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Sweetheart?
Sweetheart!
“You—”
“Both of you will be working with me on this case,” a familiar voice up front said, with the finest trace of amusement in his voice.
“What?” We both turned around to gape at Professor Black.
“I’ve been asked to represent Richard Archibald, and I have decided to choose the two of you to work alongside me and my associates. Ms. Cunning, since you adamantly believe he should already be in jail, I’m sure you and the prosecution will be on the same page, which should keep me one step ahead. Atticus, you’ve given an angle for this case. Free will, the two that died should have known better. So for that reason, you are both now working with me. The rest of you better step your game up. That’s it for the day,” he concluded, leaving us all stupefied.
Once again, I waited for everyone to leave, and I glared at Atticus as he winked at me before walking out the door. I wanted to throw something at him, or at the very least stick my tongue out like a petulant child.
Yeah, that's mature.
“Do you need something, Ms. Cunning?” Levi asked, drawing my attention back to him.
“What, you aren’t just going to walk out?”
Shit, it just came out of my mouth.
He said nothing as he gathered his things, and prepared to leave.
“You should take me off this case.”
He paused, “Why? Because of our prejudices towards it? I told you it can be useful in formulating a—”
“No,” I interrupted him and I wanted to say because we shouldn’t spend anymore time together. But I just couldn't.
He looked at me, but it felt as though he was looking through me. His eyes narrowed and his stare grew cold, “Do you want to be here, Ms. Cunning, or are you just wasting my time?”
“I do!” I interjected.
“But you’re willing to walk away from the chance of a lifetime because of that?”
“I never said that.”
“But you were thinking it, I can tell by your hesitation. So either you’re not strong enough to keep your personal and your professional life separate, or you don’t have the confidence to be here. Either way you still look weak.”
“But I’m not. What happened—”
“Thea, nothing is bigger than what you want to do with your life. If you want to be a lawyer, you can be a damn good lawyer, and you don't let anything get your way. In fact, you use whatever you can to your advantage.”
He couldn't be serious.
“You’re saying I should use that… use you to my advantage?”
He shrugged. “What’s done is done, and can never be undone. Maybe you don’t get it, but if you want to be a lawyer, you have to be the best there is, otherwise you’re not worth anything to anyone. So do whatever you have to do to get to the top. Considering who your mother was, I thought you would be the last person I would have to explain that to. You fought for your seat, so don’t just give it away. Not now, not ever.”
Clenching my jaw and my fists, I stepped right in front of him. He was so close that one wrong move would inevitably lead to us kissing, and yet in this moment, I didn’t have that urge.
“First of all, never, under any circumstances, bring my mother up ever again. Secondly, I want to be here, I want be a great lawyer, and I will not let anything you do rattle me, because like you said, that was in the past. But don’t make it seem like I tricked you or lied to you. You never told me you were a professor. Lastly, I will never use that as a steppingstone for my career. I will never give anyone the ability to say that I got to where I am because I fucked my professor. I will be great, and that’s because I earned it, just like you did.”
I dug into my purse and left his watch and boxers on the table. Then without another word, I turned and started for the door.
“Wait,” he called out to me.
Damn it, why can’t I just leave?
