The Thorne Heiress Unveiling Shadow novel Chapter 81

After the whirlwind of the gala, a new phase of the conflict began. It was a phase of quiet, meticulous work. The data recovered from the Duchess's server was a digital ocean, and Evelyn, alongside Kaelen's top analysts, began the painstaking process of sifting through it.

They were hunting for a single drop of poison in a sea of information. The work was slow, a grind of cross-referencing encrypted accounts and tracing ghost transactions through decades of digital noise. But Evelyn was patient. She knew this was how the real struggles were won, not with a single, dramatic explosion, but with the slow, steady accumulation of overwhelming evidence.

The intensity of their investigation was balanced by a new, surprisingly normal routine. Life at Sterling University continued. Evelyn attended her classes, completed her assignments, and spent her evenings in the library, a perfect model of a diligent student.

And every afternoon, at precisely five o'clock, a sleek, black Koenigsegg would glide to a stop in front of the main library. Kaelen would be waiting, having left his own billion-dollar empire to drive her back to the dorms.

Their relationship had settled into a comfortable rhythm. The quiet drives were filled with a mix of shared theories about the Syndicate and easy conversation about their day. It was a strange, hybrid existence, part strategy session, part courtship.

One afternoon, as Evelyn was packing her books, Chloe rushed into their dorm room, her face a mask of outrage.

"You are not going to believe this," Chloe fumed, throwing her own backpack onto her bed. "They're actually going through with it. The board is holding a final hearing tomorrow to rubber-stamp the whole disgusting deal."

Evelyn looked up from her laptop. "A hearing for what?"

"The Classics department!" Chloe explained, pacing back and forth like a caged tiger. "It's one of the oldest departments at Sterling, it has original manuscripts from the Renaissance, but it's broke. This absolute monster of a corporation, the Higgins Group, is donating a ton of money to build a new financial center, and the first thing on the chopping block is the Classics department. They're going to tear down their building."

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