Chapter 67: Reaching the Family Lawyers

Emerald’s POV

I spent most of Sunday going through everything I had gathered about Mercer Technologies before finally deciding to contact the Hugo family lawyers handling my lawsuits against Kelvin and Maya.

I had spoken to them before, but this time, I wanted the complete picture.

The call lasted much longer than I expected.

They told me about their recent visit to Mercer Technologies and their conversation with Kelvin. From everything they described, Kelvin had been surprisingly confident. He had not appeared nervous, intimidated, or even particularly concerned about the lawsuits.

That part bothered me. Kelvin had become far too arrogant.

But as I listened to the lawyers explain his reaction, another thought occurred to me.

If Kelvin had actually participated in framing me, why would he be so confident when confronted by my family’s lawyers?

Wouldn’t he be more cautious? Wouldn’t he at least show some concern about the possibility of being exposed?

I kept that thought to myself as the lawyers continued. Then they told me something that changed my entire perspective.

"Miss Hugo, we have traced most of the evidence connecting the people involved in the fabrication of the evidence against you."

I straightened in my chair. "What did you find?"

"Maya Fox appears to have contacted the people who doctored the voice recordings and manipulated the chat records. We also traced the people involved with the CCTV footage."

My fingers tightened around my phone. "So you have evidence connecting Maya to them?"

"Yes."

I released a slow breath. That wasn’t entirely unexpected. I had suspected Maya from the very beginning.

"What about the payments?" I inquired. This was the most important part.

There was a brief pause at the other end before the lawyer’s voice came up again. "The payments made to those individuals came from Kelvin Mercer’s bank account."

Instantly, I frowned. "Kelvin’s account?" I queried, genuinely confused. To my surprise, he confirmed it.

"Yes."

That complicated things.

I leaned back in my chair and stared at the ceiling. There were two possibilities that immediately came to mind.

Kelvin could have authorized those payments without knowing exactly what Maya was doing with the money. Or Maya could have gained access to his banking information and used his account without his knowledge.

If Kelvin truly had nothing to do with framing me, then perhaps Maya had used him without his knowledge.

Either way, I wasn’t interested in feeling sorry for him. He had made his choices.

I wasn’t going to waste my time wondering how he would react when he eventually discovered what Maya had done.

"What about the other evidence?" I asked.

The lawyers went through everything they had uncovered, including communications, financial records, and evidence related to the manipulated materials.

By the time the conversation ended, I felt considerably more confident.

We had enough. The evidence was strong enough that Kelvin couldn’t simply brush aside my family’s claims anymore.

And if Michael was right about using the lawsuits as leverage, then I finally had something substantial to work with.

Three per cent.

I was going to get my three per cent of Mercer Technologies.

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Monday morning was here before I knew it.

I arrived for class and took my usual seat. As I settled, I found myself remembering Saturday morning at Professor King’s condo.

Or rather, Michael’s condo.

I still wasn’t used to thinking of him simply as Michael. He had specifically told me to call him Michael whenever we were in private, but sitting in his classroom made it difficult to separate the two versions of him in my mind.

Here, he was still Professor King. Outside here or at his condo, he was Michael.

I wasn’t sure how long it would take before I stopped finding that distinction strange.

A few minutes later, Michael walked into the classroom with a stack of papers in his hands.

The moment I saw them, I remembered the test he had announced two weeks ago.

He placed the papers on the lectern and looked around the room. "As I mentioned two weeks ago, we will begin today’s class with the test."

A few students immediately sat up straighter while others quietly put away the materials they had been reviewing.

He began distributing the papers. When mine reached me, I glanced through the questions.

They were fairly easy.

I still took my time answering them because the fact that I knew the material didn’t mean I should be careless. I went through each question carefully and reviewed my answers.

Exactly thirty minutes later, Michael announced that the time was up. Everyone stopped writing.

He walked between the rows and collected the papers himself before returning to the front of the classroom. Once all the papers had been gathered, he placed them on the lectern and began the lecture.

The class proceeded normally.

Near the end of the lecture, he asked the class two questions. One of the students stood and began answering the first one.

Right then, Elias took the liberty of leaning slightly towards me. "What did you put for question four?"

I turned towards him, already preparing to answer. But before I could say anything, I felt Michael’s gaze.

My eyes instinctively moved towards him. He was looking directly at me.

Our eyes met for a second longer than necessary before he turned his attention back to the student answering his question.

I frowned slightly. I couldn’t understand why I suddenly felt as though he was displeased with me.

Perhaps I was imagining it. Either way, I decided not to let chatting with Elias during class distract me.

I returned my attention to the lecture and remained focused until he finally concluded the class. Only after he left did I turn towards Elias. He was already looking at me.

"So," he said, "are you going to tell me what you answered?"

I couldn’t help smiling. "You’re still thinking about that?"

"Of course."

I shook my head and began packing my things. "Fine. I will tell you."

And just like that, my attention shifted away from Michael to Elias.