My Destiny by Adrianne Byrd

and looked at him. “How about you? Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
    “No,” he said with a tinge of regret. “I would’ve liked one though—maybe an older brother or a younger sister.”
    “Really? Why?”
    He shrugged. “I don’t know. Growing up, I remember a lot of my friends having siblings. Of course, they would all complain about them in some shape or fashion, but I always envied them.” He shrugged again. “But I do have Wes. We’re sort of like brothers, if you take away the fact that my mother hasn’t exactly taken a shine to him.”
    “Why is that?”
    “Wes loves wild parties, wild women and just flat out having a wild time.”
    “Excuse me, but has your mother actually met you?”
    Miles laughed. “Well, she thinks he’s the bad influence on me.”
    “When you’re really the bad apple, right?”
    “I plead the Fifth.”
    “Good idea. Are you close with your parents?” she asked, taking another sip of wine.
    “It’s just me and my mom now.” He lowered his gaze to his drink. He tried to conjure up an image of his father from memory and was saddened by how difficult it became with each year that passed.
    “I’m sorry,” Destiny said, and then grew silent.
    “It’s okay. The years we had together were pretty terrific.” He finished off his wine, and then asked. “What about you and your parents?”
    “Just me and Mom. My dad passed shortly after my brother.”
    “Sorry,” he said, frowning.
    She shook her head and gave a half laugh. “Boy, are we two pathetic people or what?”
    He laughed. “It certainly sounds that way.” And for no reason at all, Miles found his thoughts drifting toward his coming birthday. He could almost hear the loud ticking of the clock. He didn’t have much time left.
    “Hello, hello?” Destiny snapped her fingers.
    Miles blinked, and then apologized for his wandering brain.
    “It’s okay. I was just asking you what made you want to become a lawyer?”
    “Money,” he answered honestly. “Problem is that you don’t learn until after graduation how much of a joke that notion is.”
    Destiny held up her glass. “Amen.”
    “What about you?”
    Destiny tucked her legs under her. “I don’t really think I had a choice in the matter. Lady Justice has bewitched just about everyone in my family for generations. To this day, my mother swears my first word was objection instead of mommy. ”
    Miles laughed. “For some reason, I don’t doubt that.”
    Her laugh deepened. “I don’t, either.”
    Soon their laughter faded and both parties fell into their own private thoughts before Miles looked up and asked, “Any regrets?”
    She drew in a deep breath and met his leveled gaze. “Plenty.” At his surprised stare, she went on. “As you know, this isn’t the easiest job in the world. A lot of times you get attached to the people you represent—you believe their stories of innocence and, more times than not, you end up being played a fool. Then there are cases where you don’t know how you can stand to look at yourself in the mirror because you’re defending someone you’re convinced is guilty. And let’s not discuss the problems with venality throughout the courts in recent years.” She paused and shook her head. “But every once in a while, you stumble over a case that validates all that you believe in and forces you to step up to the plate. If you’re up to the challenge, you deliver a home run.” She shrugged as if she had trouble making sense of her own words.
    “I can definitely relate,” he said, but wondered at what had happened to inspire such an interesting soliloquy.
    Destiny crossed her arms and remained reflective. “I had this one case where every fiber of my being screamed that my client wasn’t a murderer. I fought like hell to save him, but...”
    She closed her eyes and Miles was surprised by her struggle for control of her emotions. The anguish in her expression touched something within him and still he