(Sloane’s POV)The slides were a band-aid on a bullet wound.I’d stayed up until 3 AM building them from Kai’s outline, making the data look simple, foolproof.Leon had glanced at them for maybe ninety seconds that morning, chewing on a piece of toast.“Looks fancy,” he’d said, with zero interest.Then he’d left the kitchen.Now, standing at the back of the lecture hall, I felt sick.Leon was at the podium.He wore the dark sweater I’d left out. He hadn’t shaved closely, leaving just enough scruff to look deliberately careless, not messy.The professor, Dr. Lennox, sat in the front row with a frown already etched on his face.Clara Yang, Leon’s partner, was poised beside the clicker, her smile so tight it looked painful.“Go ahead whenever you’re ready, Mr. Sterling,” Lennox said, his voice dry as dust.Leon nodded.He didn’t look at his notes. He didn’t even glance at the first slide, a compl
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