Chapter 1

Twenty years ago, my dad was in a car accident.

My mom, a top-tier lawyer, used her entire fortune and all her legal expertise to win the case for the culprit.

All because the culprit was the man she loved but couldn't have.

Later, that man was acquitted and released, while my dad died.

Twenty years later, I became the "Ironclad Lawyer," a name that struck fear into the hearts of many in the legal community.

A man knelt outside my firm, begging someone to take his wife's hit-and-run case.

The perpetrator brazenly boasted that no one in Evergreen City would dare touch his wife’s case because his mother was a legal titan.

I flipped open the familiar, sickening family photo.

With a cold sneer, I slammed the retainer agreement onto the table.

“I’ll take this case.”

In the emergency surgery ward’s hallway.

A middle-aged man stepped forward.

“Mr. Miller, thank you for agreeing to help us…”

He was the husband of the injured delivery driver, whose leg was broken.

I didn't speak.

I looked down, flipping through the perpetrator’s medical records and the synchronized police accident report in my hands.

One hundred and forty miles per hour, in a city zone.

A few steps away, the VIP room door was ajar.

I turned my head slightly.

On the hospital bed, the young perpetrator lay with his eyes closed.

His face was pale.

But the curve of his eye socket and brow bone.

They were exactly like that person's.

Footsteps interrupted my thoughts.

A woman in a high-end tailored suit walked out of the room.

She was Ethan Campbell’s fiancée.

She glanced at the unsigned settlement agreement in my hand.

Her face hardened.

“Two hundred thousand dollars.”

“To hire you as my litigation lawyer. What do you say?”

I pulled my gaze away from the hospital bed.

I took out my old, rusted fountain pen from my pocket.

My thumb twirled the cap around and around.

“Ma’am.”

I looked at her.

“He’s facing charges for a hit-and-run.”

The woman paused, then let out a cold laugh.

She turned and gestured to the bodyguard behind her.

A black briefcase was placed on the floor, its lid springing open.

It was full of neatly stacked bundles of cash.

The elevator at the end of the hallway chimed.

The law firm’s director, Mr. Harrison, ran out, drenched in sweat.

He didn't even look at me, heading straight for the woman.

He bowed profusely.

“Ms. Davis, please calm down first. Alex isn’t thinking straight today.”

He turned, grabbing my arm, and practically dragged me to the corner of the hallway.

“Alex, are you trying to drag the firm down with you?”

I didn’t move.

He pointed at the VIP room, his hand trembling.

“Do you know who’s lying in that bed?”

He swallowed hard.

“His mother is Eleanor Vance.”

“A titan in the entire Evergreen City legal community.”

“How many people in law enforcement and the judiciary have attended her lectures?”

The director panted, continuing to pressure me.

“The Campbell family naming you is giving you an out.”

He patted the briefcase.

“A poor person’s leg isn’t worth much, but the Campbell family’s reputation cannot be tarnished.”

He stared into my eyes.

“This is your livelihood; don’t jeopardize your career.”

The woman approached.

She didn't even glance at the director, staring only at me.

“Professor Vance has connections everywhere.”

She lifted her chin, her voice dripping with contempt.

“My fiancé merely had an unfortunate run-in with some nobody from the lower class.”

She kicked aside the crumpled delivery bag nearby.

“Are you really going to trade her broken leg for the Campbells' humiliation?”

“Tell me, who gave you the guts?”

The hallway fell silent.

The delivery driver’s husband sat paralyzed on the floor, not even daring to cry out.

I slowly lifted my eyelids.

My hands were in my pockets.

“Director.”

“Legal fees can buy services.”

I walked back to the briefcase.

“But they can’t buy my conscience.”

The woman’s face completely fell.

The director gasped.

I raised my hand, pointing towards the VIP room.

“No matter how powerful your connections, they can’t absolve him.”

“No matter how much money, it can’t reattach that man’s leg.”

“As for the Campbell family’s reputation.”

I threw the report in my hand back onto the pile of cash.

“What does that have to do with me?”

I moved closer to the woman, staring into her eyes.

“I’m going to make sure that driver goes to jail, for the sake of that delivery worker.”

The muscles in the woman’s face twitched twice.

She stared at me, grinding her teeth.

“Fine.”

“Alex Miller, I hope you truly understand who you’ve just offended.”

*Bang.*

She spun around and slammed the VIP room door shut.

The director’s face was ashen.

He pointed at me, unable to squeeze out a complete sentence for a long time.

“You… you’re finished!”

He stomped his foot.

“You’ve offended the Campbells; you’ll never make it in Evergreen City!”

The director scrambled into the elevator.

Only I and the delivery driver’s husband were left in the hallway.

I stood rooted to the spot.

My hand in my pocket, gripping that old fountain pen.

Offending the powerful.

In their eyes, that was a dead end.

But they didn’t know.

I had been waiting for this opportunity for twenty long years.

I pulled out my phone.

“Grandma, it’s me. That thing… you can bring it now.”