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"Callahan hit on me."

My first reaction was shock. Pure, unadulterated shock. The man I had looked up to and studied under since my first day at Harvard had…

Then, anger, as it sank in. This wasn't about him. This was about what did to her. He had kissed her, violated her in a sense. Elle. MyElle. But what made me the angriest was what he had told her with that kiss, what he thought of her…what he had made her believe.

After all she had worked for an accomplished since first getting to Harvard, one jackass move had undermined all of her confidence and self-worth. I could hardly understand it. How could she not know better? She wasn't just beautiful. I mean, she was, but she was more than that. She was brilliant and honest and kind and…Elle. Altogether Elle. A girl so amazing that I had fallen for her. Hard. I loved her.

Love…

That's when my stomach dropped and the fear hit. She was leaving. Maybe I should have been more concerned about the fact that we couldn't win this trial without her, or even just the fact that she was on her way to being an amazing lawyer and leaving now would deprive the country of one of the shrewdest legal minds of our generation, but all I could think about at that moment was that she was leaving. She was leaving me. And I was too late…I had lost my chance.

Unless…

It was all I could do. I wasn't sure it would work, but I had to try. I couldn't just let her go. I couldn't lose her.

So, despite my fear of rejection, I had to try to tell her what Callahan and Warner were both too stupid to see: just how much she was worth.

Especially to me.