“Next semester?” Lila said, delighted. “That’s generous.”
My phone had disappeared from the charging stand beside the refrigerator.
I looked at Lila.
She smiled wider.
That was when I knew this wasn’t just cruelty.
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Thanksgiving
It was coordinated.
They needed me to miss the defense.
What they didn’t know was that Professor Shaw and I had prepared for exactly one possibility: interference.
Three months earlier, after an attempted breach of my university account, he had insisted I install an automatic emergency protocol. If I failed to check in by 7:45 on defense day, the system would send my location, archived messages, and a short warning to him and the university’s research-integrity office.
I glanced at the clock.
8:09.
The protocol had already fired.
So I pulled out a chair and sat down.
Lila frowned.
