She was now a licensed attorney practicing in Atlanta. "She's 26," Latimore said. "She's been building her practice for 2 years. She's cautious, and she has every right to be. That NDA has teeth, and Hector Walters' lawyers made sure she knew it. " She paused.
"I found her last week. I reached out. She agreed to listen. " Zoe was very still. "What does that mean? Agreed to listen? " "It means she hasn't said no. " Latimore set down her cup.
"It means there's a door that isn't closed yet. But I want to be honest with you. I can't promise you what's behind it. She's scared. She has reasons to be scared that are legitimate and that I respect.
"How much time do we have? " "9 days until your hearing. " The number sat between them. 9 days was not a lot. 9 days was also not nothing. And Zoe had learned from Robert that the calculation of what was possible in a given window of time was almost always more generous than it first appeared, provided you used every hour of it. "What do you need from me? " Zoe asked.
Latimore looked at her for a moment. The kind of look that is also a measure, that is checking something. Whatever she found appeared to satisfy her. "Stay clean," she said. "No public statements, no forum posts, no reactions to whatever they put up next. " She held up a finger.
"Stay visible. Go to class. Eat in the dining hall. Don't disappear. Don't give them a narrative where you looked guilty by hiding. " A second finger.
"And let me work. " Zoe nodded. Latimore stood, picked up her cup, moved toward the door. She paused with her hand on the frame and looked back. Your grandfather, she said. Robert Oakerson.
Something moved briefly in her expression. Not quite a smile. Something quieter than that. He was a good man. The best kind.
The kind who did important things without needing anyone to know about it. Zoe looked up sharply. You knew him? But Latimore had already stepped into the hallway, pulling the door closed behind her with a soft, definitive click. Zoe sat with her coffee going cold in her hands and the question hanging unanswered in the quiet room.
Six days before the hearing, Marcus Fincher made a decision. Zoe found out about it the same way the rest of campus did. A link dropped into a group chat she'd been added to without asking, followed immediately by 17 messages in quick succession, each one a variation of did you see this? And oh my god, and he actually did it. She clicked the link.