"It's not surprising," Blind remarked, casually lifting his hand with a shrug. "The level of prestige and understanding of the court of law Ashley and I both possessed. We both graduated top honors from Yarhard."

Mina pursed her lips and smiled. "And top modesty."

"If my eyes worked," Blind responded drolly. "I'd roll them right now. But that's beside the point, both of our families came from a long line of lawyers, prosecutors and even judges so there were high expectations for us to live up to."

"Where's the juicy twist," Mina said, excitedly bouncing up and down. "All this stuff goes without saying, Willy."

Blind places both hands on her bare shoulders. They were surprisingly warm and comforted her in the chill air.

"My my," he remarked. "The true essence of being a lawyer is understanding all the details. You should know this, rookie. You will see where I'm headed in a moment..."

"Okaaaay," Mina pouted playfully.

Blind raised a finger. "Naturally, a union between us would result in further wealth and prestige, so when the Ryan's learned their young daughter was speaking with the other top prosecutor, a handsome boy, they pushed us together quit hard."

"And how'd you feel about that?" Mina asked, curiosity reflected in her eyes.

"Ashley and I had quite the competition between the two of us, always vying for the professor's attention."

Mina sheepishly pushed two fingers together. "But did you like her?" she asked side eyeing and speaking out of the corner of her mouth.

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"I didn't have a problem with her..." Blind answered, "Even if she had to be the top of everything."

"So far," Mina replied. "Everything makes total sense and there's minimum T. You were being forced together by your families and Miss Bossy Pants was bossy..."

"You're right..." Blind answered. "Here's where it gets interesting..."

He took an exasperated breath. "The competition benefited us mutually at first, but when it came time for the bar exam, disaster struck. I suggested we study together and we did, we studied until the odd hours and I ended up sleeping over..."

"You two slept over...?" Mina asked, trying not to sound petty or jealous.

"Yeah..." Blind answered. "And we took the exam together...one of the biggest regrets of my life."

Mina's mind continued to rush with thoughts and possible theories for the tasty tea. But she couldn't imagine what would have happened. They were both such smart and talented individuals....at least from what she heard of Ashley and saw of Blind.

"As you probably know," Blind said, "the exam is unbelievably difficult and heavily proctored to prevent cheating. There are even some questions about the practice that even I would hesitate on."

"Yesh..." Mina muttered. "I got the worst migraine ever when I took it. And that was just from writing my name on it."

"Well..." Blind said, leaning in close. This time, Mina was aware it wasn't for a kiss. "Do not tell this to anyone, but I had a momentary lapse of judgement...I did not want to embarrass myself in front of my family...They always had such high expectations of me..."

"What in the huh..." Mina gasped. "Willy, did you really..."

"I did..." Blind said, "Just for a second, I peered at her work. It was only for one question and I..."

"You could see..." Mina whispered in shock.

"Yes," Blind answered. "This was before I was blinded. Anyway, the proctor didn't see, but Ashley did...and she was more furious than I had ever seen her before. She raised her voice and the proctor glared at her and reprimanded her in front of everyone. I remained completely quiet...I had gotten what i needed, but at a great cost."

Mina was silent. Her chatty mouth silenced by Blind's sin.

"Later on, it turned out I passed the bar with top honors, but the damage had been done. Ashley broke off the engagement and being disgraced, she never spoke to me again."

Stupefied, Mina could not find the right words to say. Blind was perfect in so many ways in her eyes, and it was quite heinous what he had done to Ms. Ryan. He has barred Ashley from rising to the top.