### **Chapter 3: Cross-Examination**
The problem with Harvard Law wasn't the law. It was the people who thought they owned it.
Elle Hoods had seen the same faces before—judges who ruled with bias disguised as precedent, attorneys who used rhetoric as a shield for privilege, and juries who believed justice was synonymous with tradition. Here, they called themselves scholars, but to Elle, they were just another courtroom panel, evaluating her existence before she even spoke.
She didn't need their approval. She needed proof.
The case study on the projector was a contract dispute—straightforward, clean. On paper, both sides had agreed to the terms. In reality, one had power, and the other had desperation. Elle scanned the legal arguments, listening to students debate technicalities as if the law existed in isolation.
She waited.
Then, she raised her hand.
"The question isn't what was written in the contract," she said. "It's *who had the choice to walk away from it.* If one side had no alternative, then it wasn't an agreement—it was a legal trap."
The professor adjusted his glasses. "Miss Hoods, you're suggesting the contract is invalid?"
Elle didn't blink. "I'm suggesting that legality doesn't equal morality. And if the law ignores that, then it's just institutionalized coercion."
A murmur spread through the room. The professor exhaled, glancing at the syllabus as though it could save him from the debate.
Preston Montgomery III, always eager to prove his superiority, leaned forward. "But the law isn't about personal circumstance. It's about precedent."
Elle turned to him. "Precedent is just the story that gets told the most. That doesn't make it right."
The professor cleared his throat. "That's quite the philosophical stance, Miss Hoods."
Elle smiled. "Survival isn't philosophy. It's evidence."
Harvard wasn't ready for her. But she was ready for it.