All Chapters of The Hidden King Of Northwood University : Chapter 21
- Chapter 30
78 chapters
21: The New Social Order
Dean Arthur stood by his window, his fingers were digging into the expensive silk of his curtains. Below, in the fire lane, the matte-black Lamborghini was being hoisted into the air. It looked like a dead insect hanging from a hook. He watched Julian Thorne screaming at the tow truck driver, his face was a blotchy, panicked red.Then, the Dean saw him.Leo was walking away from the chaos, his hands were buried in the pockets of that same grey hoodie. He was walking with Elena Vance. They weren't running. They weren't celebrating. They were just moving through the crowd as if the world hadn't just ended for the Thorne family.The Dean’s phone began to vibrate on his desk. The caller ID showed Marcus Thorne. It had been ringing for ten minutes. Each buzz felt like a hammer hitting the Dean’s heart. He didn't pick it up. He couldn't. He looked at the spot on his desk where the Black Ledger had sat just a few days ago...the book that could send him to a federal cell for the rest of his l
22: The Ghost's Day Off
The front gates of Northwood University looked like a war zone. News vans with satellite dishes were parked across the sidewalk, and reporters in trench coats were shoving microphones into the faces of every student who walked by. The headline was everywhere: Thorne Empire Under Investigation. Inside the campus, the "Golden Spot" in the parking lot...the one Julian Thorne always took...was empty. It was just a square of asphalt, but to the students passing by, it looked like a grave. The rumors were moving faster than the Wi-Fi. Some said Julian was in a holding cell; others said he had fled to Switzerland.But there was another rumor starting to grow.The janitor was gone.Dean Arthur was currently locked in his office, his face was a sickly shade of grey. He had been staring at his phone for three hours. He had sent twenty-four texts to Leo’s burner number. None of them were answered. He felt like a man standing on a trapdoor with a frayed rope around his neck. If Leo had abandoned
23: The Ghost
The lunch hall at Northwood University was usually a place of shouting, expensive perfume, and the constant clink of cutleries. Not today. Today, the cafeteria felt like a funeral parlor where nobody liked the person in the casket.Groups of students sat huddled over their organic salads, their voices were low. Every time a phone buzzed on a tabletop, half the room jumped. They weren't looking at their grades. They were watching the live ticker of the Thorne family's downfall."I heard Marcus Thorne’s private jet was grounded by the feds an hour ago," a guy in a varsity jacket muttered, his face pale."If they can freeze a Thorne account, what do you think they can do to us?" his friend replied, staring into his coffee. "My dad called me three times this morning telling me to keep my head down. He’s terrified our firm is next on the audit list."The "Elite" weren't acting like predators anymore. They were acting like prey. The invincible wall they had built around themselves for years
24: Viper in the Hallway
Dean Arthur Sterling wasn't the man he used to be. The mahogany desk that usually made him feel like a god now felt like a life raft in a storm. It was 2:00 AM, and the only light in the office came from a tablet screen and a cheap desk lamp. He was drinking expensive scotch out of a crumpled paper cup, his hands shaking so much the liquid splashed over the rim.On the screen, a news banner scrolled by: MARCUS THORNE TAKEN IN FOR QUESTIONING REGARDING TAX EVASION AND BRIBERY.The Dean’s phone buzzed. It was another call from a blocked number...likely Marcus’s lawyers or the board of trustees. He stared at it, his eyes were bloodshot, his tie was undone and hanging around his neck like a rope. He was waiting for the world to end.The door to his office didn't creak. It just opened.The Dean jumped, his heart hitting his ribs. He expected campus security or the FBI. Instead, he saw the grey hoodie. Leo walked in with a silence that made the Dean’s skin crawl. He didn't knock. He didn't
25: The King of the Curb
The air in the Northwood library was thick with the scent of old paper and the low, constant clicking of laptop keys. Elena Vance sat at a corner table in the back of the stacks, her fingers we're tracing the delicate platinum chain around her neck. The blue diamond felt heavy against her skin, a cold weight that didn't belong in a world of textbooks and work-study shifts.After the incident in the hallway...the way Leo had effortlessly handled Sarah with a "slip" of a mop bucket...Elena had fled to the only place that felt quiet. Leo had told her to go to class, to stay in the light, but she couldn't focus. Her wrist still had the faint red marks from Sarah’s grip.She looked at her reflection in her darkened phone screen. She looked like a girl wearing a king’s ransom."It’s not yours."The voice didn't come from a librarian. It was a jagged, broken sound that made Elena’s blood turn to ice. She looked up and saw Julian Thorne standing at the end of the aisle.He looked like a ghost
26: The Ledger of Blood
Director Chen’s hands were shaking so much that the diamond rings on her fingers made a tiny clicking sound against the black obsidian table. It was the same table where she had called Leo a "decorative antique" only a few days ago. Now, the table felt like an island in a sinking ocean.Across from her, Halloway was wiping thick beads of sweat from his upper lip with a silk handkerchief. The boardroom of Blackwood Tower was cold, the air conditioning was blowing a steady, icy breeze that nobody noticed."He’s still not answering," Halloway said, his voice was cracking. He staring at his phone screen. "Marcus has been in that cell for six hours. The lawyers say the feds aren't talking. They have everything, Chen. They have the offshore logs. They have the construction kickbacks. How did they get the logs?"Chen didn't answer. She was staring at the large monitor on the wall. It showed the Blackwood stock price. It wasn't crashing. In fact, it was holding steady, as if the market knew s
27: The Ghost's Shadow
Leo pulled the heavy mahogany doors of the Blackwood boardroom shut behind him. The sound was sharp, like a gavel hitting a block. Inside that room, he had just ended three careers and reclaimed a throne, but his face didn't show any victory. He looked tired. He looked like he wanted to go to sleep for a year.Sebastian was now waiting in the hallway, holding a garment bag. He didn't ask Leo if he was tired. He could see the answer in the way Leo was already undoing his silk tie."The back exit, Sebastian," Leo said. His voice was low and gravelly. "I don't want the press or the security downstairs seeing me in this. To them, I'm still the kid who empties the bins in the lobby.""The car is idling in the basement, Chairman," Sebastian replied. He handed Leo a plain black hoodie and a pair of worn-out jeans.Leo stripped off the $30,000 suit jacket right there in the private corridor. He tossed it to Sebastian as if it were a piece of trash. He pulled the hoodie over his head, hiding t
28: Maya's Blood Pact
Silas Sterling didn't use the velvet chair in his study tonight. He was standing, his back was to the door, staring at the grid of security monitors. The Thorne family’s liquidation was scrolling in red text across his tablet. It was a massacre.The heavy steel door of the study creaked. Maya walked in. She was moving better than she had a few days ago, but the stiffness in her shoulders never truly went away. She stopped at the edge of the Persian rug, her eyes fixed on the floor."You did it, didn't you?" Silas asked. He didn't turn around. His voice was that low, vibrating growl that usually preceded the sound of leather hitting skin."Did what, Father?" Maya’s voice was a whisper."The audit." Silas turned around. His face was a mask of cold, concentrated rage. He held up a printout of the Thorne bank records. "The Ghost didn't just guess where the money was. Someone gave him the map. Someone with access to my private server.""I told you... I couldn't get close to the Proxy," May
29: The Fitting of the King
Leo didn't take the stairs. He walked out of the university basement and straight into the back of a blacked-out Cadillac that had been idling in the shadows for twenty minutes. The driver didn't say a word; he just floored it, the tires screamed as they left the campus. Leo sat in the back, his chest heaving. He ripped off the grey hoodie, tossing it onto the floorboards like a piece of trash. He looked at his hands. They weren't shaking, but his skin felt tight, his veins prominent against his knuckles.By the time the car reached the private elevator of the Blackwood Penthouse, Leo was already in his undershirt. He stood in the lift as it shot up sixty floors. He could feel the vibration of the city beneath his feet, but for the first time, he didn't feel like he owned it. He felt like the walls were closing in.The elevator doors slid open. The penthouse was silent, the only light coming from the moon and the glow of a dozen monitors. Sebastian was there, but he wasn't smiling. He
30: The Wolf Among Hawks
The driveway of the Van Doren estate was a graveyard of six-figure engines. The Rolls Royce moved through the line like a shark through a reef, its motor silent, barely disturbing the heavy night air. When the valet opened the door, a wall of camera flashes exploded, but Leo didn't blink.He stepped out, the midnight-black suit fitting him with a precision that made the security guards at the entrance stand straighter. He adjusted the matte-black wolf mask. The silver filigree traced the snarl of a predator, hiding every inch of the boy who had spent his morning mopping floors. Under the carbon fiber, his breath was slow and rhythmic.*Pulse: 62 BPM,* Sebastian’s voice whispered in his ear. *Stay cold, Leo. Every sensor in that house is looking for a heartbeat that doesn't belong.*Leo walked through the grand foyer. The air was thick with the scent of lilies and perfume so expensive it felt suffocating. As he entered the ballroom, the sea of gold and white masks parted. He was a blac