All Chapters of SECOND VERDICT: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

The Monday morning light shining through the floor-to-ceiling windows of Morrison & Associates' twenty-second-floor conference room was bright and sunny, casting long shadows across the polished mahogany table. Emma Parker sat towards the end of the table, her laptop on her lap and open in front of her, only half-listening to the managing partners drone on about quarterly performance metrics.She'd heard this speech before. Three years at one of San Francisco's most prestigious law firms had taught her that Monday morning all-hands meetings were ninety percent corporate bullshit and ten percent actual information. The real work happened outside the conference room, the depositions, the courtrooms where she'd proven herself time and again.At twenty-six, Emma had worked twice as hard as anyone else to get here. Junior associates didn't typically get invited to these senior meetings, but she'd made herself indispensable. Three major case wins in the past year alone. A reputation for bei

Alexandra Richardson's hands were shaking.She pressed them flat against the cool mahogany surface of her new desk and commanded them to stop. They didn't listen. The tremor traveled up her arms, settled in her chest and made her breathing shallow.Emma Parker worked here.Emma.The name ricocheted through Alex's mind like a bullet she couldn't dodge. Eight years. Three thousand miles. An entire carefully constructed life built on the foundation of forgetting, and it had all crumbled the second their eyes met across that conference room.Alex stood abruptly, the leather chair rolling backward with the force of her movement. She walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows, needing distance from the desk, from the door, from the reality of what had just happened. Twenty-two floors below, San Francisco stretched out in shops and travellers, people going out to lunch, mothers strolling with babies in their rollers. The Bay Bridge gleamed in the late morning sun, ferries cutting white paths thr

Emma sat in her car in the parking garage for fifteen minutes before she could make herself move.Her hands were still shaking. Her chest felt too tight. Every breath took conscious effort.Alexandra Richardson was her supervising partner.For eight weeks.Minimum.Emma pressed her forehead against the steering wheel. This couldn't be happening. There had to be a way out. Some loophole, some policy, some—Her phone rang. Sarah.Emma took a shaky breath and answered. "Hey.""Hey yourself. You okay? Your text sounded weird.""I'm fine. Just—work stuff.""Want to talk about it?"No. God, no. How could she possibly explain this to Sarah?Oh, by the way, remember that woman from college I told you about? The one who broke my heart? She just became my boss."It's boring legal stuff," Emma lied. "I'll tell you at dinner.""Okay." Sarah's voice was warm, trusting. "I'm proud of you, you know. Fifty million dollar case. That's huge.""Yeah. Huge."They talked for a few more minutes, Sarah's mo

Alex had seen Emma coming around the corner.That was the worst part. She'd seen Emma, had a split second to move out of the way, and instead she'd frozen like an idiot and let them collide.Now files were scattered across the hallway floor, and Emma was scrambling to pick them up, and Alex was kneeling beside her trying to help, and they were so close Alex could smell her shampoo.Still the same. After eight years, Emma still used that coconut fragrance shampoo that Alex used to bury her face in when they—Stop. Don't think about that."Let me help," Alex said, reaching for a document."I don't need your help."The words stung. But Alex deserved them.She gathered papers anyway, organizing them by case number automatically. The Bennett files mixed with discovery documents mixed with what looked like Emma's notes for the presentation. Emma's handwriting was still the same too—neat, precise, with those little flourishes on her capital letters.Alex remembered that handwriting. Had save