People Known in a Past Life
After wiring the money and sending instructions to her contact, Avery turned off her phone. She walked out of the airport with a quick, determined stride, her suitcase rolling behind her.
Avery didn't feel the least bit guilty about using a few shady methods to drag the Sterling family through the mud.
What happened to the real Dr. Hayes was a direct result of Bryce Sterling's arrogance.
As far as the public knew, it was just another hospital incident, no one had died.
So no matter what the court decided, the most Bryce would get was three years in prison.
He only had the nerve to get violent in a hospital because his family had been coddling him his entire life.
Now that she was living in Dr. Hayes's body, she was the beneficiary of this second chance.
And with that came a duty to get justice for the woman whose life she'd taken over.
But with the law on the Sterlings' side and not enough evidence on hers, getting that kind of justice through the usual channels was impossible.
She had no choice but to take a different path, one that would bring down not just Bryce, but the entire family that created him.
New York City turned cold much earlier than Westlake. The dry wind crept into her collar, and the cold air stung her lungs with every breath, freezing away her stray thoughts until all that was left was a sharp, clear focus.
Avery had lived in New York before; she knew JFK like the back of her hand.
She followed the familiar route through the terminal, heading for the taxi stand to grab a cab to the University of Finance and Economics.
Unlike other tests, Bar Exam locations were chosen by the Judicial Council based on a school's computer labs and administration.
She remembered taking the Bar the first time at the New York City Institute of Technology; this year, it had been moved.
She'd just stepped out of the airport and was heading for the taxi stand when a loud, clear voice shouted, "Doctor Hayes, over here!"
The voice was high and full of genuine excitement. Avery looked up and spotted him instantly, Leo Foster, standing on the railing of the waiting area, waving like a madman as if he was afraid she'd miss him. At six-foot-one, and on his tiptoes, he towered over the crowd.
Stunned for a second, Avery felt a small smile touch her lips as she pushed her suitcase toward him.
"Ha, knew I'd find you!" Leo planted a hand on the railing and vaulted right over it, grabbing the suitcase from her with a laugh.
"Did you really come all this way just to pick me up?" Avery asked.
"Yeah," Leo said. "Dexter told me yesterday your flight was getting in this afternoon, so he told me to time it right and come grab you."
"That's...thoughtful of him," Avery said.
When Dexter Reed had asked about her travel plans, she'd figured he'd be in touch, but this was fast.
Sending someone to pick her up from the airport...
Was Stellar Media really that desperate for talent?
She was a nobody. Even if they saw her as a potential star, this level of attention felt a little over the top.
"Have you booked a hotel?" Leo asked. "Need me to get you one?"
"It's already booked, right next to the university. Can you just take me there?"
They chatted as they walked around the railing and headed for the parking garage. A sharp, black SUV was parked up ahead with two men leaning against it: Zachary Bell and Ethan Rhodes. They were shamelessly sizing her up, the woman Julian himself had sent Leo to retrieve.
The dim garage lighting softened the lines of her face, and a well-fitted beige trench coat hinted at her slender figure. She carried herself with a quiet confidence that made it easy to see why Dexter and Julian were so eager to sign her.
"These are my childhood friends, Zachary Bell and Ethan Rhodes," Leo said as they reached the SUV.
Avery gave them a polite nod, but her eyes lingered on Ethan Rhodes for a beat too long before she slipped into the car.
That one look sent a jolt through her, a shock that seemed to span both of her lifetimes. Small world. She never thought she'd run into someone she knew the second she landed in New York.
Ethan Rhodes. He was her old friend Veronica Warner's ex. Two years ago, she'd even gone with her mentor to help Ethan's sister, Chloe, with her divorce case. Veronica had been the one to introduce them.
Her mentor, Elias Thorne, was a partner at Apex Law Firm and the supervising attorney who had taken her under his wing.
He was the reason she'd been able to handle her own cases right out of her internship.
He was also the only person in New York she'd been truly close to.
She figured he was probably the one who'd arranged her funeral.
The sight of Ethan dredged up a flood of memories from her life as a lawyer, and a dull ache started to throb at her temples.
This whole situation was just so bizarre.
She could use this face, Dr. Hayes's face, to take on the Hayes family, but she couldn't use it to see her own friends and colleagues.
"So, Dr. Hayes," Leo began, turning the steering wheel and pulling out of the parking lot, "I checked, and the exam isn't for two days. That area by the university is kind of dead. Why don't you stay downtown for a couple of days? We could all grab dinner tonight."
Leo's voice pulled Avery from her thoughts. She tilted her head, a small smile playing on her lips. "Didn't we just see each other a few days ago? Stop beating around the bush, Leo. Does Dexter want me to sign with Stellar or not?"
This rich kid wore his heart on his sleeve; you could see his angle a mile away.
She remembered hearing about him on set, the classic rich-kid bully throwing his weight around, complaining about the housing, trying to poach Owen Bowen's makeup artist.
If she hadn't gotten to know him, she never would've guessed he was...
this. So guileless. She had no idea how his father, the head of an industry leader like Foster Fire Safety, had managed to raise such a goofball.
Weren't they worried he'd run the family business into the ground?
Leo flushed under her knowing smile and laughed awkwardly. "Hey, no fun calling me out like that."
"Alright, fine. Dexter did ask me to feel you out," he admitted. "It's still early. Wanna go check out the Stellar Media office? It's not far from here."
From the back seat, Zachary jumped in smoothly, seeing Leo had already blown his cover.
"Yeah, you should. The setup at Stellar is great, and the company has solid resources. The big agencies are all politics. If you sign with them as a newcomer, you'll be waiting in line forever. That won't happen at Stellar. They only have a few artists, so there's no fighting over who gets what."
"Exactly," Ethan chimed in, resting an arm on the back of the seat. "For a newcomer, trying to make it on your own is a pipe dream. You need a company with a professional team managing things if you want a stable career."
"And don't buy into the hype about stars with their own studios," Zachary added. "They all started those *after* they got famous. Besides, most of those 'independent' studios are still backed by a major agency. Without that platform and those resources, a studio is just an empty shell."
Avery listened to them tag-team her, then looked from Zachary to Ethan. A knowing glint appeared in her eye. "A major agency," she repeated thoughtfully. "A year ago, Stellar Media was one of those too, wasn't it?"