Leave me alone. A flash of anger shot through Constance as she confronted Jack's pleading eyes. She knew where this was heading. Jack would convince her to take this creepy case, and she'd be forced to save another penniless pervert. The guy was probably guilty and would lose his job as principal. Then she would make a bargain for some community service to get him off, and he would spend the rest of his life marked as a sex offender. Hopefully, the case wouldn't go to trial, because that would mean even more publicity. And the public sure loved to hear about the latest exploits of the Westerley heiress.
Constance sensed no joy right now, and the sooner someone else took the case, the better. "What about Matt?" She pointed to the quiet public defender who was trying to avoid eye contact with everyone.
Matt Belsen grinned at Jack. "Will you take me to dinner at Top of the Park?" He seemed willing, so Constance took the folder from Phil and went to give it to Matt.
What is this? As soon as she grabbed the folder, a sensation washed over her. Like a cool breeze blowing against her skin, as if some of the pages in the folder were fanning her. But they weren't.
She stopped and looked down at the folder, shifting it from one hand to the other. Now her other hand tingled and felt cool. She looked at both of her hands, trying to figure out what was going on. Maybe she was dreaming.
A sudden sense of lightness enveloped her entire body. A sense of calm. A sense of something that she didn't even dare to put into words. But the words floated to the surface in her mind, anyway. The sense she was feeling was joy.
Constance looked at the name on the case folder: Nicholas Veseli. Poor twisted man. The last thing she expected to do was defend him.
I have to do this. Suddenly, Constance knew she was going to take this case. Perhaps she had to do it to redeem herself for that boy who committed suicide. To restore balance in the universe. Anything was possible. Constance refused to rule out forces at work beyond her limited understanding. Regardless of the reason, she had to take this case.
Serena's experiment was about to make her do a very foolish thing. If Jack Cummings was afraid of the media blowback from defending a sex offender, imagine how bad it would get when the Westerley heiress took the job. Her rational mind wondered how she could feel any kind of joy from defending this man.