All Chapters of The Young Student Trillionaire: Chapter 71 
				
					- Chapter 80
				
210 chapters
				Chapter 71
			
The Tuscan dawn broke clear and deceptively gentle, the golden glow of first light brushing the vineyard slopes and stone villages with an innocence that mocked what Chance and Gary found when they turned the corner to the parish grounds.Chance slammed the car door before the engine even quieted. The acrid bite of smoke hit him instantly, stinging his eyes and throat. Gary was already striding ahead, boots crunching over scattered ash on the path that led to what remained of the small vestry house behind the church.Or what used to be the vestry.It was now a blackened shell. Charred beams jutted out like broken ribs. A few of the dwellers lingered behind while old women in headscarves murmured prayers.At the foot of the scorched steps, the young priest from the night before stood alone, his cassock dusty with ash, eyes rimmed red not just from the smoke.Chance felt Gary’s hand on his shoulder but barely registered it. He stepped forward, the heat still rising off the blackened sto
				Chapter 72 
			
Julia had been standing by the window for hours. The once-bustling campaign office now felt like a ghost ship—phones still ringing, screens still flickering with polling data, aides whispering into headsets—but all of it muffled, distant, like she was underwater.Her whole focus was on her phone, gripped tight in her hand as if she could will it to stay silent just a little longer. But she knew the call was coming. She knew because Philip had messaged her an hour ago.When the phone finally buzzed, the screen lit with a simple word that still felt like a battle flag: Chance.She didn’t even say hello. She just whispered his name—like a prayer, like a question she already knew the answer to.“Mom.”His voice sounded like it was traveling across an ocean of exhaustion and miles of burned hope. She could hear the quiet echo of an engine in the background, Gary’s low rumble of a voice somewhere close by. Even that comforted her a little—her boy was not alone.“Tell me,” she managed, her f
				Chapter 73
			
In the conference suite at the top floor of the O’Connor Group’s oldest tower, twelve members of the executive board, comprising both men and women, sat around the massive oval table that once belonged to Steven O’Connor himself. No assistants were present—only a circle of executives who called themselves The Custodians. A circle that was supposed to guard the legacy, not play kingmaker behind closed doors. And yet, that was exactly what tonight was about.Following the news they had heard regarding Julia being a mistress to Steven and not his legally married wife, they had decided to meet to discuss the future of the Empire, which they had been a part of while Steven was still alive.At the head of the table sat Harold Strickland, the interim board chair since Steven’s death. His silver hair gleamed under the recessed lighting, his face carved from sixty years of deals and double-crosses that had made the O’Connor name both feared and revered.He tapped his pen on an inch-thick fold
				Chapter 74
			
The vote had just settled—twelve hands, twelve shadows under Steven O’Connor’s legacy—when the door cracked open hard enough to slam against the wall.Heads whipped around. The last hand hadn’t even lowered yet when Philip Banks stepped inside.He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. His tie was gone, shirt sleeves rolled past his elbows, hair slightly mussed from wind or anger—no one could tell which. The only thing sharper than the cut of his suit was the fury blazing behind his eyes.No one spoke. They didn’t have to. The silence that greeted him said it all: he wasn’t supposed to be here, and yet he was the only one who still cared about the O’Connor name.Sometimes, it amuses the members of the board to see Philip acting like a man who doesn't know what it means to be a man. They had called him Julia's "puppet" seeing him dance to every of her tone like he didn't have his own life.Right from the day he stepped into Julia's shoes as one of the board members, most of other board m
				Chapter 75
			
Philip didn’t bother to let the echo of the boardroom door die behind him—he was already striding through the corridor, past the portraits of Steven O’Connor glaring down at him like silent judges, his mind a thunderstorm of unfinished battles.By the time he reached Julia’s campaign floor, he still hadn’t loosened up. He pushed through the glass doors so hard they shuddered on their hinges.Julia was already waiting when Philip slammed the door behind him—her silhouette rigid against the big campaign screen.One of the junior secretaries had called her minutes ago, voice trembling as she relayed everything that happened at the O'Connor board room to her.Philip’s sleeves were still rolled up from the boardroom when he walked into the campaign room. His hair was mussed in that careless way that used to make her trust him—once upon a time when trust had cost them less than this.“You went there,” Julia spat before he could speak, her voice so cold the room seemed to shrink around them.
				Chapter 76
			
Julia sat alone in the campaign office for hours, her thoughts still on the message she'd earlier received. Her staff hovered in the hallway, whispering behind half-shut doors, too afraid to interrupt the storm they’d heard behind the glass.She didn’t answer her phone when it buzzed again. Didn’t look at the crisis memos piling up in unread folders. She just stood by the window, staring out at the city lights, asking herself how much more of herself she was willing to lose.When the clock struck three, she made up her mind.Julia grabbed her coat off the back of her chair, swept the stacks of statements into a drawer, and left her office door standing wide open behind her. She didn’t say goodbye to anyone. She didn’t owe this building any more pieces of herself tonight.****The house was dark when she stepped inside and she found Philip exactly where she knew he’d be—slouched on the couch, a half-drained glass in his hand, the decanter beside him nearly empty. His tie was gone, his 
				Chapter 77
			
Senator Norville’s suite at the Grand Arcadia was a battlefield disguised in velvet and glass. Tonight, it smelled of stale cigars and half-finished whiskey—victory humming beneath the hush.“Cheers,” Norville said, lifting the glass.Roney didn’t bother with the formality. He took his own pour straight from the crystal decanter, his smile thin and cruel. “To truth,” he drawled, his voice dripping with mock reverence.Norville barked a short laugh, tossing back half his drink in one practiced tilt. “Truth,” he echoed. “Funny word. She had the country in her palm—do you realize that? All those years building that pristine image. Iron backbone. The lady who, out of nothing, turned herself into steel. ” He twirled the glass, watching the amber swirl. “All undone by one matchstick.”Roney’s chuckle was colder. He tapped the rim of his glass against the window. Outside, camera crews still milled near Julia’s campaign HQ—tiny specks of hunger waiting for her next stumble. “You underestimate
				Chapter 78
			
Wilfreda hadn’t meant to go digging. She’d only come into her mother’s home office to hunt down a clean notepad for her packing list—something practical, mindless, safe.She'd be resuming lectures the following Monday and was really looking forward to it especially with meeting Chance Franklin, Julia's son.Ever since the news of Julia's illegitimate son started flying around the entire city, putting the elections on hold, Chance had been like a ghost hunting her.She hadn't meant to crush on him, but just a picture was enough to do the magic. She couldn't deny the fact that she'd been with handsome guys before, and even her ex boyfriend wasn't less of a good looking guy.But Chance was something else—like the god handsomeness decided to embody him. She had stared at the photos on his social media pages over and over again, and one prayer she had continued to make while looking forward to resuming at ESU was to meet him single.She had told herself to give him every green light he'd ne
				Chapter 79
			
It was late—so late that even the relentless hum of Julia’s campaign headquarters had dulled to a strained hush of unanswered phones and exhausted aides murmuring over half-empty coffee cups.By this time tomorrow, America would be lining up at polling stations from New Hampshire dawn to California dusk. Every field office was a bunker. Every staffer was running on stale pizza, caffeine, and the desperate hope that the next headline wouldn’t gut the numbers any further.Julia stood by the giant digital map in the nerve center—states blinking red, blue, and battleground gray under the harsh fluorescent lights. Every call mattered now. Every volunteer script. Every precinct captain cross-checking lists one more time.She should have felt crushed under the weight of it all. And maybe she would have—if not for the way the night before had cracked something open inside her.She could still feel the warmth of Philip’s hand tracing the curve of her shoulder in the dark, the way his voice had 
				Chapter 80
			
Outside, Helsin pushed through the heavy glass doors and into the rain. It spattered cold against her face, soaking through the thin wool of her coat in seconds. She didn’t bother with her umbrella. She needed the cold. Needed it to bite at her skin and shock her back into focus.The street outside Julia’s headquarters was a mess of blinking brake lights and news vans prowling for a scrap of scandal before morning. Helsin kept her head down as she crossed to her car—a battered old sedan that looked out of place parked among sleek campaign SUVs.Inside, she sat for a long moment, hands resting on the wheel, engine off, watching her own breath fog the windshield.She could still feel Wilfreda’s voice from the night before—sharp and hurt and unyielding. That girl, so stubbornly righteous, so hungry for a truth Helsin had buried so deep she’d almost convinced herself it could stay there forever.But not anymore.Not after tonight. Not after seeing Julia standing defiant under all that ruin