‘Olivia, it’s time I spoke frankly with you. Jean and I are worried about your health. It’s apparent to even the most casual of onlookers that you’re not sleeping well. And when did you last enjoy a decent meal – and I do not mean those psychedelic cocktails that you, Hollie and Matteo devour with such gusto? You need to take a break from the legal grindstone, especially after this life-changing event.’
‘Henry, I—’
‘No, please, just listen.’
Henry ran his arthritic fingers through his thick, ash-coloured hair, for the first time displaying a hint of reticence, clearly somewhat uncomfortable with treading the line between showing concern for his younger partner’s obsessive work patterns and invading her privacy.
‘I know you’re not going to like me saying this, but I miss the spirited, rosy-cheeked woman of twenty-nine I met ten years ago; eager, ambitious, brimming with energy and enthusiasm for the law. It hurts me to see how much that young lawyer has transformed into the frazzled, exhausted, stressed-out person who sits before me now and I truly regret not noticing sooner.’
‘Henry, I’m not—’
‘Please, Olivia, hear me out. For the first time, Jean and I have made a few New Year’s resolutions and if all goes according to plan, this time next year we’ll be boarding a luxury liner for a round-the-world cruise. Life is short, and every day becomes more precious as the age of seventy is waiting in the wings to ambush us. Jean deserves the indulgence of her long-held dream, and to that end I’ve reserved a Princess Grill Stateroom on the Queen Elizabeth.’
Olivia smiled. She was delighted that Jean had got her own way at last. She knew the division of labour in the Edwards marriage was considered old-fashioned; Jean, giving up her career as a midwife to devote her gentle-but-firm skills to steering their two beloved daughters through life’s challenges – both of whom had chosen to follow their mother’s footsteps into medicine – whilst Henry performed the role of breadwinner and doting father. She was about to congratulate him on his decision, but Henry had already launched into the next part of his submission.
‘I struggled to recall the precise nature of the clause in our partnership agreement pertaining to the taking of sabbaticals, so I took the liberty of checking. After ten years of service, all Edwards & Co partners, including you, Olivia my dear, qualify for a ten-month sabbatical at half their monthly drawings.’
‘I qualify? I thought it was you and Jean who were planning to take the world by storm?’
The switch in focus caused a twist of anxiety to whip through Olivia’s veins and she dug her fingernails into her palms to prevent herself from reaching up to fiddle with an escaped tendril of hair to alleviate the unease that had settled in her gut. What was going on? She didn’t have to wait long to find out.
‘Take a break, Olivia. Spend some time away from the crazy, soul-destroying world of divorce and relationship breakdown, of clients squabbling over meaningless possessions, of financial skulduggery and underhand espionage. Do you know, I even heard the other day that a lawyer had plundered the depths of decency by removing the dustbin from a spouse’s back garden? I mean, what is the legal profession coming to? How you and Katrina remain sane is a constant worry to Lewis, James and I.’
Henry expelled a sigh filled with incredulity, and not a little relief, that his chosen legal specialism was commercial property litigation and tax management and not the cut-and-thrust of verbal jousting prevalent in the field of matrimonial litigation. However, his words had sent Olivia’s thoughts reeling and it took her a few seconds to catch up, her throat dry when she spoke.
‘Henry, I really can’t take time off at the moment …’
‘I’m not saying you won’t be missed, or that we don’t appreciate how valuable your contribution is to our practice. You listen to your clients, Olivia, really listen. You empathise with their circumstances, and somehow you manage to instil in them the belief that their case is your only priority. Indeed, since you joined us, the Family Law department has flourished beyond anything we could have hoped to achieve. Clients, particularly women, have flocked to your office, but the fact that divorce has become so increasingly popular dismays me. Why don’t couples stay together nowadays? No, you don’t have to answer that!’
Henry settled back into his captain’s chair, steepled his fingers and tapped them on his lower lip, eyeing Olivia carefully.
‘But I can also see that the pressure of an ever-expanding caseload has sapped your energy and dulled that initial sparkle. And now, it seems, it has destroyed your marriage. Is it contagious, this incessant search for the elusive prize of contentment?’
‘I love what I do, Henry …’
‘Only too obvious, Olivia my dear, as I understand you already struggle to delegate even the most straightforward of cases to Miles, even though he is a very competent practitioner.’
Olivia clenched her jaw in a futile attempt to prevent Henry from reading the doubt she knew was written boldly across her expression. She had never been first in line when they were handing out acting accolades – learning how to hide her emotions was still a work-in-progress, and it was one of the few essential skills required to be a first-rate lawyer that she had trouble mastering.
‘Oh, I know that you and Miles have conflicting views on how you conduct your cases, but I also know that he is eager to prove himself, to carve out his own niche in the department – the law had always possessed a vociferous appetite for the naïve but ambitious young lawyer seeking to make his mark – and I’m not entirely unsympathetic to his desire to change the firm’s approach to our matrimonial cases.’
Like many lawyers, Olivia relished sharpening her advocacy and negotiation skills against her legal adversaries, but never to the detriment of her clients’ interests. It had always been her aim to assist her clients in a more holistic way, by offering accurate legal advice coupled with a dose of therapy, a cordial attitude to negotiations and a conciliatory approach. Of course, she was going to be better briefed than most on the up-to-date case law in her field because her long-time friend Rachel Denton, who had recently gained a Professorship in Family Law at UCL, made sure of that.
‘I can’t take a sabbatical, Henry, if that’s what you are suggesting. My clients rely on me to be here for them and I can’t let them down.’
‘They can easily transfer their matters to Miles, and I dare say that Lewis will do his bit.’
Olivia’s mind immediately flicked to her fellow partner Lewis Jackson’s office, where the windowsill was piled high with carelessly discarded bottles of single malt whisky – gifts from grateful clients as tokens of appreciation for the personal injury compensation he had won on their behalf. Even James Carter, who handled their criminal defence work, had been known to receive a bottle or two of Cognac, although its provenance probably didn’t bear close scrutiny. On the other hand, Olivia’s office sported a plethora of flower-bedecked cards from clients whose shattered lives she had been a reluctant but necessary part of, and whom could not bring themselves to thank her for her involvement in such an interlude of pain.
‘Katrina will be a more than competent adviser, too. And what an opportune time to take a break having passed that dubious milestone that I saw reported in December’s issue of the Law Society Gazette.’
Olivia gulped as her predicament rushed at her like a runaway express train and an involuntary shudder ran the length of her spine as she realised her own marriage would now be joining that running total of five hundred marriage dissolutions. And Henry was wrong – if ever there was a time to take a break from the treadmill of corporate life, this was most certainly not it! She