All Chapters of Once Downtrodden; Now Divine: Chapter 301
- Chapter 310
357 chapters
Chapter 302
As soon as the boy collapsed onto the couch, the room seemed to lose its last fragile thread of hope. The energy that had once held everyone upright, tense and waiting, drained away in an instant, leaving behind a hollow stillness that felt heavier than any sound.No one moved at first.No one spoke.It was as though time itself had paused, suspended in the space between what had just happened and what it meant. Every pair of eyes remained fixed on the boy’s motionless form, each person waiting for something—anything—to contradict what they feared was already true.Then the realization began to settle in.Slowly.Relentlessly.Clara was the first to react.“No…” she whispered, her voice trembling as though it barely had the strength to exist. “No, this… this can’t be happening.”Her words wavered, uncertain, as if she hoped saying them aloud might reverse the moment, might undo what they were all beginning to believe.The physician stepped forward again, his earlier composure replaced
Chapter 303
The room remained in stunned silence for several seconds after the boy had fully regained consciousness.No one spoke.No one moved.It was as if everyone present was still waiting for reality itself to correct what they had just witnessed, as though the moment might somehow rewind and return them to the uncertainty they had just escaped. The air felt suspended, fragile, held together by disbelief rather than certainty.But it didn’t.Eliot sat upright on the couch, holding a cup of water in both hands. He sipped slowly, carefully, as though relearning something simple. His breathing was steady now, no longer strained or uneven, and his face had regained a brightness that had been completely absent throughout the entire ordeal. The change was subtle, but undeniable—color had returned, tension had eased, and the exhaustion that had once weighed him down seemed to be lifting.And Donald stood quietly beside him, observing without expression, as though what had just happened was not an a
Chapter 304
Donald held the invitation card for a moment, as though weighing its presence in his hand rather than the paper itself. His expression remained calm, unreadable in the way it had been throughout everything that had just happened, as if every decision he made followed a logic only he could fully see.Then he looked up.“I am not a medical professional,” he said calmly. “And I do not hold any license to practice medicine.”His tone was neither defensive nor apologetic. It was simply factual, stated with the same clarity he seemed to apply to everything else.The physician smiled faintly at that, almost as if he had been expecting the objection from the very beginning.“Yes,” he replied. “I am aware.”Clara blinked slightly at the exchange, still adjusting to the unusual calmness of the moment after everything that had unfolded earlier. Evelyn, still seated beside her son, watched quietly without interrupting, her attention shifting between Donald and the physician.The physician continu
Chapter 305
Evelyn stood still for a moment after Donald rejected the cheque.Her hand remained slightly raised in the air, the envelope still between her fingers, as though her mind needed a few seconds to catch up with what had just happened. The weight of the moment lingered heavily between them, filling the space with a quiet tension that no one immediately broke.For a brief second, she looked almost stunned.“You’re refusing it?” she asked again, her voice softer now, as if she were searching for a different answer or hoping she had misheard him entirely.Donald gave a calm nod.“Yes,” he said simply.There was no hesitation in his tone, no uncertainty, only quiet certainty.Evelyn’s brows tightened slightly as she processed it.“That is four hundred million,” she said softly, her voice carrying both disbelief and insistence. “Do you understand what I’m offering you?”Donald met her gaze evenly, without shifting his stance or showing any sign of being swayed.“I understand,” he replied. “Th
Chapter 306
Evelyn’s assistant did not treat the instruction as casual. Once she left Swasa Industry that afternoon, she didn’t go home early or allow herself any form of rest that would dilute focus. Instead, she began what she internally framed in her working notes as a “comprehensive background mapping.” It was not labeled as routine research; it was treated as an accumulation exercise, where every fragment of information mattered, no matter how small or disconnected it appeared at first glance. Donald Smith was not the kind of person whose life yielded itself easily to simple search results. His footprint across public systems was intentionally uneven, scattered in ways that suggested discipline rather than absence. So she went deeper, moving beyond surface-level databases and into layered verification channels that required cross-referencing identities rather than just names. By nightfall, she had already begun constructing a skeleton profile. She pulled from corporate filings that only rev
Chapter 307
The high table inside the conference hall carried a quiet authority of its own. It wasn’t just furniture placement. It was deliberate architecture of status, designed so that authority could be read instantly without a single word being spoken. Every chair angle, every spacing between name placards, every subtle elevation difference in the platform contributed to an unspoken hierarchy that everyone in the room understood without needing it explained. Senior physicians, research directors, policy advisors, and institutional consultants sat there in carefully measured spacing. The arrangement was almost mathematical in its precision—each seat a signal of rank, reputation, and recognition earned over years of controlled professional visibility. Conversations at that level were never casual; they were restrained, often unfinished sentences that implied more than they stated. So when Donald Smith was guided toward it, the change in atmosphere was immediate. Not loud. Nothing theatrical
Chapter 308
The tension at the high table did not disappear even after Dr. Harrington stepped in. It only changed shape. What had moments ago been uncertainty about seating and status now shifted into something more structured and deliberate. Less confusion now. More curiosity. The kind of curiosity that professionals tried to keep contained, but which still surfaced in the slight narrowing of eyes and the careful recalibration of attention. The usher stood slightly to the side, clearly unsettled, hands held together in front of him as if trying to occupy himself with stillness. “I was instructed,” he repeated carefully, “that Mr. Smith should be moved to the audience section because his name was not found on the delegate list for this table.” The words were not said with confidence anymore. They were said as clarification, as if repetition could stabilize the situation and reduce responsibility. Dr. Harrington’s expression tightened immediately. “Who instructed you?” The question was dire
Chapter 309
The tension at the high table did not disappear even after Dr. Harrington stepped in. If anything, it became more concentrated. What had moments earlier been uncertainty about seating and protocol now shifted into something quieter, sharper, and far more deliberate. The confusion that initially moved through the table had begun to settle, but in its place came curiosity—the restrained kind professionals tried not to display openly, yet inevitably revealed through the narrowing of eyes, the pause before speech, and the subtle recalibration of posture. The usher stood slightly to the side now, visibly unsettled. His hands remained clasped in front of him, fingers tightening and loosening unconsciously as if physical stillness could somehow stabilize the situation around him. “I was instructed,” he repeated carefully, “that Mr. Smith should be moved to the audience section because his name was not found on the delegate list for this table.” The words no longer carried certainty. Ear
Chapter 310
The statement from Dr. Harrington still lingered in the doctor’s ears. And frankly, he didn’t like it. The response had been too controlled, too confident, and too incomplete for his comfort. In professional spaces like this, ambiguity was tolerated only when attached to recognized authority. Donald Smith, at least from what the doctor could see, possessed no visible credentials that justified the level of confidence Dr. Harrington had placed in him. The physician adjusted his glasses slowly and turned slightly toward Dr. Harrington again, clearly preparing to continue the matter. “Doctor Harrington,” he began, his tone sharper now, “this is a professional medical gathering, not some—” But before he could finish speaking, the sound system crackled softly across the hall. The interruption was small, almost insignificant in sound, yet it immediately redirected attention across the room. Conversations paused instinctively. Several attendees turned toward the stage at once. Then the
Chapter 311
As soon as Donald raised his hand, the atmosphere inside the conference hall changed completely. The silence that had settled after the professor’s question fractured almost immediately into low murmurs spreading from one section of the hall to another. The sound moved gradually at first, like restrained confusion trying not to become disruption, but within seconds it expanded into open reactions. Especially around the high table. Several doctors turned sharply toward Donald. Some frowned openly, no longer attempting to conceal their skepticism. Others exchanged glances filled with disbelief, silently questioning whether what they had just seen had actually happened. Because the disease currently being discussed was not an ordinary illness. Entire medical institutions had spent decades researching it. Some of the most accomplished neurological specialists in the world had dedicated entire careers to understanding its progression. Specialists had written volumes of papers on it, de