Chapter 1700

[ 696 words ]

The person who had truly raised her, unconditionally and with absolute devotion, was Mary.

If it hadn’t been for Mary, Claire would have likely died from a severe fever as an

infant.

She owed her life, and her loyalty, entirely to Mary.

She could cut off everyone else in her past without a second thought, but she would forever honor Mary, ensuring she lived out her days in absolute comfort.

The campus rumor mill spun wildly in every direction.

Claire, however, was completely oblivious to it all.

Ironically, Sloane Sterling-who now held a deep, begrudging respect for Claire— was the one shutting down the gossip.

Whenever someone tried to drag Claire’s name through the mud in front of her, Sloane immediately shut them down.

The student body had widely assumed Sloane despised Claire. No one had any idea when the two had supposedly buried the hatchet.

In reality, there had never been a reconciliation.

Sloane had simply declared a one-sided rivalry and then unilaterally surrendered.

Her feelings toward Claire had violently swung from resentment to admiration.

Initially, she had loathed Claire for stealing her spotlight, viewing her as an arrogant freshman who lacked respect for her seniors.

She also felt a lingering guilt for trying to leech off Claire’s viral fame.

That guilt had only amplified her defensive hostility.

Then, she made the catastrophic discovery that Claire was engaged to the very man she had been secretly obsessing over. That revelation had nearly shattered her reality.

But now? She genuinely admired Claire.

Looking back, her entire vendetta had been fueled by her own pathetic vanity. Claire

had never actually done anything to her.

She had never even initiated a conflict.

Human nature was funny like that. People fiercely envied those who were only slightly better than them, but found it impossible to be jealous of someone existing in an entirely different stratosphere.

They simply weren’t playing the same game.

This profound realization came directly from her grandfather and her brother.

And it was brutally, undeniably accurate.

Back at the hospital, Claire slept like the dead.

Before passing out, she had ordered her personal detail to wake her the second anything changed with Silas’s vitals.

As for Tandy, she explicitly forbade them from disturbing him.

The man was old and exhausted; he needed uninterrupted sleep.

Tandy was no longer the machine he once was. Age had finally caught up to him. Even after sleeping for several hours he lacked the

restorative metabolism of his youth.

When he finally woke up, his body felt like it had been run through a meat grinder.

Claire, however, was a different story. She slept far longer than the old surgeon. She was out cold for nearly twelve straight hours.

Despite insisting she would take the first watch, Tandy ended up covering for her.

When she finally blinked awake and checked the time, she felt a sharp pang of embarrassment.

The moment she sat up, her stomach let out a thunderous growl.

Claire felt a phantom blush creeping up her neck, though her expression remained perfectly stoic.

Rory, who had been resting in the same suite, heard the stomach rumble and immediately offered to take her out for food.

“The hospital has a cafeteria, but the food is violently mediocre.”

While Claire was dead to the world, Jace had patrolled the perimeter and gathered intel on the facility.

He had even eaten a meal at the cafeteria and brought some takeout back for Rory.

Because Dewitt had built the facility specifically for the miners, the cafeteria menu heavily mimicked domestic Solenia cuisine.

But the standard fare-like the boiled vegetable soup-was incredibly bland. It didn’t even hold a candle to normal hospital food back home, let

alone the gourmet dining halls at Claire’s university

Of course, there was a premium menu for those willing to pay out of pocket.

The premium food was significantly better.

But it was also obscenely expensive.

There was one chef who specialized in authentic Solenia cuisine, and his food was legendary on the compound.

Jace had already pre-ordered a massive spread, perfectly timing it for whenever Claire woke up.

The compound’s sole authentic chef completely saved their sanity.

Upon hearing that a VIP team from the homeland had arrived, the chef excitedly comped them a massive. platter of Sweet and Sour Ribs.

One bite of the perfectly glazed meat was all it took to confirm the chef’s northern

roots.

The northern-style Sweet and Sour Ribs were absolute perfection.

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