“What made you want to go to law school?”

Andrew cast his gaze across the room, like he was considering how to respond. “It’s kind of a long story.”

“That’s okay.”

His eyes came back to hers. “When I was a senior in high school, Jeni and I were in a bad car accident. A drunk driver swerved into our lane and hit us on the front driver side. Jeni was in much worse shape than I was, and her injuries, plus the condition of the vehicle, prevented her from being able to get out of the car. I could, though, and after making sure she was alive and breathing, I went to check on the guy who hit us.

“He reeked of alcohol, and there’s no doubt in my mind he’d been drinking. When the cops arrived, they performed a Breathalyzer and he blew a zero-point-two, which is miles above the legal limit.”

Lauren’s hand had come up to cover her mouth. “Was Jeni okay? I mean…I know she is now…that’s probably a stupid question. But it sounds awful. How bad was it?”

“A broken leg, concussion, and several torn ligaments in her shoulder. She was the star of the softball team, and it ruined her chances to finish the season, and she lost her scholarship to play for Oklahoma.”

“Poor Jeni.”

Andrew nodded. “The dumbass that hit us? He ended up getting away with it. All because he had an attorney who did some digging around and found that the Breathalyzer machine the police officer used was a week late for calibration. One week, and it was thrown out as evidence. There was no proof that he was under the influence, even though I smelled it and saw it with my own eyes, and he wasn’t charged with a DUI.”

“I can’t believe that! How is that even possible?”

“He had a damn good attorney, that’s how. That’s not the worst of it. Three weeks after the guy was released, he did it again, and that time he killed somebody.”

Lauren gasped. “Someone you knew?”

Andrew shook his head. “No. But I couldn’t shake this intense anger and a feeling of regret, that there was something I could have said or done through the proceedings, even just as a witness and victim of the crash, that would have either put him behind bars or had his license revoked. And maybe that person would still be alive.