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Chapter 6
Marcus couldn’t handle it.
His call came to Vivian almost the instant the Bar Association notice went out.]
“Get Harper on the phone!” he was screaming, voice full of desperate madness.[]
Vivian put it on speaker so I could hear.]]
“Marcus, you wanted to talk? My voice was ice–cold.]
toy me?‘1
“Harper! You released the diary? You want to destroy me?
I just returned the truth to the public” I answered calmly.
“Truth? What truth?” he shrieked. “Do you know Sterling’s stock tanked because of your truth?”
“My partners want me out! I’m finished! Are you happy now?”
“Marcus,” I cut him off, “when you stole my case strategy to help your girlfriend destroy my career, you should have seen this coming.“I
“When you let her wear my robe in our bed, you should have seen this coming“]
“This isn’t something I did to you. This is what you chose,”
Long silence on the other end.]
Then Marcus’s voice, thick with tears, begging.
“Harper, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”
“Come back, okay?
We can start over.”
“I’ll get rid of Nora immediately, cut her off completely.
“My sunshine, just give me one more chance…“]]
Listening to his pathetic act made me sick
“Marcus, I’m not your sun.”
“When you chose her, your world already went dark.”
I hung up and finally had peace.[]
But this was far from over.]
Vivian’s investigation had a breakthrough
“I looked into every case Nora ever handled.” Vivian set a file on my desk. “Found something very interesting.”
“Three years ago, right after joining Sterling, she independently handled a massive commercial fraud case.“[]
“The defendant was a tech company about to go bankrupt.“]
“Nora represented the plaintiff, won spectacularly, made her reputation overnight.”
I looked through the files, frowning.
“What’s wrong with this case?“]
“Everything.” Vivian pointed to a piece of evidence. “This was the plaintiff’s key evidence–internal emails showing the defendant company falsifying financial data.“]
“I had someone recover the original email data.“]
“Guess what?”
My heart sank
“The emails were faked.” Vivian’s voice was quiet but devastating
“Actually, the emails were real, but the timestamps and some content were artificially altered.“]
“This kind of manipulation requires serious technical skills, definitely not something a new attorney could pull off.”
I understood immediately.
“Marcus.”
“Exactly.” Vivian nodded. “And I found an encrypted folder in Nora’s diary cloud drive.“]
“It was called ‘Dark History.”
“I tried several passwords, finally got it open with Marcus’s birthday.“]
My hands started shaking slightly.
Vivian turned her laptop toward me
On screen were the folder contents.
Chat logs, altered original files.
Clear documentation of how Marcus had methodically taught Nora to forge evidence and frame that tech company.
This wasn’t just professional ethics anymore.]
This was criminal.
Perjury and obstruction of justice.
I looked at Marcus’s smug instructions and Nora’s adoring responses on screen
Suddenly, I saw a familiar name.[]
“Ocean Tech.”
The client Nora mentioned when explaining the lipstick order.
I scrolled down immediately.]]
The chat logs showed Marcus and Nora using the same methods against one of Ocean Tech’s competitors.[]
And that “client gift” Nora claimed to buy with Marcus’s account? The recipient wasn’t anyone from Ocean Tech.[]
It was someone called “VP Lee.“[]
He was a vice president at Ocean Tech’s competitor.
My head was spinning.]
A terrifying thought emerged.]
This wasn’t just cheating and plagiarism.
This was a setup.]
A complex scheme orchestrated by Marcus, using Nora as his pawn, employing unethical competitive practices for massive profits.
And me, along with my “Pacific Industries v. TH Corp” case was just the most insignificant piece in their plan.
