Chapter 30: The Boardroom’s Trap
"You shouldn't be here," the board member said, his voice as smooth as polished glass, hiding the serrated edges beneath. He didn't threaten her with violence; he didn't have to. The power of the institution was a living, breathing entity, and she was just a student—a girl with a medal and a grudge, trying to fight a titan. He offered her a deal: a full scholarship to any university, a clean slate, and the total erasure of her father’s 'controversial' records if she would just agree to stop digging. It was the same poisonous deal her mother had been offered, she realized, a generational pattern of silence.
The trap was meant to keep the cycle spinning. She looked at him, feeling the sharp edges of the medal in her pocket, and she knew the answer before the words even left her lips. She wasn't just fighting for her father anymore; she was fighting for the truth of her own existence. "My father’s memory isn't for sale, and neither is my silence," she replied, her voice echoing in the garden with the force of a tectonic shift. He didn't blink, but the flicker of frustration in his eyes told her that the predator had finally realized the prey was armed.
