Page 79 of You, Only You

"A reputation for ruthlessness, I should say." He smiled like we were sharing a joke. "The legal community has a name for you. 'The Monster of Sterling & Steele.' Because you make problems disappear. Careers vanish. Lives unravel."

"Colleagues have used various terms. Usually ones who've lost to me in litigation."

"Lost." He repeated the word thoughtfully. "Let's talk about those losses. Specifically, the individuals who've departedSterling & Steele, or other firms you've targeted, under clouds of scandal. A pattern emerges, doesn't it? Damaging information surfaces, followed by swift resignations. Quite the coincidence."

"Correlation isn't causation, counselor."

"Isn't it?" He picked up a folder from the defense table. "Let's be specific. Marcus Anders, junior partner, resigned after a harassment settlement was unsealed. Carla Jenkins, paralegal, left when a prior fraud conviction surfaced. Gregory Prentiss, senior associate, departed following revelations about certain organizational memberships."

My hands were steady on the arms of the witness chair. I made sure of it.

"I'm aware of those departures."

"And in each case, you accessed their personnel files in the weeks before the information became public. Your access code appears in the digital logs."

"Personnel reviews are part of firm management."

"Personnel reviews." Caldwell nodded slowly. "Or intelligence gathering. Tell me, Mr. Steele, when you review an employee's file, are you looking for performance metrics? Or vulnerabilities?"

"Objection." The prosecutor rose. "Argumentative."

"Sustained. Rephrase, counselor."

Caldwell didn't miss a beat. "Let's discuss Professor Richard Vance. Seven years ago. Your sister's case."

His name hit like ice water. I'd known it was coming and had prepared for it, rehearsed deflections, built walls around this particular wound. None of it mattered. The courtroom seemed to contract, the air thinning.

"What about him?"

"Your sister Nicole accused Professor Vance of sexual assault. The university investigated and found insufficient evidence. The district attorney declined to prosecute." Caldwell'svoice was almost sympathetic. "That must have been devastating."

"It was unjust."

"And you responded to that injustice, didn't you? Letters to the dean. Threats of lawsuits. Media campaigns. You waged a very personal war against a man the system had cleared."

"I advocated for my sister through legal and public channels. The university chose to protect a predator."

"The university followed its established procedures." Caldwell stepped closer, his voice dropping to something almost confidential. "But you didn't accept that, did you? You couldn't. Because the system had failed someone you loved, and you decided the system was broken."

"The system is broken."

"So you decided to fix it yourself."

The trap was elegant. He'd led me exactly where he wanted me to go.

"I decided to ensure that people with power face consequences when institutions fail."

"You became a vigilante." Caldwell's voice rose, carrying to every corner of the courtroom. "You found people's secrets, their affairs, their addictions, their financial indiscretions, and you weaponized them. You destroyed careers, reputations, and lives. Not through courts. Not through juries. Through your own private judgment."

"Every person I've exposed was guilty of crimes the system refused to prosecute."

"According to you." He turned to face the jury. "Not according to any court. Not according to any jury before today. You investigated them. You judged them. You executed their professional lives." He spun back to me. "Did it ever occur to you, Mr. Steele, that you might be wrong? That your judgmentmight be compromised by grief, by rage, by a vendetta that started seven years ago and never stopped?"

My jaw ached from clenching. I forced myself to breathe.

"The evidence in each case spoke for itself."

"Evidence you gathered. Evidence you interpreted. Evidence you chose to release." Caldwell shook his head. "You're not a lawyer seeking justice, Mr. Steele. You're a man playing God with other people's futures because you couldn't save your sister."