My name was plastered at the top, bold and ugly.

Gone were the compliments for me. Now I was called an unethical dirtbag, a corrupt attorney, and a cheating scumbag.

...

Cassandra wasn't just sabotaging my career; she was gunning for my entire life, all to prop up Andrew.

I scrambled to pull together evidence to clear my name, but as a lawyer, I knew time was everything. I'd missed the window to fight back. Now, even solid proof couldn't fully undo the damage.

Sure enough, a chunk of my clients jumped ship to Andrew. He got so full of himself that he showed up at my apartment to gloat. "If you'd just played ball and handed over the clients, you wouldn't have been in this mess. Some guys never learn their place."

My blood boiled, and I grabbed his collar. "You think you can steal my work with dirty tricks and call it yours? A real lawyer wins cases with brains, not by sucking up to the boss. Let's see how long you last hiding under her skirt."

That hit a nerve. His fist came flying, and before I knew it, we were tangled in a brawl.

Cassandra arrived, yanking a baseball bat from her car and swinging it at the back of my head. Pain seared through me, white-hot and blinding, but she didn't stop.

As my vision faded, I saw her fussing over Andrew's scraped knuckles, not sparing a glance at me.

I woke up in a hospital room, stunned to see Sherry Watson sitting beside me. She was a college fellow and Cassandra's longtime rival.

"Sherry? Why are you here?" I blinked.

She masked a flicker of pity. "If I hadn't shown up, you'd have been roadkill."

I pressed my lips together, managing a weak, "Thanks."

"If you really wanna thank me, join my firm as a partner," she proposed.

I hesitated. "The online rumors..."

She cut me off. "If I bought that trash, I wouldn't have hopped a red-eye back to the city the second I heard you got canned. Plenty of your clients aren't buying it either. Bruno Benson told me that wherever you go, his company follows. Parting with you is my gain."

Bruno was the whale of a client I'd spent six months reeling in. Cassandra thought the contract was her ticket to dumping me, but she had miscalculated.

Clueless, Cassandra and Andrew strutted into Benson Group's headquarters.

"We owe this Fortune 500 deal to your pull," Cassandra gushed, her eyes sparkling with ambition. "Once we lock in the next steps, I'm buying you a penthouse."

Andrew's grin was so wide it could've split his face, but the secretary's words stopped them dead. "Mr. Benson specified Lester as our legal counsel, not Lockhart Lawfirm."