The Return of the Campus Trillionaire

CHAPTER 44

The clinic doors slid shut with a soft, mechanical hiss.

Jared stood just outside them, hands in his pockets, watching as Becky helped Brad into the back seat of the car. Her movements were efficient—careful but distant, like someone performing a duty rather than offering comfort. She didn’t look back. Not once.

Brad did.

Their eyes met briefly. Brad gave him a small nod—not hostile, not warm either. Just acknowledgement. Then the door closed, the engine started, and the car pulled away into the night.

Jared stayed where he was.

For a long moment, he didn’t move at all. He simply watched the empty space where the car had been, as if expecting it to reverse, as if Becky might suddenly lean out the window and call his name, tell him to stop standing there like an idiot.

Nothing happened.

The night air felt colder than it had earlier, biting through his suit jacket. He exhaled slowly, a thin cloud of breath leaving his lips, and finally turned away from the clinic.

This was new.

Jared wa