CHAPTER NINETEEN
MANON
“Do you think she got it?” I glanced away from my view of the city and over my shoulder. The uneasiness in my composure left a pensive shimmer in my eyes.
Before Neil could respond I continued, “Maybe I should have skipped emails and went straight to texting her.”
It was more of a statement rather than a question, but my eyes still locked onto his as I waited for an answer. Although, he didn’t look like he had even a quarter of the nerves that surrounded me.
“Manon, you’ve already messaged her once. You need to let it go. What else are you going to do? Show up at her place?”
His sarcastic voice broke into a fit of giggles while I stood there completely still. My body turned towards him with wide eyes. How did I not think of that?
“Do you think I should?” I ask, my voice sounded eager as I struggled to maintain an even, conciliatory tone. I knew I looked crazy, but it has been like this for over 24 hours now, so I didn’t care anymore.
I was beyond caring about my personal appearance; everything I was fighting for was being put on the line, and I needed a way to find the end of the rope.
Blue Wheels was done playing games. They tried to come in lighthearted and passive, but when no one fed their egos, it shattered their entire persona. The shift was obvious. At first, it felt satisfying—but I knew people like them couldn’t back down. They’d feel the need to retaliate, not just because of the money. Let’s be real: If the car Cassie was driving had vanished, with the amount they make, they probably wouldn’t have even noticed.
But it was because they were pissed that a woman had walked in and taken over the case so easily. They’d never heard my name before or seen my face, but now they seemed to know everything about me—down to my ex-boss. It felt intentional that they reached out to Dylan. Me not responding to their email had clearly struck a nerve, one they couldn’t let go of.
I could only imagine how happy they would be to find out that I was representing Cassie alone, with no firm backing me. They’d probably dance on the grave they dug just for me right after winning the case.
Blue Wheels’ team was long past caring about the cause, they were trying to attack us as people that they felt had wronged them.
Which made me wonder how long it had been since the last time they lost a case, if any. They were acting far too casual for my liking, purposefully diminishing the depth of the case. They walked into court like they just walked into their last class of the day and were ready to go home.
The Blue Wheels team might have presented themselves in a way that made them look more determined, confident, and strong, but that never reflected in their work ethics or attitude. When they were challenged with something they couldn’t just go back to the drawing board. They were the weed killer and Cassie, and I were the weeds. They were trying to kill us at the root.
Where it hurt the most. Where it sunk in deep and scarred the tissue underneath until we were scared shitless.
And I’ll give credit where its due, because if there goal was to destroy me then they succeeded. Something about their sick logic, told me they knew. I hadn’t ever reacted to them or given them the time of day but the second they did something to trigger Cassie’s emotions I blacked out with rage.
Of course, I killed it and had a great start to an insane case, but looking back at it I wished I could have controlled myself. I wish I would have said all of the same things without my emotions flooding into it.
Judge Hickerson loved every second of it. But even in one of the court photos, you can see Nick Leed sitting behind me, just staring. People online claimed he was glaring, and of course, everyone had their own wild assumptions about his character.
But I knew just from the way his eyes were narrowed that it was clear Nick was studying me.
He was studying what made my energy rise, and it didn’t help that I had stared at Casie for half of the time. Which, I thought only she would truly care or notice, but even online there were a few comments about how we seemed like we had “emotionally bonded.” I skipped past those, but I wondered if Blue Wheels read the articles and lingered on that comment as well.
If they had just realized how shitty of a position, they had got themselves into. I guessed that they were scrambling. They did a deep dive on not only Cassie but also me, they knew my email, where I worked, and who I worked for. That might not seem like much, but for men like them, it was like gaining my private health records.
That’s all they needed to make their first move, they were giving me the forewarning and chance before the whole game shifted. When I didn’t take the bait, that’s when I signed my career away.
They might not have expected me to be fired, but they were hoping it would send me into a spiral. A long enough one to ruin my chance at winning the case. They were betting on my demise.
“Manon, I think you might be overthinking it right now.”
Neil's voice dragged me back into reality. My attention landing right on him sitting in the far-left corner of my couch, intentionally trying to avoid the spot where Cassie and I had slept together.
He refused to sit anywhere without any fare warning first. Even though I never asked him to come over, he kind of just barged in.
But that was my fault. I never even told him what happened, I kind of just ghosted him. When I opened my door and saw the look of sheer anguish written across his face, I immediately felt worse than I already did. In the mix of it all, I somehow disappointed Neil as well. It wasn’t even because I had gotten fired, it was because I never told him.
Fuck did my communication suck ass.
I’ve been a lawyer for three years and I couldn't communicate some of the simplest things to the people I cared about the most.
Neil was heartbroken when he found out about me getting fired. He thought I was working from home this whole time. Which wasn’t uncommon. Everyone in the office worked that way, besides me. So, he figured whatever was going on between Cassie and I had to have been going well if she was encouraging me to stay home.
But when I broke down to him the reality of the situation, starting all the way from me secretly accepting her case to now; I thought he was going to faint. Neil’s expression with each development in the story, made me feel slightly better for the whirlwind of emotions I was facing.
Neil gave me my well-deserved speech on how many lines I crossed, all while holding me in his arms so I had a place to cry. He had a balance to his method so he could call me out on my wrongs while still comforting me.
I needed that. Dylan couldn’t get past the fact that I was a woman handling a high-profile case right under his nose. Most of what he said I brushed off, shoving it to the back of my mind. But what Neil had said? That stuck with me, front and center.
I couldn’t just decide for Cassie whether she would go to trial or not— it was her case. It didn’t matter how protective or caring I was trying to be, as a lawyer that’s part of my responsibility. And as someone who was interested in getting to know her more, I should want her to know everything. I had failed everyone on so many levels, but still, Neil was here to drag me out of my dungeon of hell.
My eyes refocused on him sitting with his brows raised high like he was waiting for me to speak.
“I think I should go see her. I just want to make sure she got the email, ya know?” I asked as my eyes filled with hope. I just wanted Neil to agree to my shenanigans and let me go.
My body was aching for Cassie, and not just in a sexual way. I physically needed to be near her; to touch her or hear her voice. I didn’t care if she wanted to scream or fight. I was willing and ready to sit back and take the blows just so I could be with her.
“Uhh… but didn’t she say she didn't want to see your face again until the day of trial?” Neil questioned. I felt a sting in my chest as the words still burned like alcohol being poured over an open wound.
My body flopped back against the couch as I began to realize he was right, yet again. I was supposed to be leaving her alone and still I sent her an email. I could only imagine how pissed she must’ve been when she read it. I didn’t want her stressed, concerned or frantically thinking of what to do. But I was also doing what she had wanted from the beginning. I was communicating.
“Look, you’ve done all that you can. The best thing you can do now is show up tomorrow ready to kick ass.” Neil’s tone strengthens, making the hairs on my arms stand up.
The heartache and pain that I had felt pounding in the back of my head had died down and was replaced with the stillness of determination.
If I wanted anything positive to come out of this twisted situation, it all came down to how I showed up tomorrow. I couldn’t let my emotions take over or seem distracted. Look at how quickly Judge Hickerson called out Blue Wheels for not being prepared—I couldn’t make that same mistake. No, not after all the work I put in to get here. I couldn’t let my emotions be the reason I failed my client. If I did, I’d become exactly what they expected—and assumed—every woman would be. It was their go-to fallback, and I refused to give them another reason to add me to their list.
But as confident as I was beginning to feel again, the idea of working alone and not being connected to any firm at all, still shakes me.
“Okay, but what about Perian? I’ll be there by myself.” Fear dropped from my lips, and I felt myself shudder just at the thought of it.
“Manon,” he said with a clarity in his voice that sounded like he wanted to laugh.
“You were already there by yourself.”
***
When Neil finally leaves, I’m left with the silence of my own thoughts again, but this time it feels different. I no longer feel tormented by my own confusing emotions. The road seemed to clear the second he walked through my door. Before my future felt vague and shadowy, but now my body vibrated with a new life. Like I was refreshed, and my mind was cleared of all of the mess I had made of it.
The new sense of clarity brought me back to the maze of documents spread across my floor. Neil had walked past them earlier trying not to judge but I knew he thought I had officially lost it.
And I’ll admit I was, and still am running off of zero-sleep, but emotionally; I feel better than I have in over a week. Which in turn, gave me the energy to stand over the stacks of files and folders like a hawk watching its prey.
Something wasn’t right.
Or at least, something didn’t add up.
I thought back to when Cassie had first come to me with the fear that Blue Wheels had gotten her fired from her job. We couldn’t branch off it any further because all of the evidence she had was, in my opinion— going to be considered gossip from Judge Hickerson.
But we never really did get to the bottom of that. In fact, it was the one thing we couldn’t prove. Even though I knew it was a dead-end my mind still tugged on it, because why was that Blue Wheels first instinct?
Besides her making money, what would they have against her working?
Originally, I thought they were just being petty, and manipulative. Trying to force Cassie into giving up, since she has no way of making money after they took away her job. Which seemed stupid, useless and extremely drastic, but now that I know just how far they would go, the idea crosses my mind like a flash of light.
This could be a reach, a far one at that.
But I needed to find out more about her rideshare app.
There had to be something on there that either proved that Cassie wasn’t working during the time of the accident or could have possibly proved her innocence.
I sprinted to the laptop that I left in the kitchen, hunching over before I began deep diving. I didn’t even have the time to sit down and think, I needed answers, and I needed them quickly. I didn’t have days to get my shit together. I had less than 24 hours, and I was just now deciding to research Startrips—Cassie's rideshare app. But without letting another second pass I clicked on their Wikipedia page.
The app was founded by someone named Jeri Terinveno which sounded familiar but when I searched his last name the first thing that came up wasn’t Startrips, but instead Blue Wheels. My spine straightened.
And then something ice cold shot through me.
BINGO.
Startrips was owned by Ashton Terinveno, who just so happens to be Jeri Terinveno’s brother.
My jaw was on the floor. How could I have not caught this?
They were siblings, both owning a company that dealt with cars. Damn, if we were not in this situation right now, I'd probably stand up and applaud, because it was a genius business plan.
But holy shit, was this fucked.
Well, that explains how they got her kicked off the app, but that didn’t necessarily explain why they needed to do it. I’m sure there had been plenty of people using both businesses since they were equally well-known in Illinois. This couldn’t have been the first time they’ve come across a case like this.
A huge part of the city relies on Startrips as their main source of income, including Cassie. So, it can't be that every time someone ends up in a situation like hers and needs to use a Blue Wheels rental, Startrips just bans every driver involved in an accident.
That’d be nearly impossible with how many happened in Chicago daily. There had to be something wrong or different about this specific ride that made them deny her access right after the case was filed.
Someone caught something, and was cleaning the mess up before we could see it.
I knew that much, but I needed more proof than that fact that this was a family business affair. Yes, I could call them out on addressing the connection between the cases, but how far would that go if Startrips wasn’t a part of the trial?
This was Blue Wheels vs. Cassie, not Blue Wheels vs. Cassie + Startrips.
Judge Hickerson would look at me the same way he did when they started mentioning Cassie’s mother during the pre-trial. But there was something more there—I could tell this wasn’t just a coincidence. It couldn’t be.
Nothing that’s happened since this trial started has been a coincidence. Not this case, not Cassie and my crash meeting, not even Cassie moving in with me.
So why would the two businesses that are both pinning Cassie’s hands behind her back, not be working together?
I was so close I could feel it. But there was more to it. It There was this vital piece I was still missing.
I paced around my living room for a while as I tried to connect the dots, but nothing seemed to fit. I went through every scenario in my head, and I even went back through the comments that people had left, and no one mentioned being banned. So, I didn't even have a case to reference. The only explanation I could come up with was that Startrips had the timestamps of her driving that day, and they wanted to cover them so that we had no physical evidence of our own claims.
It was smart, and if they were trying to milk Cassie with this case then that was the perfect place to start. Cutting her off from even being able to prove anything that happened on December 12th.
But that still didn’t seem like a big enough reason to risk being caught by the court, even if they won the case. Cassie barely had a dollar to her name, and that was before this whole trial mess.
What if it was something Blue Wheels knew they had messed up and were trying to cover up, not wanting Cassie to find out?
My body lurched when I heard loud banding on my front door. When I looked out my windows the sky was slowly getting darker.
Damn, how long had I been lost in these papers? The floor was a mess, the once finely stacked piles were now scattered everywhere. My laptop sat on the edge of the couch, with ten different tabs open to different articles talking about the Terinveno brothers.
Whoever was here caught me in the middle of me falling down a rabbit hole. So much time had passed that I didn’t even notice.
The banging was getting louder and faster like someone was frantically trying to get my attention. Quickly, I started making my way towards the door. Afraid it would fall off the hinges.
When the door flings open the last person, I expected to see standing behind it was…
Cassie.
My mouth fell open, I was speechless.
Both of her arms were still raised like she was just banging on my door with both fists, while her face was just as frozen in time as I was. Like she hadn’t expected me to answer. Her cheeks and lips were a dark berry pink. She looked frazzled.
But honestly, so was I. Not only because she was here. Cassie was standing in front of me with dark, chocolate-brown hair. The loose dark tendrils of hair softened her face while it glistened like polished wood. Believe it or not, I actually liked Cassie’s pink phase. After the initial jump scare—it kind of just ended up working for her. I was convinced anything would look good on her, and this was just proving my point further. Because she looked more delicate, and ethereal than ever. Somehow the brown hair defined every single one of my favorite features about her.
From the faint freckles that covered her cheeks to her sharp and defined brows that framed her now almost olive-green eyes. Cassie looked… hot.
My heart jumped, and it felt like it might fall out of my chest. There was no way what I was seeing was real. She stood there like she was trying to gather her thoughts as well. I thought I saw the tiniest twinge in her eyes as she glanced over at me. Reminding me how beat up I probably looked, I hadn’t left the apartment in weeks so I could only imagine her view.
But she looked great.
After a couple of more seconds of just staring, I cleared my throat, “What—”
I guess that one word brought her back to reality. She shook her head, cutting me off before moving to push past me and walk straight into my apartment.
“I remembered!” Cassie yells frantically as she slips out of her black and blue flannel before tying it around her waist. I’m still lost in confusion as I stand there while the door closes shut behind us.
“I fucking remembered!!!” She exclaimed as her pace quickened.
My face scrunched up as I tried to keep up, “I’m sorry?”
I was apprehensive about even speaking, afraid that she would run away again the second she remembered she hated me.
But when she turns to finally face me again, with her back towards the view of the city she has the biggest smile on her face.
“I had a dashcam!!” She practically screamed it, as she spun around like a kid in a candy shop.
For the second time today my jaw dropped, as my eyes jumped from their sockets.
“WHAT?!” My arms flew up to my head gripping myself from the roots.
“I saw your email, and it kept eating at me because I knew I wasn’t driving for Startrips at that time. So, my phone had to have been in ‘do not disturb while in motion’ mode. But then, something reminded me of when Startrips had all those crazy altercations that made it to the news. After that, they rolled out a deal—if you were a driver, you could get 50% off a brand-new dashcam that linked directly to your app.”
Cassie could hardly stand still the way the words were spitting out like rapid fire. But I was following every second of it.
“Wait,” I said, and subconsciously I reached out to grab her, but quickly refrained.
“You’re saying that the footage was uploaded and viewed through the app?”
Her head slowly nodded as one brow rose high, almost matching the small smirk that sat on her face. “Yeah, the same exact app they banned me from the second the case was officially filed.”
“I mean, I have no way of proving they singled me out in anyw—”
“Actually—” I cut her off for the first time and she tilted her head to the side.
“—You do, the owners of Blue Wheels and Startrips are related. Meaning they have a motive to work together and conspire against you.”
Cassie was the one speechless now, her eyes wide as she just shook her slowly back and forth.
“Cassie, they did single you out.” I continued.
“Even without the actual footage, you think that’s enough to prove it?” Her eyes began to water, and I could hear the genuine hope in her voice.
I walked past her to grab my laptop, before flipping it around to show her the screen. “Look at this.”
My eyes watched Cassie’s as she scanned the screen, her shoulders almost shagged as she scrolled through the pages of proof that they were related. Her hand reached forward to move the mouse at the same time as mine and our fingers brushed.
For a moment, we both paused. My breath hitched just barely, and I could feel the room shrinking in size. When Cassie’s eyes stopped on mine, I instantly wanted to pull her in and never let her go. My skin practically burned to feel her touch again.
She cleared her throat, causing my lids to drop as I let out an exasperated sigh. I couldn’t let this go on for any longer.
“Cassie—” I started but was quickly cut short.
“Manon, I should’ve never gone through your stuff.” Cassie’s head was low so I couldn’t see her face, while my own twisted in confusion.
“Are you seriously trying to apologize to me ?!” I almost laughed when Cassie looked back up at me, because she was completely serious.
So many things flew through my mind that I wanted to scream at her, but my face went still. Suddenly feeling no need to rush, I didn’t care how late it was.
It was time for me to explain.
“Cassie, do you remember when you tried to ask me how I ended up the way I am?”
Her brows furrowed at my change in the subject, but still, her chin nodded slowly.
“For years, I could never truly understand the relationship between my parents and me, so it was hard for me to even put into words. But to say the least, growing up we weren’t much of a sentimental, emotionally available family. My mother was a dentist while my father was a lawyer, they were my first and only example of what I thought life should look like. Before all of this, I thought everything was transactional. From the way you work to how you live; it all came back to numbers, not feelings. They taught me to live the same life as they did. That I needed to make sacrifices, and at the time, I couldn’t understand people like you—”
Cassie’s concerned look tightens as soon as I mention her.
“—I thought you were wasting time and were behind. But you were the ones living. while I was the one hating and missing out.” As she moved to speak, subconsciously, I grabbed her wrist. We both came to a halt before staring each other down. All I could hear was the faint sound of her breath hitching.
I let her go before we both could stare any longer. “Cassie, you didn’t just change my current reality, your presence alone was rewiring my brain completely.”