She thrived on the pressure of bet-the-farm litigation, and while the eighty-hour workweek of a big-law-firm associate didn’t leave much room for a social life, she had her share of boyfriends, most of whom were age appropriate and none of whom were married.
Then she began working with Aaron Littman.
Six months before she was to come up for partner, Aaron asked her to second-seat him in the money-laundering trial of a Mexican banker named Alejandro Sanchez. In many ways, it was a standardAaron Littman representation—guilty client, lots of money involved, nonstop work for months, and then an acquittal.
After the case ended, they had a decadently expensive meal to celebrate. Over a four-hundred-dollar bottle of champagne, Aaron told her that he would enthusiastically support her for partner.
Everything Rachel had been working toward was coming to pass. And then she was completely blindsided when it all came crashing down around her.
Unlike the prior episodes, this one didn’t all hit at once but built steadily over several weeks. The first sign was when she heard that Ellice Schwab, a senior associate who was very easy on the eyes, had been assigned to a new case that Aaron was handling. Rachel felt it like a stab to her heart. Each day that passed she missed Aaron that much more, as if she were withdrawing from an addiction. Rather than that feeling dissipating, the intensity of her emotions increased, to the point where she couldn’t bear to wake up if there wasn’t a reason to see Aaron that day.
When she started fantasizing about how much he would really miss her if she suddenly died, she checked herself into a private facility. The diagnosis was like before—acute depression—but her shrink, a little man with a white mustache, said that it was more than that. She was repeating the same pattern from Stanford: pursuing an idealized man who was unattainable and being unable to accept that her feelings were unrequited.
Rachel hadn’t wanted to tell anyone at the firm that she was in a mental ward, but she couldn’t go AWOL for a month, not right before she came up for partner, and so she told Aaron because . . . because she was in love with him. She didn’t share that he’d played a role in putting her there, of course. Instead, she said that she had experienced a bad reaction to her meds, explaining that she suffered from depression and that every few years there needed to be an adjustment, although she had always previously seen it coming and was therefore able to avoid hospitalization.
“I’m so embarrassed,” Rachel had said.
“There’s no need,” Aaron had answered. “This is a medical thing, Rachel. I get that.”
“I’m not sure every partner is as enlightened.”
“No one knows about this except me,” Aaron said. “I told the partners that your father had taken ill and you were spending some time with your family. Don’t worry about anything except getting better, and when you do, there’ll be a partner’s office waiting for you at Cromwell Altman.”
She and Aaron never again discussed the episode. And at year’s end, just as he’d promised, Rachel made partner.
15
T he Metropolitan Correctional Center, or as it is more commonly called, the MCC, opened in 1975. Among its most famous residents have been Mafia don John Gotti, Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, and the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, who was the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Given that Nicolai Garkov is something of a blend of all three, Aaron imagines that he’ll fit right in.
The building itself is a particularly ugly brown, squat structure located in lower Manhattan. It is attached to the U.S. courthouse by an elevated bridge, which enables inmates to be shuttled back and forth without going outside. The facility houses approximately eight hundred inmates. Some, like Garkov, are awaiting trial. Others have already been convicted and are serving their sentences elsewhere, and are
Then she began working with Aaron Littman.
Six months before she was to come up for partner, Aaron asked her to second-seat him in the money-laundering trial of a Mexican banker named Alejandro Sanchez. In many ways, it was a standardAaron Littman representation—guilty client, lots of money involved, nonstop work for months, and then an acquittal.
After the case ended, they had a decadently expensive meal to celebrate. Over a four-hundred-dollar bottle of champagne, Aaron told her that he would enthusiastically support her for partner.
Everything Rachel had been working toward was coming to pass. And then she was completely blindsided when it all came crashing down around her.
Unlike the prior episodes, this one didn’t all hit at once but built steadily over several weeks. The first sign was when she heard that Ellice Schwab, a senior associate who was very easy on the eyes, had been assigned to a new case that Aaron was handling. Rachel felt it like a stab to her heart. Each day that passed she missed Aaron that much more, as if she were withdrawing from an addiction. Rather than that feeling dissipating, the intensity of her emotions increased, to the point where she couldn’t bear to wake up if there wasn’t a reason to see Aaron that day.
When she started fantasizing about how much he would really miss her if she suddenly died, she checked herself into a private facility. The diagnosis was like before—acute depression—but her shrink, a little man with a white mustache, said that it was more than that. She was repeating the same pattern from Stanford: pursuing an idealized man who was unattainable and being unable to accept that her feelings were unrequited.
Rachel hadn’t wanted to tell anyone at the firm that she was in a mental ward, but she couldn’t go AWOL for a month, not right before she came up for partner, and so she told Aaron because . . . because she was in love with him. She didn’t share that he’d played a role in putting her there, of course. Instead, she said that she had experienced a bad reaction to her meds, explaining that she suffered from depression and that every few years there needed to be an adjustment, although she had always previously seen it coming and was therefore able to avoid hospitalization.
“I’m so embarrassed,” Rachel had said.
“There’s no need,” Aaron had answered. “This is a medical thing, Rachel. I get that.”
“I’m not sure every partner is as enlightened.”
“No one knows about this except me,” Aaron said. “I told the partners that your father had taken ill and you were spending some time with your family. Don’t worry about anything except getting better, and when you do, there’ll be a partner’s office waiting for you at Cromwell Altman.”
She and Aaron never again discussed the episode. And at year’s end, just as he’d promised, Rachel made partner.
15
T he Metropolitan Correctional Center, or as it is more commonly called, the MCC, opened in 1975. Among its most famous residents have been Mafia don John Gotti, Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, and the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, who was the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Given that Nicolai Garkov is something of a blend of all three, Aaron imagines that he’ll fit right in.
The building itself is a particularly ugly brown, squat structure located in lower Manhattan. It is attached to the U.S. courthouse by an elevated bridge, which enables inmates to be shuttled back and forth without going outside. The facility houses approximately eight hundred inmates. Some, like Garkov, are awaiting trial. Others have already been convicted and are serving their sentences elsewhere, and are
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