The Rival's Alibi

Lei Feng has dedicated three years of law school to dismantling Julian Cross, the effortlessly brilliant prodigy who lands every clerkship and journal spot. That rivalry curdles into an impossible bind the night Julian is accused of planting fabricated evidence against a prestigious professor in a sexual misconduct hearing. Lei was hiding in the mock-trial archive that night, having broken in to photograph Julian's privileged research — and he saw someone else tamper with the files. If he comes forward, he confesses to academic sabotage and risks expulsion. If he stays silent, an innocent man he loathes loses everything. Forced into a hostile alliance, they plunge into a labyrinth of doctored affidavits, backdated ethical waivers, and a shadow Clerkship Pipeline committee that trades silence for Supreme Court recommendations. As hostility gives way to reluctant trust, Lei and Julian discover that the case they are building against corruption is also dismantling the walls between them — and the final verdict may be a confession neither law review nor precedent prepared them for.