And if we lose, then at least we’ll lose honestly. That’s worth something. Sarah was quiet for a moment. Lucas, can I ask you something? Why did you really take this case? I know what you said in court about standing up for someone who needed help, but there’s something else I can tell. Lucas looked at the files spread across his table, thought about the question.

7 years ago, I was part of a legal team that defended a pharmaceutical company. They’d hidden dangerous side effects of a medication. People died. We knew about it. Not at first, but eventually we knew. And we won anyway. We were that good. When it was over, I had a corner office and a partnership track, and I couldn’t sleep at night.

A few months later, my wife died in a car accident. And I realized that life was too short to spend it defending people who hurt others for profit. So, I walked away. But walking away didn’t fix what I’d done. It just meant I stopped making it worse. And now, now I have a chance to use what I learned, all that corporate litigation experience, to stop the kind of thing I used to facilitate.

Maybe that’s redemption. Or maybe it’s just trying to balance the scales a little. I don’t know, but it feels right. It is right, Sarah said. Get some sleep. We have two more days. Lucas hung up, but he didn’t sleep. Instead, he kept reading, kept making notes, kept building the case in his mind. By the time sunlight started creeping through his windows, he had a strategy.

It was risky, aggressive, and required perfect execution, but it might work. It had to work. On day six, Lucas met with Evelyn and Sarah to review their hearing preparation. They gathered in the conference room at Aqua Verde, the space that had become their war room, and Lucas walked them through his plan. Meridian’s motion for summary judgement rests on three pillars, he said, drawing on the whiteboard.

One, that Evelyn had access to their research. Two, that the similarities between systems prove theft. Three, that their expert witness confirms this conclusion. We’re going to knock down all three pillars. How? Evelyn asked. Pillar one is actually our friend. Yes, you had access to their research, but Web’s testimony shows that their research during that time was preliminary and actually influenced by your published work.

Access doesn’t equal theft. It equals exposure to the truth that your innovations came first. Pillar 2 falls apart when we force their expert to be specific. He can’t identify unique proprietary elements because there aren’t any. The similarities he cites are industry standard approaches. Pillar 3 collapses when we bring Webb in to contradict their narrative.

Sarah looked worried. Lucas, I reached out to Web. He’s willing to testify, but he’s nervous. Meridian’s lawyers have been pressuring him. They’ve threatened legal action if he says anything that violates his NDA. What NDA? The one all Meridian employees sign. Standard confidentiality agreement. Lucas felt a flicker of anger.

They’re using NDAs to silence witnesses about their own misconduct. That’s exactly the kind of abuse that makes cases like this necessary. We’ll need to address that with the judge, possibly get a protective order. Web’s testimony is too important to lose. There’s something else, Evelyn said quietly. I got a call yesterday from Meridian’s CEO, James Thornton.

He wanted to make one final settlement offer. Lucas set down his marker and he offered to drop the lawsuit entirely if I agree to sell Aquaverie to Meridian for half its current valuation. No admission of wrongdoing, no damages. Just sell the company and walk away. That’s a significant concession from their previous demands.

It’s also a trap. If I sell now, they get exactly what they wanted, control of the technology, and they can spin the settlement as vindication of their claims. Plus, the sale price is deliberately lowball. It’s designed to look generous while actually being insulting. Lucas studied her face. Are you tempted? 2 months ago, I might have been.

The legal fees, the stress, watching my company struggle while this lawsuit hangs over everything. It’s been brutal. But now, she shook her head. Now I’m angry. They tried to intimidate me into surrendering. They got to my attorney. They’re using the legal system as a weapon to steal something I built. Even if we lose on Tuesday, even if this destroys everything I’ve worked for, I’m not giving them the satisfaction of walking away. Good, Lucas said.

Because we’re not going to lose. The confidence in his voice surprised even himself. But he meant it. Somewhere during the long nights of preparation, the fear had transformed into something else, not certainty. He’d been a lawyer too long to believe in certainty, but conviction, a sense that the truth was on their side, and if he did his job well enough, the truth would be enough.

That night, Lucas had dinner with Nenah at Jeppes. Their Friday tradition maintained despite everything. She looked tired, exams at school, staying with friends, worrying about him, even though she tried to hide it. But she smiled when he slid into their booth. “So,” she said, “Big day on Tuesday. Big day on Tuesday. Are you ready? Lucas thought about that question.

Was he ready? A week ago, he’d been a carpenter. Now he was about to walk into a courtroom and face one of the most formidable corporate litigators in the state. Ready seemed like a strong word. I’m as ready as I can be, he said finally. I’ve done everything I know how to do. The rest is up to the judge. And you, Nina pointed out, how you present the case, how you handle their lawyer, that matters, right? It does.

Then you’ll be great because you’re good at this, Dad. You always were. You just forgot for a while. I didn’t forget. I chose to do something else. But now you’re choosing this, and I think it’s the right choice. Nah paused, picking at her pizza. Mom would think so, too. She always said you were happiest when you were fighting for something that mattered. Lucas felt his throat tighten.

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