Abandoned to the Mafia, I Rose as the Don’s Most Trusted Lawyer Chapter 09
After I ended the livestream, George’s daughter ran into the conference room.
She pointed at the dark screen.
“Erin, who were those people? Why were they saying such awful things about you?”
I gently ruffled her hair.
“They’re people who did something wrong but refuse to face the consequences.”
The little girl nodded solemnly.
“Then they’re bad people, and you’re a good person,
Erin.”
I smiled.
Very few people in this world are always good, and very few are born evil.
Most of the time, people simply choose what they want to become.
Noah slapped a hand on the table.
“If they dare come after you again, I swear I’ll…”
I looked up at him.
He stopped immediately and corrected himself.
“I’ll have our attorney send them a formal
cease–and–desist letter.”
I nodded with approval.
“That’s real progress.”
My parents never contacted me again after that.
It wasn’t because they had finally begun to regret what they had done.
It was because Marcus personally visited their apartment.
Noah secretly told me about it much later.
That day, Marcus sat in their living room and placed a
folding knife on the coffee table between them.
“I don’t care what you did to Erin before. From today on, stay away from her. Harass her again, and I won’t
be sitting here talking to you.”
Mom was so terrified that she sank to the floor.
Dad couldn’t even form a complete sentence.
Claire hid in her bedroom and locked the door from the inside.
After that, they never appeared in my life again.
Over the next few years, I completed college and went on to law school.
Marcus, Noah, and George all attended my law school graduation.
The three of them sat in the front row wearing suits.
When the dean called my name, I walked onto the stage and accepted my diploma as one of the top graduates in my class.
Marcus was the first to stand and applaud, and his cheers were the loudest in the entire auditorium.
Noah let out a sharp whistle beside him and immediately received a glare from a nearby professor.
George’s daughter waved a handmade sign excitedly from side to side.
It read:
ERIN IS THE BEST!
I stood onstage as sunlight streamed through the high glass windows of the auditorium and settled over me.
Suddenly, I remembered being twelve years old.
The first time I stood in the sunlight on the balcony of my new apartment, I had cried until I could barely breathe.
Back then, I didn’t believe a safe, stable life could truly last.
A few months after graduation, I passed the bar and became a licensed attorney.
Marcus took all of us out to dinner to celebrate.
We went to the same restaurant we had visited after
my freshman convocation, and he reserved the same private dining room.
Noah had once again prepared a party popper.
The moment I opened the door, he shouted, “Congratulations! Our little lawyer is officially a real attorney!”
George’s daughter ran over and hugged me.
She said she wanted to become a lawyer someday too, so she could protect people who had no one else.
Marcus sat across from us, watching as we talked and celebrated.
Over the years, he had visibly grown older.
The scar on his chin had not changed, but the guarded look he once gave me was long gone.
The concern in his eyes was the kind a father gave his daughter.
I didn’t know whether that judgment was accurate.
Before meeting him, I had never truly known a father’s love.
“Marcus.”
I raised my glass.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
He had just lifted his wineglass when he glanced at the drink in front of me.
“No drinking tonight. Bring her a soda.”
The server quickly returned with a glass of soda.
Marcus nodded in satisfaction.
“Remember, if anyone ever pressures you to drink,
you get up and leave.”
I smiled and raised my glass again.
“All right. I’ll listen to you.”
Our glasses touched with a soft clink.
Outside the window, lights glowed in rows of apartment buildings and office towers.
In that moment, I finally understood that I had a home.
A home with Marcus, Noah, George, and George’s daughter.
The day my parents abandoned me to their debt collectors, I thought my life was over.
Only later did I understand that the day had not ended my life.
It had given me a chance to begin again.
From then on, I was no longer anyone’s unwanted daughter.
I was Erin Carter.
And my future belonged to me alone.