His Lesson Killed My Mother Now He Will Pay Chapter 48
The next morning, the court issued a temporary freeze.
Until the hearing was decided, the relationship assessment system could not accept new subscriptions.
Three partner institutions suspended their renewals at once.
One of the staff asked me, “Do we have to shut down the free functions, too?”
I looked at the backend.
More than four hundred users were in the middle of filling out assessments.
Twenty-seven of them had checked the box marked *I need urgent help*.
Sloane’s attorney sent over settlement terms.
If I acknowledged her as the system’s co-creator and paid her seventy percent of the revenue, she would withdraw the lawsuit.
At the bottom of the email, one line stood out:
*If Ms. Reyes continues her infringement, we will move to compel production of all original user responses to determine whether their content derives from Ms. Mercer’s case library.*
She was putting those users on the table, too.
Aisha shut the laptop.
“She may not get them. But the request alone is enough to scare off the institutions.”
“Turn off the paid subscription portal.”
“The court hasn’t ordered you to stop the free service.”
“I know.”
I told the tech team to leave the emergency help and authorization withdrawal functions running and to pause everything else.
Then I sent a notice to every user.
I didn’t hide the lawsuit.
I didn’t urge anyone to stay.
The notice contained only an exit button, a deadline for data deletion, and contact information for legal aid.
Within half an hour, the first withdrawal request came in.
I hit *Confirm* myself.
That user’s data vanished from the system, irretrievable.
Sloane wanted to use them to force me to back down.
So I gave them their choice back first.