The Bed You Make
Chapter 19, continued
Attorney Alexis Davis dropped the pen from her cramping fingers and slumped back in her chair. The mound of paperwork she'd begun tackling three hours earlier was as tall now as it had been at the start.
She had undertaken the task with ‘new job' enthusiasm, convinced that her wealth of legal knowledge and experience would help her expedite the handling of so many pending cases. That enthusiasm quickly waned with each folder Alexis was unable to stamp ‘resolved'.
The practice of law was so much simpler when she was a defense attorney, Alexis thought. There was no line that could not be crossed in defense of a client. Right, wrong, ethical, unethical… those were abstract concepts that had nothing to do with the reality of law as she had once known it. The problem now, Alexis admitted wryly, was that she had accepted a position that demanded she heed all the noble concepts of public service. Maybe, she realized suddenly, the job of District Attorney wasn't going to be such a walk in the park.
And just maybe, her inner voice chimed in smugly, you'll have to admit that your opponents in the courtroom weren't so incompetent after all. Maybe those people were weighted down by a standard of behavior that you just ignored. Those people, the voice taunted. You know… like Dara Jensen.
Alexis did not care for her thoughts. Had Stefan chosen Dara as his choice for Cassadine Trustee because of her legal skills? Or had he chosen her because of just the opposite? Did he believe Dara capable of pulling her own weight in the constant struggle to protect Nikolas' inheritance? Or was she just a puppet for Stefan to make dance?”
It distressed Alexis more than she cared to admit that Stefan had chosen Dara at all. The unexpected move effectively replaced Alexis in the Cassadine family dynamic. And if the meager information she'd gotten from Nikolas was correct, it would not be long before Alexis' presence among her family would be completely forgotten.
How had things gotten so bad so quickly? Alexis knew that her decision to withhold information about Sonny's half-hearted attack on Cassadine Industries would result in Stefan's anger. She'd been prepared for his anger. What she hadn't been prepared for, Alexis realized, was her brother's swift and complete excommunication of Alexis from everything Cassadine.
She'd tried to argue that she knew Sonny was incapable of doing any real damage to Cassadine Industries and that fact kept her from alerting Stefan to his plans. Her arguments fell on deaf ears.
Alexis massaged her temples. All she could do now was wait for Stefan's anger to abate. It always had before; this time would be no different.
