Chapter 97
Dafa's POV: My Silent Apology
My pulse was steady, a soldier's rhythm.
My mind was not.
"Congratulation, Dr. Alayna Sandra," I said.
That was my recognition.
My silent apology, but complete.
I had assessed her incorrectly from the beginning. Like everyone else in my circle, I had assumed she was uneducated, that her connection to my family was a calculated climb. A beautiful inconvenience. A problem to be managed.
I was wrong.
Seeing her in the registrar's office had been my first warning. The fire in her eyes wasn't panic, it was the cold, precise fury of injustice. A social climber would have smiled, bargained, pleaded. She argued. She cited regulations I hadn't even known existed. She fought like someone reclaiming stolen property.
Because that was exactly what she was doing.
Smallville was the revelation.
