After the Fall A Leap into a Stranger's Arms novel Chapter 363

“You…” Alice’s face twisted, her anger barely contained. Catherine wasn’t holding back anymore, not now that she had the upper hand.

Catherine turned away, but Alice wasn’t ready to let go. “Catherine, Shirley is your sister. You share the same blood. Don’t do something you’ll regret.”

Catherine felt a wave of disgust. She didn’t want to waste another second on this.

Alice’s voice sharpened as she followed after her. “If Shirley’s reputation is destroyed, it won’t just hurt her. It’ll ruin your father and the Blair family too. No one wants that kind of scandal. Your dad would never forgive you for this. You really need to think carefully.”

But Catherine had already made her way back to the Nexus Dynamics team, moving with purpose toward the courtroom.

Alice stood there, frozen. Since when did Catherine stop caring about the Blair family’s reputation? What had gotten into her?

She hurried to find her own seat and slipped inside.

Catherine took her place at the plaintiff’s table. Across from her, Shirley glared with so much hatred it felt like she could burn a hole right through her. Then, the doors opened again. Catherine glanced up and saw Nestor walking in, his assistant by his side.

Shirley’s eyes sparked with sudden hope. Nestor was here. Was he coming to help her? Was he on her side?

There were only two minutes left before the hearing started.

Shirley watched Nestor closely. His face was unreadable, cold. Even when he looked in her direction, there wasn’t a flicker of emotion.

She told herself it had to be disappointment. He was her father. Even if he looked stern, he was probably already thinking of ways to get her out of this mess.

That had to be it. Why else would he show up?

Waldo glanced at Shirley and Ted. He’d left everything about the evidence to them. In his mind, the worst that could happen was that Resonance AI would be ruined and Shirley would go down with it. He was already looking for a new project to replace it anyway.

Terrance stood up and began. He went over the points from the last hearing, then raised his voice for the big reveal. “According to the technical analysis, the early core technology of Resonance AI, which Shirley controls, is ninety-eight percent identical to Catherine’s core. This is clear evidence of plagiarism, misappropriation, and copyright infringement.”

Shirley’s voice broke as she tried to fight back. “No, that’s not true. You faked the evidence.”

“Shirley, we have a witness recording that proves this was your original data.” The courtroom filled with the sound of a recording.

“Your Honor, my name is Talbot. I’m the lead tech on Resonance AI for Shirley. I can confirm that what we submitted is the unaltered original data. Shirley ordered us to change the code, but I refused to do anything illegal.”

Shirley’s face turned ghostly pale. She hadn’t expected even her own people to side with Catherine and stand up to testify against her.