Third Person's POV
Veronica acted like she'd just heard a bad joke. She let out a scoff, her eyes full of disbelief. "That's absurd. My students are the elite. They don't just—"
Before she could finish, a young man drenched in sweat came sprinting toward them.
He looked panicked, completely forgetting his professional composure as he shouted from a distance. "Professor Carrillo! Something's wrong! Daniel just... he collapsed! He's stuck on his knees on the sidewalk. We tried to pull him up, but it's like he's rooted into the concrete. He won't budge!"
The smug look on Veronica's face froze.
The "elegant and poised" mask she'd been wearing shattered instantly.
The silence that followed was deafening.
If Chloe's words had been a provocation before, this was a physical slap to the face
