Chapter 88

Claire's POV Thursday night stretched long into the early hours of Friday morning as I sat hunched over my computer in the deserted research lab, making final adjustments to what I knew would be the most important presentation of my career. The building was eerily quiet except for the hum of laboratory equipment and the distant whisper of the ventilation system cycling through its midnight routine. Every slide had been meticulously crafted, every data point verified and cross-referenced, every transition timed to perfection. The Eclipse Syndrome research represented months of collaborative effort, but this presentation was my chance to prove that I belonged among the elite researchers at VM Group—that Theo's faith in me wasn't misplaced, that I was more than just his secretary who happened to have a science degree. The conference room was booked for nine AM sharp. Board members would be flying in from across the country specifically to hear our progress report, and I knew they would co