### **Chapter 13: The Verdict Beyond Law**
The classroom was silent, but Elle Hoods had been in silence before. It was the silence of conviction, of unspoken truths, of justice unacknowledged. Harvard Law had tried to make her prove her place, but she wasn't here to fit in. She was here to ask the questions they weren't ready for.
She stood before the panel now, final arguments ready—not just about precedent, but about the foundation of how justice was wielded. It wasn't enough to pick apart legal technicalities. It was time to hold the system accountable to something bigger than its own logic.
"The law treats crimes on a scale," she began, voice clear. "Degrees of wrongdoing. Mitigating circumstances. Intent versus consequence. But if law was truly about justice, it wouldn't be about comparison—it would be about responsibility."
The professor watched, waiting.
"We use the law to judge each other, to assign weight to our mistakes. But in the eyes of something greater—whether you believe in God, morality, or truth—honoring your mother and father is no less a commandment than 'Thou shalt not kill.' Yet we throw sins in each other's faces like some are more worthy of condemnation than others."
Preston Montgomery III frowned. "Are you arguing morality should dictate law?"
Elle shook her head. "I'm arguing law should recognize its limits. We pretend there's a righteous scale, where some failures weigh heavier than others. But breaking trust is breaking trust. Betrayal cuts the same, whether it's words or weapons."
She stepped forward, pressing the point home. "Justice isn't about deciding who deserves punishment most. It's about acknowledging that we are all—at some point—capable of failing each other. The real question is: what do we do with that failure?"
The professor nodded slowly. "And what do *you* propose?"
Elle exhaled. "That we stop pretending the system serves fairness when all it really serves is its own survival."
The panel exchanged glances. She had said what they weren't ready to hear, but silence wasn't denial. It was the beginning of recognition.
Elle had come here to challenge the system. And today, for the first time, it had *felt* it.
Harvard Law was no longer debating her presence. It was reckoning with it.
And that was how change began.