Trapped by Annie Jocoby

for money once we got back. Luke finally admitted to me that he was hoping that Marcella might be a good connection for him there in London, and he asked me if I minded if he had lunch with her to pick her brain. Ask her if she knew anybody in New York who might be able to connect him to the right people again.
    I told him that I was fine with that, and Luke did have lunch with her one day and came back and reported that Marcella did, in fact, know other artists who lived in the Village and had formed a co-op like they had in London. The artists all had different kinds of mediums and genres, so they all helped one another. Luke also reported that the group would be a good fit for him, according to Marcella, and he had the names and numbers of some of the artists. Marcella had assured Luke that they would welcome him with open arms.
    And hopefully me, too. I had gotten out of my art during my pregnancy, just because the pregnancy and Nottingham had consumed my thoughts during that time. Composing was low on my list, unfortunately. But my mind was clearing up every day, now that I made a decision on exactly what to do, and I was happy with the decision, so I was itching to get back to my canvas. Truth be told, I wasn’t happy at all about my other decisions to run and to try to blackmail Nottingham. I wasn’t happy, and my gut told me that these actions weren’t right. I ignored my gut, of course, and I shuddered to think that kind of disaster might have befallen me if I would have continued on with my previous course of action.
    As for my posing nude, now that I was pregnant, I doubted very seriously that I would return to the nude modeling thing. Not that I wouldn’t be in demand – pregnant women often were very much in demand, because many artists enjoyed painting the pregnant female form. Burgeoning breasts and bellies often made for a very sensual and voluptuous portrait.
    But I wanted to get away from all of that. There was something inside of me that was just now kicking in. The maternal instinct. I suddenly wanted to leave behind all of my questionable choices and do everything right. Not that posing nude was morally questionable, of course. But I felt almost embarrassed for doing it. I didn’t know why I felt embarrassed. I only knew that I did.
    So, our conversations centered around the practicalities of all that Luke and I had to do when we got back to the States.
    “Okay,” I said. “So, I think that I should hire Marissa Herschel. Nick highly recommends her, and I liked her a lot when I went to see her. She specializes in family law, too, and I know that she knows all the major cases that are relevant here. She might look like a little petite aunt, but her reputation is solid.”
    Luke was nodding his head. “Okay. Well, I checked out this Steve Singleton guy. The one that Marissa said Nottingham has on permanent retainer. Aggressive isn’t the word, according to the online reviews of his work. There’s been a shit-ton of bar complaints against him for some of the shady stuff that he pulls, but he’s gotten out of every one. It seems that he knows just where the line is as far as ethics go, and he goes right up to it, without going over it. He’s a clever one, I can tell you that.”
    “Well, he’s a bully, sounds like. Marissa might be the right person to counteract that. She’s not a bully. She obviously has a different approach to litigating her cases than Steve does, and that just might do us justice. She wins a lot of her cases, too. I’ve been doing my own research on her cases, and I’ve seen some doozies that she’s managed to pull off.”
    “As long as she can hold her own against a bully, then you might be right. I would much rather have a lawyer that knows the art of finesse than a bull in a China shop.”
    “Me too.”
    So, it was settled. Marissa Herschel would be my attorney. But I wasn’t quite sure when I would be able to go back home. It would all depend on when my doctor