I did not go to the administration building. I opened my phone, logged into the academic affairs portal, and submitted a half-day sick leave request. I put down a headache as the reason, and the approval came back instantly.
Graham's voice messages piled up like a mountain on my screen. The unread badge sat at ninety-nine plus, buzzing like an insect I could not swat. I muted the conversation. The world went quiet.
I opened the tracking software and Bianca's location blinked onto the screen with perfect clarity. The little red dot was flying down the main artery of the city center. At that speed, she was in a sports car with a starting price well into the six figures. I changed into the black athletic gear I wore for my part-time shifts, grabbed a baseball cap, and headed downstairs.
I
