Chapter 980
The first light of dawn broke over the horizon.
A sleek luxury car sat idling outside the Marington College dormitories.
It was the private transport Serena had arranged for the team.
Caleb, Vanessa, and Jasper stood by the car, dressed in the sharp, custom- designed team uniforms.
They looked formidable.
But beneath the surface, the nervous tension was palpable.
This was the Marington Elite Scholarship Gauntlet.
It was the highest stage they had ever dreamed of reaching.
And it was their only chance p>
To expose the Doyle family’s atrocities and save the rest of the sponsored students.
They swallowed hard, trying to keep their adrenaline in check.
Ten minutes passed.
Lydia still hadn’t come downstairs.
“This is strange p>
Caleb checked his watch, frowning deeply. “Lydia is obsessive about being punctual. We agreed to meet at six, and it’s almost quarter past. Where is she p>
Being late wasn’t in Lydia’s DNA.
She was the type to show up thirty minutes early to everything.
Her absence was highly alarming.
Jasper paced nervously around the car. “We have to be at the stadium by eight, and the first round starts at nine… Lydia knows the schedule better than any of us. Why isn’t she here p>
Caleb pulled out his phone and dialed her number.
It went straight to voicemail.
His heart skipped a beat, and he looked at Vanessa. “Try calling her p>
Both of them tried repeatedly, their expressions growing more frantic by the second. “Nothing. It’s not going through p>
Vanessa’s hands began to tremble. “This isn’t right. Lydia would never drop the ball today. She’s the kind of person who would crawl to an exam with a high fever. There’s no way she’s late for this, and she definitely wouldn’t turn her phone off p>
A sickening dread coiled in Caleb’s stomach.
His knuckles turned white as he gripped his phone.
“Vanessa, go check her dorm. See
she’s sick he said, forcing miner
to stay
y level.
Vanessa nodded and sprinted into the building.
Less than five minutes later.
Vanessa stumbled back out, her face ashen and her eyes welling with tears.
She was shaking violently. “Caleb, it’s bad… Her roommates said she never came back last night. They
just assumed she was pulling annet
all-nighter with us to prep for the competition so
they didn’t think
anything of it p>
Lydia had been missing all night?
Caleb’s mind went blank, the blood draining from his face.
A chill seeped into his bones, freezing him in place.
An image flashed through his mind p>
His grandmother, lying frail and lifeless in the hospital bed just hours ago.
“The Doyles… it’s the Doyles p>
Caleb looked at Vanessa and Jasper with absolute dread. “They took her p>
There was no other explanation for Lydia vanishing right before the Gauntlet.
Because they failed to break him.
They immediately pivoted to Lydia.
Cowards! Despicable!
Vanessa and Jasper froze in absolute horror.
Their eyes widened in panic.
The Doyles p>
They took Lydia right before the competition?
The realization hit them like a freight train.
The Doyles used students as lab rats for illicit drugs.
If they had Lydia… she was walking straight into a death trap!