Chapter 128

Claire's POV The walls of the lab had become a shrine to obsession, the nearby table surface covered with printouts, molecular diagrams, and calculations that mapped the boundaries of my desperation. Coffee cups in various stages of abandonment littered my desk alongside protein synthesis models that I'd reconstructed so many times the paper was wearing thin from handling. Sleep had become a distant memory, replaced by the relentless pursuit of an answer that felt tantalizingly close yet impossibly elusive. For three days, I'd barely left this room except for hurried trips to the kitchen for more caffeine and the occasional acknowledgment of Theo's worried presence hovering at my doorway. Through the mating bond, I could feel his concern like a constant warm pressure against my consciousness, but I'd learned to compartmentalize it, to push his protective instincts to the background while I dove deeper into the labyrinth of molecular chemistry that had consumed my world. The research pa