1. It always ended the same way. A chair is dragged from across the room and a certain orange-haired defense attorney plops down on the wooden surface, the back of the chair strangely facing forward, as Athena sits down in a completely unladylike manner. The woman on the other side of the desk tries to work for a good few minutes but to be honest, who can survive eyes staring into your soul while you have to concentrate on stabbing people with a pocket knife?
2.  
3. That sentence would sound terrible if Iskra Themis wasn't a defense attorney working on a case that was centered on, you guessed it, someone getting stabbed with a sharp and deadly pocket knife.
4.  
5. “Athena.” Iskra seethed out, exhaling loudly as her eyes left the stack of unsigned but already wrinkled papers. “What is it this time?” she asked, her fingernails banging out a rhythm on the wooden surface.
6. “I hate this.” Athena deadpanned in place of a logical answer. Iskra raised her eyebrows.
7. “Hate what? This case? Me too, don’t worry.”
8. “No, not the case. The atmosphere in this office.”
9.  
10. The said office was quiet. It was maybe 5 PM, and the sun began slowly setting, the traffic behind the window growing in volume as white-collar workers rushed back home to their husbands, wives kids and/or pets. Well, who cares where they come from and where they go, they are loud, and they are here. Frankly, after being stuck in one place for the last six hours, the constant buzz and yelling were starting to give Iskra a headache, no, scratch that, a major migraine.
11.  
12. “I mean, you like Apollo, right?” Athena waved her hands around frantically, trying to illustrate her message. “Why not just tell him? The situation right now is so tense here, it’s killing me daily-”
13. Iskra choked on the single sip of coffee she decided to drink in the meantime. With tears in her eyes, she waved her hand in front of Athena’s face as if begging for help and trying to commit murder at the same.
14.  
15. “What. The hell. Are you talking about.” Iskra wiped the tears from her eyes as she tried to regain stable breathing and basic bodily functions. Athena just grinned, seemingly unmoved by her friend almost dying, and propped her chin on her hands, her brows rising at the reaction Iskra had to her words.
16. “Come on~ No one knows you as I do, and I am most definitely not blind, because anyone with eyes with even the slightest functionality can see the stares you give him everywhere.” she sighed, waving her hand in front of her face in frustration. Iskra blushed, suddenly nervous and extremely self-aware of the aforementioned stares.
17.  
18. “I don’t believe you,” she muttered, the paper in front of her suddenly so interesting that she couldn’t lift her face and face her, now giggling like a madman, friend. “What gave you the idea that I like him in the first place? I don’t believe you have any evidence that can prove these ‘stares’, am I wrong?” she spat out words at the speed of a machine gun, most likely trying to gain confidence in her own words.
19. Athena knew that look. It was the courtroom look, the one Iskra would force on her face when faced with an onslaught of facts from the prosecution. Iskra was being cornered, and Athena was going to use that single moment of being unsure to gain what she wanted - the truth.
20.  
21. And with that thought on her mind, she shot up from her seat like a bullet, and without a second thought, she stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind herself with enough force to let the photo hanging on the wall crook ever so slightly. The office was once again, pleasantly quiet.
22. The smell of coffee, the afternoon buzz, the ticking of the grandfather clock - Iskra could finally return to work, and maybe, just maybe, wrap her research early and clock into her bed early. With the number of papers on her desk, however, a full eight hours of sleep felt like a distant, unachievable dream.
23.  
24. She turned her eyes back to the paper she was studying before she was so rudely interrupted, and immediately a wave of disgust returned, the grip on the mechanical pencil tightening ever so slightly.
25.  
26.  
27. Iskra hated cases like this one - astonishingly cruel, mindless, violent, heartless. A child was brutally murdered on his way home from school, his body half-buried in the nearby swamp. No DNA was found on the corpse or the victim's belongings, which obviously took murder with an intent of robbery off the list. The murder weapon was a pocket knife - multiple stabs all over the child’s body delivered a painful and long death.
28. Iskra bit down on the rubber attached to the end of her pen. She worked on a few cases that were as brutal as this one - there was one in which a woman got her head cut cleanly off, “the man with a thousand bullet wounds”, that one person who was found out to have swallowed a crate-full of razors, but this? This took the cake for Iskra. To take a child’s innocence and drag it through the mud is the most heinous crime one could commit.
29.  
30. Iskra’s teeth cleaved straight through the rubber as her mind raced from point to point. The defendant is the child’s mother, Ann Noin. She was registered on the security cameras in a store a mere 2 minutes away from where the child was buried. According to the witness statements, she purchased gloves and yogurt. Assuming that the yogurt was used as it was intended, as a snack, the star of the show were the gloves.
31.  
32. Suddenly hyper-aware of the taste of rubber in her mouth, Iskra quickly took it out of her mouth and threw it into the trash can, mourning the loss of a perfectly fine pencil tip. Something fell down with a thud behind the door to the corridor, and she prayed that Athena didn’t knock over Charlie again, because cleaning up the mess left afterward was most definitely not in her time schedule for the day. Probably not even that week. Iskra thought for a moment if she should call out and ask Athena what’s wrong, but before she could even open her mouth, the door slammed open, and a very satisfied looking Athena waltzed into the room, holding a book under her arm.
33.  
34. “What-”
35. “Look at this, ye of small faith!”
36.  
37. And with that, the book landed on Iskra’s desk, the papers scattering across the room like late autumn leaves that annoy every yard owner that has to rake them before they rot and just look terrible when the first snow falls. The anger that rose to Iskra’s throat was indescribable, but Athena seemed not to mind this at all as she opened the book, and began thumbing through the pages at a fast speed. That’s when Iskra actually realized what she was looking at - her own yearbook.
38.  
39. “How did you get that?!” she yelled, but Athena just continued to flick through the pages with a confident grin on her face. She continued looking through the thick tome, and just when Iskra was sure that she’s inevitable to get a papercut, Athena stopped and turned to point at a photo that took up the whole page.
40.  
41. “Mountainridge Academy of Law, Defense Attorney Course, Class of 2025”
42.  
43. A large group of young adults in their simple maroon and navy blue uniforms smiled at the camera, showing off their diplomas and smiling widely, happy to leave the church-like university that towered behind them. Iskra couldn’t help but smile fondly as she looked upon the faces of her classmates, all of which she formed significant bonds with - be that through team-building exercises, mock trials held by the school, or simply by socializing while trying to learn all the nooks and crannies of law by heart.
44.  
45. “Can you see how close you and Apollo are standing?” Athena’s excited, high-pitched voice broke Iskra out of her daydream and snapped her back to reality covered in papers and empty coffee cups. “What’s more, you look pretty content being positioned this way!”
46. Athena was acting like a puppy that just performed a trick and received a treat, Iskra thought, as her friend circled hers and Apollo’s images on the glossy paper. “I would consider that a grave contradiction to your last statement, Miss (Last Name)~” she cooed, smiling confidently the golden trophy almost in her reach.
47.  
48. Iskra, however, had her own opinion on the matter.
49.  
50. “I’m going to have to object to your line of reasoning, Miss Cykes.” She sighed and pushed the yearbook away from herself and back to Athena. “We’ve only been positioned that way by the photographer because of our almost identical height and the fact that Apollo’s haircut was, lightly said, standing out from the other guys in our year, so the man had to isolate him to somehow balance the aesthetics, I suppose.” Iskra traced the rim of her coffee cup with her rough fingertip. It was already cold, and she dreaded that the tiny bit of beverage inside was already undrinkable. “We were also graduating. Wouldn’t you be, as you said, ‘content’ when graduating university?”
51.  
52. Athena just grumbled.
53. “Why is he blushing then?” she huffed, most likely disappointed with her sudden defeat. Unbeknownst to her, the answer to that question was even simpler than the first one.
54.  
55. “You might not believe me, ‘Thena, but back in the day our dear Polly was quite a party animal.” Iskra chuckled. “The day before the photo shoot he had quite a blast at the student club, and let me say, seeing him with a hangover is scarier than meeting Wendy Oldbag at your bathroom at three AM.”
56. “Oddly specific.”
57. “Please don’t ask.” Iskra retorted, her face growing pale at the memory. She shook her head, however, and went back to story-shaming her workmate. “I told Apollo to take a nap, and that I’d wake him up before leaving for the shoot. I might have forgotten to wake him up, and he might have ran through the entire campus and still ended up late. I believe being out of breath is reason enough to be red in the face?”
58.  
59. What answered her was the sound of the door shutting behind the red-haired attorney as she left Iskra’s office and, hopefully, returned to her work. Iskra stayed silent for a while, listening in for any sounds that would signify Athena further violating her privacy, but after solid 5 minutes of relative silence, she turned her eyes back to, now scattered, papers.
60.  
61. The photo of the mother started her deep into her soul.
62.  
63. She was beautiful, that much she had to admit - big green eyes, gorgeous brown locks, and a soft smile that would render any man powerless if used the right way. If you looked closer, however, you could easily spot signs of aging. Her skin seemed to have begun losing its firmness and some wisdom spots could be seen near her lips. Other than a few wrinkles here and there, it was really hard to believe that the woman in the picture was actually 48.
64. Her kid was her spitting image. The same green eyes and brown hair, down to the identical mole by the left ear. They seemed like the perfect duo, really. Ann often posted pictures of her and her daughter on social media, and according to the statements of the teachers in the school Elise attended, the mother never missed a single PTA meeting, and without fail walked Elise to school every day.
65.  
66. What could have happened to Elise, that instead in the loving arms of her mother, she ended up in the cold embrace of death? Little to no evidence, a single eyewitness’ statement, and no motive - perhaps this case was truly not meant to be solved?
67.  
68. No. No way.
69.  
70. Iskra tightened her grip on the mechanical pencil so fiercely, that she could swear she heard the plastic cover crack. She reached for the eyewitness’ statement, the paper crinkling as she grasped it angrily.
71.  
72. Gilmore S. Tabber. Elise’s biological father. Forty-five owns a landscaping company-
73.  
74. And then a phone hit her in the head.
75. A bullet of that velocity would have shattered her skull instantly. Alas this is a story, and it was a high-quality smartphone, so all that happened was a reddish-yellow bruise slowly began appearing just over her left eye.
76.  
77. “Whoops! Sorry!” Athena laughed as she struck a pose in the, now open, doorway. “Put some ice on that, or maybe just blow on it but more importantly! I have new evidence!” she yelled, just to pause and deadpan “Or, I had it, as it’s now on the floor, hehe~”
78. Iskra gritted her teeth, counting to ten in her thoughts as to not explode and fling the pocket knife she was just examining at Athena’s foot. She forced a smile on her face, and, with her voice dripping with fake pleasantry, she asked.
79.  
80. “What’s the evidence, Miss Cykes?”
81. “Funny you ask!” Athena answered as she walked over to the desk and picked up the cellphone that she just propelled towards her coworker. “In this very cellphone exists a record of a conversation between you and Mr. Justice dated almost two years ago, that spans over the length of almost six hours! Not! To! Mention!” she danced around the workspace as if she was a ballerina in a Russian production of the Nutcracker. “All the texts! Love this, love that, attraction, lust… You’d have to be blind not to notice the tension that was happening between the two of you!”
82.  
83. Finally, Iskra exploded. She stood up abruptly, snatching the phone out of Athena’s hand. “First of all!” she yelled, waving the cell as if it was the judge's gavel. “Looking through someone else's call records and messages without the other party's consent is illegal, and, had I reported it to the police I could have you in prison for at least a year, not the mention the 2000 dollar fine!”
84. At that Athena cringed away shamefully, looking sheepish. But no, Iskra wasn’t done. She took another big gulp of air and continued her rant.
85.  
86. “Secondly! If you recall from my previous testimony, I have attended the exact same classes as Apollo, thus was placed in many of the same projects as him!” She shook her hand, the phone coming to life with the sudden movement, displaying a background that was a very unfortunate picture of Mr. Wright sneezing. “The unfortunate project that gave life to the long thread of texts, AND the never-ending call was one of them. It was on, listen closely, “Love as the prompt of criminal behavior.” Iskra seethed. Athena paled, knowing all well where this was going.
87. “I was at home, and Apollo was at the dorms. We were working on a project. All. Night. Long. And then we’ve been texting about it too. Does that satisfy your criminal curiosity?”
88.  
89. “Wow, that must have been one hell of a phone bill.” Athena just muttered, and, once again, shuffled out of the room and into the corridor outside, hopefully for the last time that evening.
90.  
91. Back to the case.
92.  
93. Tabber’s company became popular because of its innovative approach to design and plant breeding. The peak of their popularity was around three years ago when Tabber was contacted about designing the entire Sumire Park revamp. Few strategically placed ads and Tabber suddenly received up to ten calls a day, both from private landowners and massive companies.
94.  
95. Iskra bit the top of her pencil (now rubberless). A reputable business owner, with no criminal record, and absolutely no bad public opinions. I mean, there were some for sure, but they weren’t on the first page of Google so they don’t matter. That’s how it works.
96.  
97. Tabber divorced his wife of twelve years a few weeks after receiving the Sumire Park contract. He has since remarried, getting into a marital relationship with Sammie Young. It did spark a bit of controversy back then, as Sammie was almost 20 years younger than Gillmore, but it has mostly blown over since then.
98.  
99. Iskra had a terrible, terrible feeling in her stomach. Suddenly leaving his wife and child just to live with a woman that he met just three months later? She turned to her laptop, and reluctantly typed the name “Sammie Young-Tabber” into the most widespread social media. Surely enough, the young woman’s profile popped up instantly. Looking at her pictures, Iskra couldn’t help but feel a bit self-conscious. Sammie had perfect blonde hair, soft facial features, and captivating green eyes. Honestly? She was really attractive. Shame she was married.
100. Or at least that’s what the comments under her profile photo said.
101.  
102. Iskra scrolled down her profile, passing motivational quotes, giveaway posts, pictures of her kittens, when suddenly one specific picture loaded onto her screen.
103. A photo of Sammie, Gilmore and a small child, during a vacation in a seaside resort.
104. Who was this child? He looked at least six years old, so he couldn’t be Guilmore’s, could it?
105.  
106. Iskra slapped her forehead. People can have premarital sex, it’s not something that is punished by death. That would mean, however, that Gilmore was cheating on his wife at least four years before he actually divorced her. It felt as if a lightbulb has turned on over Iskra’s head. Let’s check the stock market just to make-
107.  
108. There was a knock on her door. She raised her eyebrow curiously. A client? That late?
109. “Please enter,” she spoke, closing her laptop in preparation to greet the person that was about to come in. Iskra swiftly brushed her messy hair with her hand and stood up, her joints cracking slightly from not being moved for the last 11 or so hours. But the person that poked their head through the door was not a client. Not even someone that was interested in someone being defended.
110.  
111. Orange hair. Apologetic smile. Athena Cykes.
112. “Hi, Iskra, I have-”
113.  
114. THUNK.
115. A long strand of orange hair fluttered to the carpeted floor, as Athena looked to her right side. A pocket knife, one that would assume was the evidence in the Noing case, was now stuck in the wooden door frame just mere inches from her face. She looked slowly towards her coworker, who, surely enough, was bent over as if she was aiming another shot that would hit Athena straight in the forehead. Fortunately, there was only one knife presented as evidence in this case, and it was still etched halfway down the blade in the doorframe.
116.  
117. It was silent in the office for a second, as Athena contemplated what to say. One wrong word and she might not have enough hair to put up in a side ponytail to the court tomorrow. Opting on not taking chances, she simply waved the paper she held in her hand lightly. Iskra lifted her eyebrows.
118. “What’s this?” she asked, her voice flat and annoyed. Athena exhaled shakily. This was a very bad idea, but-
119.  
120. “This is, um-” she hesitated for a second before taking a breath and finishing. “-an email. From you to your mom.”
121. She could smell the heat of Iskra’s anger in the air. Oh, this was dangerous territory.
122. “I’m calling the police.” Iskra seethed out, already dialing the number on her phone (the screen now cracked thanks to the speed-of-sounds just mere minutes before). Athena panicked.
123. “No! Don’t! Oh my God, just hear me out, please?!” she shouted as she ran up to her friend and tried to snatch the cell out of her hands. Iskra was just a split second faster.
124. “Give me one good reason.” the lawyer retorted, the sound of the clock deafening her in the background as every minute passing lessened her probability of winning the case. Athena pouted.
125. “It will be decisive evidence. I promise.” She begged, and with a roll of her eyes, Iskra shut her phone off, and the call along with it. Athena beamed.
126.  
127. “Okay! Thank you so much!” She exhaled shakily and coughed once, swallowing the fear that just a moment ago nearly rendered her motionless. Iskra watched, now leaning on her desk, arms crossed, the phone hanging lazily from her right hand. She was sure of herself, and at first glance, Athena saw no cracks she could penetrate with her arguments. Mood Matrix wouldn’t work here too, especially not on the woman standing before her. She bit her lip as she unfolded the letter that she brought in, her eyes scanning the content once more before she inhaled sharply and began to speak.
128.  
129. “This letter dates back to March seventeenth last year. In it, you first politely greet your mother and ask about her health. You thank her for the meat casserole recipe she sent you last month and inquire about the measurements, as it was too spicy to eat.” she chattered on, attempting to get into her courtroom mode. Iskra 'tsked’.
130. “Get to the point, Athena Cykes.”
131.  
132. Ah damn, she used her full name. The difficulty just jumped from ‘Normal’ to ‘Pro’.
133. She coughed. Her throat was dry.
134.  
135. “Um, okay. I’ll skip the part about the pizza incident and the trip to the onsen then.” Athena turned the paper around, quickly looking for the part that made her want to hack Iskra’s email in the first place. “At the very end of the email, you address your mother’s concerns about you not having a romantic partner at your age. You reassure her that she has nothing to worry about, as you had boyfriends before, and actually, you already had someone special on your mind.”
136. Iskra coughed into her fist once, averting her eyes.
137. “And? Where does it say that it’s Apollo? Or that I still have feelings for that mystery person?”
138. “In the post scriptum of your email, after your heartfelt goodbyes and blessings, there’s a short message. A message that points exactly to whom your heart belongs to!”
139.  
140. Iskra swallowed audibly and tightened the grip on her phone. That, of course, did not escape Athena’s attention, and she grinned, her ego inflating again after being popped multiple times that day.
141. “I quote: ‘Please stop calling Apollo and asking him to marry me. Don’t ruin this for me as you did with Anton.” and with that out of the way, she stopped. It was over. Decisive evidence. “Don’t ruin it for me?” she smiled and waved her finger. “Had I not been your friend, I’d say that you’re trying really hard to keep that special something between you and Mr. Justice.”
142.  
143. Silence. Finally victorious, Athena raised her fist up, still clenching the printed-out email. This is how you win a case. Unrelenting, passionate, never stopping, never resting, truthful, intelligent-
144. “Are we done now?” Iskra deadpanned as she exhaled shakily. “Honestly I expected a little more. I’m a bit disappointed.” she laughed, stretching her body and smiling when she heard a few of her joints pop into place. Athena’s face paled.
145. “What… Do you mean?”
146.  
147. Iskra sat down in her chair, the old thing squeaking as the weight was put upon it.
148. “Anton was my first boyfriend. I met him in middle school and we were dating all the way until high school graduation.” she began to speak, twirling a mechanical pencil between her slender fingers. “We broke up because of my mom.”
149. “Why…?”
150. “My mom’s really overprotective. She met Anton only once and right away said that he was ‘bad news’ and that I should stop dating him.” she laughed sadly as her eyes locked on something intangible, way beyond the walls of the office. “She paid him handsomely to break up with me. And he accepted. I guess he didn’t really love me if he broke up with me just because of that, so now, after years have passed, I’m glad to have ended it.” Iskra looked back at Athena, her eyes now a mix of amusement and sadness. “You have to learn to cross-check the evidence, or you’re gonna have a terrible surprise in court one day, love.”
151.  
152. Athena didn’t know what to answer. It felt wrong to have brought such memories out of Iskra so suddenly. She was fully aware that she was annoying her, but for the sake of hers and Apollo’s sanity…
153. She threw the crumpled paper into the bin and removed the pocket knife from the door frame before placing it gently on Iskra’s desk. After hearing a simple thank you, she just left the room.
154.  
155. Iskra felt bad for a moment. She knew that Athena was an empath and that she probably knew exactly what she was feeling at the moment. But then again, she had that sort of a temperament that would not be extinguished unless faced with hard truth and evidence.
156. It was for the best, really.
157. Still, her heart hurt a bit.
158.  
159. Inhale.
160. Exhale.
161. Focus on the case.
162.  
163. Right. The stock market.
164. Iskra opened up her laptop, the screen flickering to life and showing the last website she had opened. A familiar blue and white of the national stock market page greeted her tired eyes, and she groaned as her eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness. Right, it was almost 9 PM. God, she was tired of that day. She rubbed her eyes for a moment and began typing into the company browser.
165.  
166. Tabber Landscaping
167.  
168. She cringed visibly when she saw the chart. Falling, falling and more falling prognosed for the future. One doesn’t have to be a marketing expert to see that this… This wasn’t the best outlook for Guilmore’s company. What could have possibly happened to cause this crash in funds?
169. Ah. Children. Iskra clicked a few more times, switching between pages until she reached a reliable news outlet.
170. The crash happened on June 28th. Let’s check the news from that day.
171. Digging through archives wasn’t Iskra’s favorite job, but she had to deal with it for now. Burglary, political scandal, some bullcrap law trying to be passed overnight, oh great Poland made a fool out of itself again. Nothing on the topics “Gilmore S. Tabber”, “Tabber Landscaping” or “Tabber”.
172.  
173. Iskra tapped her fingers on the desk in annoyance. The headache was knocking on her door. No, wait, scratch that, it was banging on the door of her subconscious with a battering ram. She groaned and leaned back. What could have caused such a drop in stock prices? She tried to recall her business management lessons from high school.
174.  
175. The earnings of the company could have dropped.
176. The company’s output (the product) dropped in quality. In this case, the quality of the landscaping.
177. Something happened that caused the company to lose face.
178. “Or four, all of the above.” Iskra exhaled. Goddamnit, she hated rich people so much. They were always causing trouble, be that avoiding paying taxes like a goddamn green dinosaur or getting into scandal after scandal and producing illegitimate children like it was a factory.
179. Iskra wondered how the little kid that Gilmore had with Sammie felt knowing that he had a sibling that he could never meet? It was probably heartbreaking for someone at such a young age…
180.  
181. Suddenly, Iskra’s face lost all color.
182. No. It couldn’t be.
183.  
184. She shot up like an arrow and grabbed her phone, quickly requesting additional data from the police department. Thank God she had friends in there because if that wasn’t so, she’d be stuck on a waitlist for at least a week when the case was less than 10 hours away. It didn’t take long for the fax to arrive, and Iskra snatched it out of the machine before it was even done printing, causing it to smear slightly on the very bottom.
185. No matter. What was important was the top.
186.  
187. GPS placement for the vehicle ASE 5221 on the day of the incident.
188.  
189. A new Lexus LX 570 that has been registered under Gilmore S. Tabber’s name, but owned and used by his wife, Sammie Young-Tabber.
190. Iskra traced her finger along the map that she printed out while waiting for the documents to arrive.
191. Shopping center.
192. Highway.
193. Tabber Landscaping.
194. Highway.
195. Downtown?
196. ...Relish Marsh?
197.  
198. There was cold sweat running down Iskra’s back as the pieces started to click together.
199. Did Sammie really kill little Elise just to make sure her son inherited the company that was already failing? Well, for now Iskra couldn’t be sure. She still had to cross-examine that theory with the other evidence, police statements and witness testimony, but it was sure something she could grasp on for now.
200.  
201. Iskra stapled the placement records and the printed out website of the stock market for Tabber Landscaping when her phone buzzed with a notification of an incoming message. At first, she didn’t pick her phone up, concentrated on the papers in front of her. Her curiosity got the best of her and she placed aside the picture of the Tabber branded shovel and unlocked her cracked phone. The message that she received was a simple picture of a flower bouquet that was in her room. Just then another one came.
202.  
203. Athena Yikes: What’s that?
204.  
205.  
206. Iskra rolled her eyes as her thumbs danced on the keyboard.
207.  
208. Iskra: Flowers, obviously.
209. Athena Yikes: When did you get them? I haven’t seen them before.
210. Iskra: Three weeks ago or so. After that divorce case.
211. Athena Yikes: So you got them from Apollo?
212. Iskra: Yeah.
213. Athena Yikes: Oh my god Iskra. It’s so obvious you like him.
214. Iskra: I thought that we dropped the topic.
215. Athena Yikes: Iskra, honey, these flowers wilted a long time ago.
216.  
217. Iskra blushed furiously as she recalled her workmate handing her a bouquet of peach roses and baby’s breath. She remembered clamming up and not being even able to say a simple ‘thank you’ as Apollo poured out his feelings of gratitude for her helping him out in the case even though she already has had a lot on her plate. She kept the flowers up until now because… Well, she just… Couldn’t throw them out. Not when they were a present from Apollo.
218.  
219. “You like him! You like Apollo!” she heard Athena scream from the other side of the apartment. “I’m so telling him! Oh my god, this is amazing-”
220. “I will kill you if you tell anyone!” Iskra yelled and stormed out of the office, probably to choke her redheaded friend. As she slammed the door behind herself, a picture frame fell from the wall, already off-centered from the many vibrations it has sustained. The glass shattered and sprayed over the carpeted floor, and the picture inside shifted just enough to be visible from under the mess.
221.  
222. A picture of Apollo and Iskra during their first mock trial exam.