Chapter 16: Shadows on Campus
"Still brave enough to show your face here, Claire?"
The shrill voice came from the back of the campus cafeteria, just as Claire stepped inside with a heavy textbook on economic law in her arms. She did not need to turn around to know who it belonged to.
Whispers began to creep between the students’ tables, spreading like a suffocating fog. News of her marriage to Julian, the man labeled the Blackwood family’s disgraced grandson, had apparently not lost its appeal as gossip material.
Claire tightened her grip on the book, lifting her chin slightly higher. She did not respond. Her steps remained steady toward the main library, a place she hoped would offer her some peace from her peers’ judgmental stares. To her, campus was supposed to be a place to build a
