Chapter 1718
[ 658 words ]
“I think I ate way too much,” Claire groaned, rubbing her slightly bloated stomach.
Between the lack of sleep and the adrenaline, her diet had been completely chaotic over the past few days.
While the cafeteria food at Dewitt’s mining camp was decent, she had only managed to eat one or two actual meals there.
Once they initiated the emergency extraction, they had survived on whatever scraps they could find in the armored cars.
Furthermore, foreign ingredients always sat a little heavily in her stomach.
If she forced herself to eat the local cuisine, she usually felt nauseous.
But since they hadn’t packed tactical rations, she hadn’t had a choice.
“Nonsense, you should eat more.”
Padgett watched her with aching fondness. The poor girl had definitely lost weight during her deployment.
During the holidays, Claire had finally managed to put on a few healthy pounds.
But thanks to this brutal, high-stakes mission, all that progress was gone.
Between the stress and the sleep deprivation, she had easily dropped four or five pounds.
Padgett wasn’t the only one who noticed; Dane’s eyes were dark with concern.
He frowned sharply. “For the next month, I am personally managing your diet. We’re getting that weight back on.”
Initially, Padgett had harbored some serious resentment toward Dane for aggressively pursuing his young granddaughter.
But seeing the ruthless, obsessive care Dane provided, that resentment had slowly evaporated.
He was gradually accepting the young billionaire as his future grandson-in-law. Besides, the arrogant kid had already announced to the entire elite circle that Claire was his fiancée. Even if Padgett wanted to execute him, the damage was done.
And since Claire genuinely seemed to adore the guy, tearing them apart now would just cause unnecessary heartbreak.
Padgett would never admit it out loud, but aside from his own grandsons, Dane was the most lethal, brilliant heir of his generation.
If Dane wasn’t good enough, Padgett had no idea who would be.
Victoria, sitting across the table, smiled warmly at Dane’s flawless performance.
“Dane, I know you’ve been incredibly busy running your empire. Thank you for stepping in and handling Claire’s situation.”
Victoria’s tone was polite, but her gratitude was genuine.
When the family couldn’t track Claire down, Dane was their only lifeline.
It wasn’t necessarily that Dane’s
intelligence network eclipsed the et
31.9
Churchill dynasty’s, but his mother’s political lineage granted him terrifying clearance levels.
He had operated in those classified circles since he was a child.
Extracting black-ops intel was second nature to him.
And predictably, Dane had located Claire’s coordinates almost immediately.
Because the mission was highly classified, he fed the family a sanitized cover story: Claire was simply assisting Tandy on an emergency consultation.
The patient was located in a remote province, and they had departed so quickly there hadn’t been time to call.
Whether the family fully bought the story or not, it was airtight enough to stop them from panicking.
Knowing she had caused everyone
immense stress, Claire spent the
rest of dinner deploying her
effortless charm, keeping Padgett and Victoria laughing until the evening ended.
The very next morning, she was back on campus for her lectures.
She had missed a staggering
amount of coursework. Even though she practically had a photographic attending the lectures was
mengor
crucial to connect the complex
medical theories.
FindNovel.net
She needed to absorb the material so she could flawlessly answer any pop quizzes her professors threw at her.
If she failed a random interrogation, getting her future absences approved would be a nightmare.
Claire’s unique status was fully sanctioned by the Dean of the Medical College.
However, she was still subjected to randomized, brutal competency exams. She couldn’t afford to slack off.
Seeing Claire running herself ragged, her counselor pulled her aside, deeply concerned for her health.
“Claire, if you’re burning out, you need to stop taking on so many private clinical cases.”
“I know you’re a prodigy, but your physical health has to come first. You’re still so young.”
“Believe me, once you officially start your residency, the endless wave of patients never stops. You will never have a moment’s rest in this career.”
“While you have the luxury of being a student, please, take a breath. Go out. Have some fun.”
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