Six months passed. The world turned, seasons changed, and the aftershocks of the summit faded from the headlines into the quiet, permanent record of legal proceedings. I didn’t follow the trial obsessively. I didn’t need to. I had handed the justice system a perfectly sealed case, and I trusted the process to run its course. My focus was elsewhere, in a gleaming, state-of-the-art laboratory high above the city, a place where the only pressure I felt was the drive to create, not to survive.
Apex Bio had given me everything they promised and more: a dedicated team, an unlimited budget, and the one thing I craved above all else—unquestioning trust in my work. Here, I wasn't Liam’s girlfriend or my father’s daughter. I was Dr. Hollis, and my data spoke for itself.
The news of the verdict rea
