'll tell me at any point if that changes."

The groan that came out of my son sounded strangely familiar and also exactly how I was feeling. "Yes Dad, I'll tell you if I decide Ana is the big bad villain."

"Very funny. I'll see you when I get home."

Hanging up I realized I wasn't as crazy as I was starting to think I was. I needed Ana like I needed air, my kid was good with her so in truth I didn't have anyone else that should get in the way.

"Sir, I'm sorry to bother you as you're leaving but I have something I think you should see."

Marilyn, my partner's new assistant, was standing at my door. "Is it something that can wait until tomorrow?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Fine, come in." I said sitting back down, slightly more annoyed than before.

"Miguel asked me to pull some information together in hopes that we could find the leak and since this affects you directly, I wanted you to know before I did anything else with it."

She pushed a folder across my desk as I tilted my head and looked over at her. There was something about Marilyn that had never sat right with me. It was nothing more than a vibe really so I had nothing I could blame it on other than my own paranoia. I reached for the folder and opened it as she continued to talk.

"I try not to pry into the private lives of people I work with; however given the situation at the firm I feel the integrity of the people around us is important."

"Integrity?" I asked as I flipped through a narrative only to land on pictures in the back of the file that nearly made me jump from my seat. Inside the folder were multiple pictures of Ana and a written document outlining information about her past and present activities.

"Where did you get this?"

"You asked me to look into any potential suspects."

"And the best you came up with was my partner?"

I threw the folder full of half naked photos of Ana tied up by past play partners onto my desk.

"There were some other possibilities however after reviewing them all this seemed to be the most damaging."

"Damaging how?"

"Well, she seems to be involved in some rather unsavory activities. Many of which if leaked to the public could be cause for alarm to our clients."

I wanted to step forward, slam the crazy bitch into the wall and fire her. If she knew this much about Ana then she knew about me too and the face she made when she said ‘leaked to the public' left me even more uncomfortable.

"Go home Marilyn."

"Of course sir, and what would you like me to do about this situation?"

"Nothing."

She stood there looking at me for about a minute before she finally turned on her heel and exited my office. I shook my head and grabbed the file, shoving it into my bag before locking up and leaving. I had to do something but I had a feeling it wasn't what Marilyn thought I would do.

I walked in to find Ana making herself at home in my kitchen and Alejandro sitting at the counter telling her about his day. Had I not just been handed a folder of shit it would have been a dream come true. The two most important people in my life were enjoying their time together and I had this burning anger inside of me that I didn't know what to do with. I gave a small smile to Ana when she turned around and went to her.

She stepped into my arms, "Yup, this is what I've needed all day."

I lowered my head and placed a soft kiss on her lips only to hear my son's gagging noises and laughter. "What's for dinner?"

"Ana's making lasagna. She brought everything with her too. I swear Dad, it smells so damn good."

I shifted my gaze in his direction and rolled my eyes at the curse word. Damn wasn't that bad and he was getting older but I still didn't like to hear it.

"I'm going to get changed before dinner."

It didn't take long to realize Ana was quick on my heels as I made my way to the bedroom. She closed the door behind me and stopped me in my tracks.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, why do you ask?"

"You walked in looking like someone murdered your best friend."

"I did not."

"You most certainly did. You tried to hide it but I know Alejandro noticed too. That boy is very in tune with you."

I pulled my tie loose and threw it on the end of the bed before undoing the buttons of my dress shirt, "I know he is, and I know you are too. I'm sorry to bring work home with me. It's just been a long day."

Ana stepped forward and I held out my arms as she stepped into them. The smell of her lavender scented shampoo took me away from the stress and anger I felt on my way home and centered me with the woman I loved. I placed a kiss on the top of her head. "I'll be alright."

"I know you will. I just wish there was more I could do."

I stepped back and stripped out of my clothes, reaching for a pair of sweatpants and a tee shirt. "Don't judge me for being casual tonight."

She gave me a wink, "Never. I'm going to finish cleaning up the kitchen. The lasagna should be ready soon and I know Alejandro has plans tonight so he wants to get going soon."

"He what?"

"He has plans, with a girl." she said and her eyes widened in excitement.

I shook my head and let out a small laugh. "It's already at the point where you know more about what's going on in his life than I do."

She left to finish up dinner and I sat on the bed and pulled out the folder from earlier. I had no idea how to protect her from this. Being exposed in my professional life for the things I liked personally was always something I had concerns over. But knowing that all this could fall back on Ana and hurt her tore me apart. Marilyn was up to something more than just playing the role of dutiful employee. This felt more like a personal attack, a threat even, and I had only one way to get a handle on it.