She’s never in her wildest dreams imagined getting a card for Father’s Day, but she does from Abbie the following day and she puts it up proudly on her fridge.

It’s not a huge surprise to anyone when she gets called into the office in the afternoon, but it does lead into the second atypical and hugely less positive event of the day.

Chanelle Laurens is the hugely high-profile client whose name she doesn’t dare to even hint at representing for the last several months. Laurens as in the Laurens Business Group, who have a hand in more than half of the city’s businesses. Who is married to a New England Patriot, clearly famous in his own right.

It’s taken the title for the messiest divorce she’s ever worked on and that’s saying something. High drama, hugely contested on both sides, every week it seems like there’s a new bit of information coming out – adultery, financial secrets, he-said-she-said over every aspect of their history, custody arguments over their two kids. And all of this desperately being kept from the public is not an easy task.

Chanelle is a lot to handle, it’s true, and she’s a tough nut to crack. But the fact that there’s also a history of domestic violence that Chanelle reluctantly opened up about keeps Caroline’s edge invested in this. Chanelle’s text reads 9-1-1, which she’s never used before, and it’s enough to have Caroline concerned enough that she has to actually leave.

She says her goodbyes to everyone just before dinner, hugging her dad extra tight and ignoring the snide comments from Todd.

As she enters the kitchen through the back door, she sees Jared pulling out the condiments needed for dinner and putting them on the tray to bring outside. He has a streak of dirt still on his cheek from the football game earlier which makes her roll her eyes as she smiles.

Typical. As the brother closest to her age – only a year older, whereas Brian is eight years older than she is and Todd is five – they’ve always been the closest in terms of being friends, too.

He shoots her a smile. “Hey, you leaving?”

“You know me.” She rolls her eyes. “Big important lawyer who doesn’t give a crap about family.”

Jared mirrors her eye roll. “Ignore Todd; he’s always going to be pissed you make more money than he does. I’d love to see him feel that way the next time he wants you to watch Erin or Zach.”

She knows. It always grates, but she knows. “Yeah. Anyway. Hope my client doesn’t mind my showing up in jean shorts.”

As she grabs her keys from the hook next to the fridge, Jared clears his throat. “Uh, hey. Before you go, I…”