Chapter 4

When I returned to the office, I sat in my chair and rolled over to the window, looking down at the lights of thousands of homes.

Behind me, the office door opened.

"I heard Celia took the murderer's case as defense counsel. Has she lost her mind? And they said the key evidence disappeared too. What happened?"

I looked back at my closest partner.

Evelyn Frost was one of the few women attorneys at our firm, dressed in a white suit, sharp and fearless.

I leaned back, closed my eyes, and let my voice drift lightly through the room.

"The day after my mother died, she came to see me. She comforted me for a few minutes, then left. After she left, the evidence was gone."

The key evidence was a ring.

When my mother arrived at the hospital, she'd been gripping it tightly in her hand. There was blood on it from two people.

That ring could directly identify the killer.

But now Celia was arguing that the murderer had been drunk, that my mother attacked him, and that he'd had no choice but to defend himself.

So in truth, the ring wasn't enough anymore.

What I had to prove now was that Marcus hadn't acted in self-defense. Even if he'd been drinking, he was conscious, intentional, malicious. He beat and injured my mother on purpose.

Evelyn's gaze grew complicated. "If you couldn't find the evidence, didn't you suspect her?"

I was silent for a while.

In front of the partner I'd trusted for years, I finally let the ugliest part of myself show.

I raised a hand over my eyes. My mouth was smiling, but tears slid silently from the corners of my eyes into my hair.

How could I explain it?

When I was keeping vigil outside my mother's ICU room, I was still worrying about why Celia had suddenly disappeared.

I worried her parents had dragged her home to force her into marriage.

I worried she'd been threatened by some unreasonable client.

But the one thing I never imagined was that, during the most desperate stretch of my hospital vigil, she was with her ex, planning with the murderer how he could escape legal consequences.

Even the moment she came to my home and stole the evidence, stabbing me in the back, I was still worrying whether her own case would succeed.

My mother had never really liked her.

But before my mother died, I'd argued with her about marrying Celia.

"I regret it so much..."

I turned my chair away from Evelyn, my face streaked with tears.

Evelyn said nothing.

She waited until my emotions had passed, then came behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Then what about the appeal? Do you have a chance?"

I lowered my hand and looked into the night.

I only smiled.

In my eyes, there was nothing but the confidence and certainty I'd built through my profession.

Over the years, whenever Celia had a difficult case, I'd been the one handling it behind the scenes. I knew exactly what she was capable of.

As her boyfriend, I'd thought everything about her was good.

But as a professional attorney, Celia was only average. She wasn't even as capable as the interns at Sterling & Howe.

The small reputation she had in the legal circle was only because every case she took had passed through my hands first.

I broke down the key points for her, searched the statutes, and even wrote her arguments. All she had to do was stand in court and recite what I'd prepared. Nothing could go wrong.

But I'd raised a thankless wolf.

Maybe the praise outside had gone to her head. Maybe she really believed her current fame and honor came from herself.

She couldn't see herself clearly anymore.

Standing in the same courtroom as me.

Was she worthy?