“But since you’re being so sweet, I’ll have her give you all the night off. Let’s celebrate together at dinner.”
Amid the cheering, only Daniel stood up for me.
“Some people really have no shame—cheating is bad enough, but flaunting it so openly? That’s truly shameless.”
His sarcasm clearly struck a nerve with Jason, who began posting manipulative comments to play the victim.
I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Opening the chat, I realized I had already been quietly kicked out of the group.
A second later, Daniel called me.
“Ethan, this Jason Reed is way out of line! Why don’t you just make your marriage public and put him in his place?”
Had this been earlier, I might have agreed.
But now, I had already made up my mind to cut ties with Sophia. I had no intention of getting myself tangled in more drama.
“He’s just a clown, not worth the effort. But Daniel, defending me like that will only make Sophia give you a hard time again.”
I said again because Sophia had opposed his hiring from the start.
When the firm was short-staffed, Daniel had just applied, and I wanted to bring him in. But Sophia insisted otherwise.
To my surprise, the usually indifferent Sophia Miller flat-out refused, insisting that people from prestigious schools were nothing but bookworms, and that the firm should hire someone “more capable.”
And by “capable,” she meant Jason Reed, a graduate from a third-rate college who hadn’t even passed the bar exam.
I tried reasoning with her, but she jabbed her finger at me and scolded:
“Don’t think I don’t know—you just want to abuse your position to bring in your own student!”
“I’ll tell you what I hate the most: useless hires who get in through connections. The firm isn’t your personal fiefdom—you don’t get to decide everything!”
In the end, I had no choice but to hire Jason along with my student.
But once Jason joined Parker & Associates Law Firm, he couldn’t even draft the most basic legal documents. All he did was trail after Sophia all day.
It was obvious who the real “useless connection” was.
Yet Sophia coddled him relentlessly. To get him promoted as quickly as possible, she even went so far as to steal credit from others.
When I spoke up about it, she started giving me the cold shoulder.
At the time, I was busy with a high-stakes case, so she couldn’t go after me directly. Instead, she began targeting Daniel Scott, my assistant.