### **Chapter 9: The Crossroads**
Harvard Law thrived on precedent. Elle Hoods thrived on disruption.
The trial had ended, but the echoes remained. Students whispered about her arguments, professors dissected her critiques, and the system—however rigid—had felt her presence like a fault line threatening its foundation.
It was late when she found herself standing in front of the library's towering shelves, scanning cases that had defined legal history. Each ruling was a monument to tradition, each precedent a reflection of power. But hidden between the lines, buried in footnotes and forgotten defenses, was something else—proof that resistance had always existed.
She pulled out a book, flipping through passages on legal reform.
"You're still at it?" Preston Montgomery III's voice broke the quiet.
Elle didn't turn. "What's the point of winning a case if the system stays the same?"
Preston sighed. "You talk like the law is a battlefield."
Elle finally looked up, expression unreadable. "It is. You just don't know what it's like to be on the losing side."
Preston hesitated.
For the first time, Elle saw something unfamiliar in his eyes—uncertainty. Doubt.
She smirked. "You should start reading the cases that didn't make history. That's where the real law lives."
Without another word, she walked away, leaving him standing there, surrounded by books that had shaped a system he had never questioned.
Harvard had given her the tools. Now, Elle Hoods had to decide how to use them.
And she was just getting started.