Mary felt an ember of resentment flare in her chest.
“You identify with your clients, and that’s the reason they love you. South Philadelphia’s throwing itself at your feet because of your loyalty. But that strength can also be a weakness, in a partner. I need your first loyalty to be to our firm as an entity, and to me.” Bennie’s features relaxed a little. “You can’t throw a temper tantrum, even for the sake of a client like Trish. For you to ever make partner, for you to be my partner, you would have to show me you understand that.”
For a second or two, neither woman said anything. Bennie’s mouth remained taut, and Mary sensed she was her mirror image, just in a tinier suit.
It was Bennie who spoke first. “I’m sorry if this hurts your feelings.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Mary said, though it did. She’d always liked being an employee, but she didn’t like being told she couldn’t be a partner. She thought that even though a firm was composed of many clients, it made sense that some matters would be more urgent than others.
“So, DiNunzio.” Bennie clapped her hands together. “You ready to get back to work?”
“No,” Mary heard herself answer. She felt like walking out on her job, right now, but that would be impulsive, proving the wrong point. And she needed the job, to finally get her house.
“Pardon me?” Bennie blinked.
“I don’t want to come back on the terms that I may never make partner.”
Bennie blinked. “Okay,” she said slowly.
“I’d like to come back, do my job, and talk about partnership in six months.”
“Really.”
“I think I deserve it, and the business I bring in justifies it.” Mary was making it up as she went along, but she was convincing herself. “We have our different spheres of influence, but that’s good. The fact that you don’t agree with the way I handled one situation doesn’t mean I’m not mature.”
Bennie said nothing, but eyed her with annoyance, or new respect, Mary couldn’t tell which.
“What do you say?” she asked.
“No,” Bennie answered flatly.
“No?”
“Six months isn’t enough. One year.”
“Let’s split the difference,” Mary said, relieved. She’d thought she was getting fired again. “Nine months, then.”
Bennie nodded, mulling it over. “And what if, after nine months, I say you don’t make the grade? Do you leave or stay?”
“We’ll see, then. I can’t decide now, on impulse.”
“You don’t make impulsive decisions.”
“Never.” Mary smiled, and so did Bennie.
“Fair enough. Done.”
Yay! “Good.” Mary rose and extended her hand across the desk, and Bennie stood up, took it, and squeezed it hard.
“Now get back to work, DiNunzio.”
“You’re not the boss of me.” Mary turned to go, with a smile.
“For nine months I am.”
“There’s gonna be some changes made-Rosato.”
“Out of my office,” Bennie said, chuckling.
And Mary ran.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wanted to thank you readers for picking up this book, and especially those of you who remember the women of the Rosato firm from my earlier books. They’ve been gone for five years now, and I know some of you have wanted them to return, so permit me to explain why they took such a long vacation. As you may recall, Killer Smile was my last Mary DiNunzio novel, and it was written before my father, Frank Scottoline, passed away from cancer. When I started to write about the DiNunzio family again, I began to realize how much Mr. DiNunzio was like my father. It was simply too hard to write about the DiNunzios, and oddly, it wasn’t until I wrote a novel entitled Daddy’s Girl that I got my mojo back. So, bottom line, the Rosato girls will return from time to time, because I’ve missed them. Thank you for your loyalty as I stretched myself to create other characters. I’m a fan of making new friends, but I’ll always keep the old.
Of course, in that regard, thanks very much to the great gang at HarperCollins, for publishing my books so well for fifteen years-CEO Jane Friedman, Brian Murray, Michael Morrison, Jonathan Burnham, Kathy Schneider, Christine Boyd, Liate Stehlik, Tina Andreadis, Heather Drucker, Adrienne DiPietro, Ana Maria Allessi, Wendy Lee, and my wonderful editor, Carolyn Marino. Thanks to all of the supertalented people like Virginia Stanley, in addition to some of the best sales reps in the business, including (but hardly limited to) Gabe Barillas, Jeff Rogart, Ian Doherty, Brian Grogan, Brian McSharry, Stefanie Lindner, Nina Olmsted, Carla Parker, and the world-famous John Zeck.
Thanks to my amazing agent and dear friend Molly Friedrich, as well as Paul Cirone and now Jacobia Dahm, at the Friedrich Agency. I love you guys and I appreciate you more than you know. Thanks to Lou Pitt out on the West Coast. Thanks and a big hug to my assistant and resident genius Laura Leonard, for everything.
As is usual with research, I consult a number of experts, though any and all mistakes are mine. First thanks to Carolyn Romano, my friend of twenty years now, who provided all sorts of expertise and reviewed the manuscript for accuracy as well as fun. Thanks to Franca Palumbo, my BFF of thirty years (yikes), who helped me understand the details of special education law and who works so hard every day to champion children with special needs. Thanks so much to my cousin Elaine Corrado for the tip about Carlo Tresca, who I sense will get his own book some day. A special thanks to my favorite legal ethicist Lawrence J. Fox, Esq., with admiration. Many thanks, as always, to Glenn Gilman, Esq., and Detective Art Mee, my legal and law enforcement experts, who always keep me in line. This time around, I got a special assist from Special Agent Jerri Williams of the Philadelphia Division of the FBI, who helped me put a human face on an agency that works so hard for all of us. And a huge hug of deepest thanks to Neuman-Goretti High School of South Philadelphia, including Principal Patricia Sticco and Dorothy Longo in Development, and all of the wonderful teachers, alums, and nuns who helped me so much with this novel and who do so much for the community.
As you may know, I permit worthy causes to auction off names in my novels, so my books are always populated by generous and good people. Thanks to Joe, Dawn, and Bethann Coradino (special thanks to Dawn, who contributed to the YMCA of Philadelphia), Mary Alice Raudenbush (Walnut Street Theater), Jimmy Kiesling (Downing-town East Hockey), Elka Tobman (Key to the Cure, purchased by her son, Alan Tobman), Rhonda Pollero (Sleuthfest), Theodora Landgren (Center for Literacy), Jo-Ann Heilferty (University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Equal Justice Foundation, bought for her mother by my galpal Dean Jo-Ann Verrier), Marc Robert Steinberg, Esq. (Child Advocacy Center), Carolyn Edgar (St. Dominic School, Brick, NJ), Sharon Satterfield, M.D. (Howard Center, Burlington, VT), Sue Ciorletti, Julia O’Connell, an eight-year-old who loves dogs, bought by grandfather and lawyer extraordinaire Tom Morris, to benefit Women’s Way.
And last hugs and much love to my family, because they’re the beginning and the end.
About the Author
LISA SCOTTOLINE is a New York Times bestselling author of fourteen novels. She writes a weekly column called “Chick Wit” for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and has won many awards, including the Fun Fearless Fiction Award by Cosmopolitan magazine and the Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. She teaches Justice and Fiction at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and appears in Court TV’s crime series, Murder by the Book. Her books are published in more than twenty languages, and she is a lifelong resident of the Philadelphia area.
