Why Remain Idle
Wyatt Riggs slept until noon. His fever had finally broken, but when he spoke, his voice was a rough, scratchy version of itself.
Avery Hayes, her face etched with worry, had gone to the cafeteria and brought him back some chicken broth. While he slowly sipped it, she finally asked him what had happened last night.
"It was a drug party," he said, his voice turning cold and sharp at the words. "And there were traffickers there."
He explained that he'd only planned on figuring out where Sienna Blackwood lived.
But instead of going home, she'd slipped into the basement of an apartment building.
He'd hidden in the corner of the stairwell, watching as a handful of other people followed her down, one by one.
They all looked shady right off the bat, so he decided to wait and see what was going on.
It turned out to be a much bigger deal than he'd expected.
Around midnight, a guy in a baseball cap showed up to deliver the 'goods.' Just before the basement door clicked shut behind him, Wyatt slapped an old-fashioned padlock on it, locking them all inside. Then he called the cops.
He hadn't left until he saw the squad cars pull up. But standing in that freezing stairwell for hours had taken its toll. The second he got back to his room, he'd collapsed.
"You didn't get spotted, did you?" Avery asked, her eyes searching his face.
Wyatt shook his head. "No one saw me."
Avery let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. She poured him a cup of warm water and set it on the nightstand next to his medicine. "Get some more rest. And don't forget to take that."
It was a good thing he hadn't been seen.
Tipping off the cops about a drug party was one thing, but getting tangled up with traffickers was a whole different level of dangerous.
Those guys were vicious, not the kind of people you messed with.
If they ever found out Wyatt was the one who'd ruined their deal, there was no telling what they'd do to get even.
After taking his temperature again and giving him a few more instructions, Avery headed back to her own dorm.
The Bar Exam was just around the corner, and that was the first real hurdle she had to clear. After that, she'd have to figure out her internship.
Becoming a lawyer wasn't as simple as just passing the test.
That was only step one. To actually practice, she'd have to intern at a law firm, complete the internship, submit a mountain of paperwork for her official license, and pass a final assessment.
Only then could she actually argue a case in court.
And she *had* to become a practicing attorney. It was the only way.
She'd given herself a three-year timeline to bankrupt the Sterling family, but she knew making them broke wasn't the same as making them pay.
Bankruptcy wouldn't be the end for a family like the Sterlings; they had the connections to bounce back.
What she really wanted was for Bryce Sterling to face consequences he couldn't buy his way out of.
She needed to get him, and the rest of them, into a courtroom and then into a prison cell.
On top of all that, there was her own murder case. She'd need to be a licensed attorney to even get a foot in the door on that investigation. The case had stalled completely. For the authorities to have made zero progress, it meant something, or someone, was blocking it.
And that just didn't make sense. The crime had happened right on the courthouse steps, a total slap in the face to the entire justice system.
Not even the President could get the court to look the other way on something like that.
And yet, the case was gathering dust. Whatever was holding it up was so powerful that even her mentor, Elias Thorne, couldn't get it moving.
That's why she had to find a way to get involved herself.
The problem was, she had no intention of quitting the entertainment industry.
The money and public influence she had as a celebrity were her best weapons against the Sterlings.
But she couldn't complete a law internship without leaving her career behind.
Back when this all started, she'd briefly thought about finding a firm to sponsor her on paper, but she quickly realized it wouldn't work.
To get your license, you needed a performance record, and no reputable firm would risk its neck to help her fake one.
*Forget it,* she thought, pushing the problem away. *One thing at a time.* First, pass the exam. Then she could worry about the rest.
At least when it came to the essay portion, she had an edge. After years working in the field and seeing real cases up close, her approach was worlds away from some fresh-faced graduate. She wasn't going to cram; she was just going to rest up and walk in there ready.
Meanwhile, after getting Avery's message last night, Dexter Reed had been on a high. He'd had his people monitoring the internet around the clock, just waiting for the news about Sienna Blackwood's drug bust to drop.
The payoff came fast. When he woke up, Sienna's name was all over the trending topics, right alongside the official police report.
She wasn't exactly an A-lister, but she wasn't a nobody, either.
And since the public has zero tolerance for celebrity drug use, the internet predictably went nuts.
Sienna herself probably never dreamed that the first time she'd trend after leaving Stellar Media would be for this.
Dexter struck while the iron was hot. As the online mob descended on Sienna, he hired trolls to start steering the conversation, shifting the blame from her to her agency, Daybreak Media.
He hadn't forgotten about the accident a year ago.
The police had ruled the elevator malfunction an accident due to a lack of evidence, but he knew better.
He'd almost died in that shaft, and Stellar Media had been in a slump ever since.
Meanwhile, the person behind it all had gotten away scot-free, spending the whole year gloating about their success, saying things like, "Some people just aren't cut out for this industry. See? They crashed and burned, didn't they?"
He wasn't about to let that slide. This was his chance to kick them while they were down, and if he didn't get his payback, he wouldn't be Dexter Reed.
The trolls went to work, and soon enough, people online started pointing fingers at Daybreak, wondering if their other stars were also on drugs.
The firestorm grew so big that even Raphael Valenti, a top-tier celebrity, got caught in the crossfire.
But his record was squeaky clean. Haters dug for all they were worth and came up with nothing.
Seeing things were getting out of hand, his manager had him take a drug test immediately, proving his innocence.
That move prompted other artists at Daybreak to scramble to do the same.
Whether they were all truly clean, of course, was anyone's guess.
The whole mess played out online for a full day.
Dexter knew he couldn't take down Daybreak with one scandal, but he could definitely make them hurt.
Their stock tanked, wiping out billions in market value overnight.
Even after other artists proved they were clean, it wasn't enough to stop the bleeding.
Avery was watching it all unfold. But what she found strange was that after stirring up all that trouble, Dexter just... stopped. He backed off completely, making no move to kick them while they were down. He didn't even try to buy up Daybreak's stock.
Not only did Stellar Media do nothing, but the Atlas Group didn't make a move either.
Avery was confused. From what she knew of Diana Marks and Julian Shaw, they wanted Stellar Media to be the undisputed king of the industry. This would have been the perfect time to buy up Daybreak's stock and seize control.
So why were they all just sitting on their hands?