Marc Nassar

In all my years as a lawyer, I've never seen a case so locked up tight as this one. Usually there are legal databases with court records and transcripts, hell even legal commentary among academics. But for whatever reason, the details of Noah Peters' case are strapped about as tight as a death sentenced prisoner in an electrocution chair. All I can find is that there was indeed a case and the access is restricted to only the legal representation assigned to it--one of whom is a shit lawyer the county assigns at random to low income residents.

All of that means it'll take a lot longer to figure out how to help. I'll need to make some calls, talk to whoever I can who might be connected to it. But before I go ruffling my colleagues' feathers, the best first step is hearing it as directly from the source as possible.

"It all started about a year ago," Louisa starts, just as Celeste says, "Here's what happened."

"Are you saying it or am I saying it?" Louisa turns, cradling Theo across her body. He fell asleep on her shoulder less than a minute ago.

"I'll say it! You take forever to go through a story," Celeste responds before turning to me. "So-"

"No I don't!" Louisa interrupts. "You're the one who misses all the important details. Besides, Noah is my husband. I get to tell the story!"

Celeste playfully rolls her eyes before crossing her arms. "Fine. Go ahead."

A smile tugs at my lips as I nod at Louisa to start.

"Thank you! Anyway, as I was saying. It all started about a year ago. Noah got this amazing job for this maintenance company. It gave us steady income and he was great at it. Won all these employee of the month awards for the fastest worker. He could fix your light bulb in under a minute and of course look really damn good doing it."

"See? Unnecessary detail," Celeste adds with a hand raised.

"Anyway," Louisa continues without pause, "his company would contract him for various jobs at various apartment sites. Someone had a leaking fridge? Or a faulty fire alarm? Noah would get called up and would fix it right away. And the places he'd get called to go were always very fancy complexes and buildings," she pauses and sighs, "which meant the clientele weren't exactly the nicest people."

"Sorry, before you continue, what was the name of the company he worked at?" I ask, with a pen at the ready.

"Lux Maintenance," Celeste answers. I quickly scribble the name on my legal pad.

"Actually, it's Luxurious Maintenance," Louisa clarifies.

"No, it's not," Celeste shoots back before turning to me. "It's just Lux. Louisa always adds extra letters and words to things."

"I don't!"

"She calls tissues 'Kleenex wipe tissues' as if no one will understand her if she didn't say all those words together."

"But that's exactly what they're called! Kleenex wipe tissues!" Louisa says with sisterly annoyance in her voice. It's like I'm looking at a crystal ball right now, watching Laila and Nina when they're older. I force myself to contain the smile that's bubbling up.

"Anywho!" Louisa shifts her gaze back to me. "A couple months into the job, Noah came home telling me about a woman whose stove stopped working. He went to her apartment to fix it and came home that evening saying how nice she was. She was the one of the only people he'd gone to help who didn't treat him like scum when he walked in. She even offered him a drink and snacks while he worked."

"At first we thought she was some sweet old lady," Celeste adds, "but we soon realized she's far from sweet. She's one million times worse than the others."

Louisa nods her agreement. "She lived by herself and things broke in her apartment a lot."

Celeste scoffs. "More like she broke them so she could see Noah."

"Yeah, exactly! He kept getting called to her apartment more and more. And then after a month or so, her requests of Noah grew increasingly strange. Like sometimes Noah would go up and not find anything wrong, but would get stuck having to talk to her or be forced to do things like help her pick an outfit for an event she had, or even vacuum her rugs."

"We begged him to complain," Celeste adds, "to tell the building's management company or the maintenance company he worked for. But, he was worried he'd lose his job over it."

"Noah and I were always strapped for cash since having Theo," Louisa explains. "We had him before I even turned eighteen and it's not like either of us were prepared for it. So, Noah decided to keep quiet, and just bear through the discomfort of having to face that woman. He would do anything for Theo and I, even if that meant hating his job." She gulps and glances at the desk, her stare turning distant. "We'd fight a lot over it and his anxiety grew. Everyday he dreaded going to work for fear of being called on again by Elliana. That's her name, by the way, Elliana."

"No it wasn't!" Celeste says before turning to me. "Her name is Ellie."

"No, it's Elliana!"

"I swear it's Ellie."

"I'm pretty sure it's Elliana." Louisa grimaces with a slight shake of her head as if she's second guessing herself. "Sorry Marc, we don't really use her name, we typically call her Jezebel's Yeasty Cunt."

"Do you happen to know Elliana slash Ellie's last name?" I ask, continuing to keep my expression schooled, as I quickly jot down both name options.

"We don't know it, unfortunately. We tried to find anything we could about her, but it's like she's a ghost," Celeste says.

Louisa takes a deep breath and rubs Theo's back again before continuing the story where she left off. "Eventually, after months of pure agony, Noah did tell someone in management. He asked to not be assigned to her apartment anymore. His manager agreed to it, but then did not do a fucking thing about it."

"What was the manager's name?"

"Lewis something. I don't know his last name. He was an asshole who only cared about meeting quota," she responds with furrowed brows as I jot down the name next to Ellie's. "About six months ago, Noah gets called up and he's at the end of his rope. He kept things as professional as he could but he was done. He had told me that morning if he got called on again, he'd tell her off and would face whatever consequences that came with it. But this time it was different. As soon as he entered the apartment, she stood there in nothing but a robe. He told her she needed to stop. She didn't listen and she dropped the fucking robe, leaving herself fully naked, and inviting him to have sex with her." Her voice cracks at the last part. I finish jotting my notes and look up. Glassiness covers her eyes and I set my pen down.

"Please take all the time you need. We can go slower or regroup whenever you're ready." My heart breaks when a full tear drops from her right eye. I've seen this look plenty of times when clients have to relive what happened. Hopefully, this will be the last time they have to tell this story. I can't stand seeing Celeste or her family like this.

"Okay, please just let me finish the story, Lou," Celeste says gently and Louisa nods at her, hugging Theo tight. I turn my attention fully to Celeste now and her face is pinched in concentration. God she is stunning. My pulse picks up speed and I grab my pen tight to maintain my professional stance. "She didn't touch him," she pauses and her throat bobs with a swallow, "but she tried to. He said he shoved her robe back to her and went ballistic, yelling at her before storming out of her apartment.

"She ran after him into the hallway leading up to the elevators. She started apologizing profusely, saying that he just should forget everything. Noah asked her to never talk to him again, and, the sweet angel of a man that he is, believed her when she promised she would. He left immediately, and before he could finish gathering his things from the basement's locker room, police arrested him. Yeasty Cunt had called them as soon as Noah got in the elevator."

A cold feeling hits me before it's quickly replaced by the heat of anger flashing through my body. I loosen my collar. "On what grounds did police arrest him?"

"For stealing her diamond necklace."

"What the-? What evidence did they have?" I flex my fingers against the table.

"They found it in his pocket." Celeste sighs, and every instinct in me wants to wrap her up in my arms and tell her that everything will be okay, hoping to God that things will be. "He has no idea how it got there. The best guess he can come up with is when she chased him out into the hallway and got up in his face about how sorry she was, she planted it in there.

"And I don't really understand how the floor plans work in fancy apartment buildings but it sounds like there weren't really other apartments on her floor. Or maybe one or two others. The point is no one else could see what happened in that hallway. We tried to get security footage, but it's non-existent. There are no cameras on those penthouse types of floors, according to what we were able to find."

I nod, thinking through what other questions I have.

Louisa shoots out of her seat, carrying Theo, who has started to stir. "Celeste and I have gone over everything millions of times to try to figure it out, but we haven't been able to. The apartment Noah told us where it all went down doesn't even belong to a woman from what we found, meaning Elliana moved out right after."

"Was Noah carrying any weapon on him during the incident?" Why would he be convicted of armed robbery if there wasn't evidence of something there?

Celeste shakes her head. "He didn't have anything. He went up empty handed without his tool box because he had every intention of telling her to stop. Apparently though, she told the police that he threatened her with his screwdriver to give her the jewelry. And of course, when the police found him at his locker, he had his tool box with him."

I scoff and Celeste's eyes grow wide. "Sorry, that wasn't directed at what you were saying," I explain. "I'm just in shock that he was convicted for being armed when it doesn't sound like there was definitive evidence that he carried something up with him. I'm probably telling you both something you already know, but Noah's last lawyer did an extremely shitty job and I'm so sorry you had to deal with that." More tears fall from Louisa's eyes and Celeste nods with her mouth tucked in. Theo starts to fidget more and Louisa quickly wipes her eyes while trying to keep hold of him.

"Okay. I think I got all I needed from you both for now. I may have more questions, but I can message you Celeste if anything comes up." I let out a frustrated sigh. It's moments like these that remind me why I went into law--to help those who have everything going against them. "But given there is some conflict of interest with me and Celeste, um..." Shoot. How do I say this?

"What? What is it?" Celeste asks with worry laced in her tone.

"Well, any romantic entanglement between us creates a conflict of interest in the court's eyes. But," I say with the most optimistic tone I can muster, "all that to say is, while I may not be the direct lawyer on the case, I'll still be here to guide you both every step of the way. I give you both my word that I will do everything in my power to get Noah out."

My words ring out through the space as the women remain quiet. There's hope lit up in their faces, and my chest swells. I can't mess this up. I won't mess this up.

"W-wow, I can't tell you how much that means to us, Marc," Louisa says while Celeste stays quiet. Theo starts moving more and says something to his mom. "Alright honey, I'll take you now," she responds to him. "Marc, do you know where the closest bathroom is?"

I give her the directions and she steps out with her son, leaving Celeste and I alone in the quiet of my office.