CHAPTER 18: The Summit Revelation

The International Medical Advancement Summit was invitation-only.

An event where the world's top researchers, doctors, and innovators gathered every year to present breakthroughs in medicine. It was not a place for undergrads. It was not a place for someone not officially registered in the academic system.

And yet Isabella Lin stood on the stage.

Clad in a minimalist black dress coat and heels, hair swept into a sleek knot, she looked older than eighteen and sharper than most of the so-called experts in the crowd.

The panel was already murmuring.

"Who invited her?"

"She doesn't even have credentials—"

"She's that Thompson girl—illegitimate, maybe?"

But none of them had read the abstract submitted under a pseudonym.

None of them knew the formula she was about to unveil had already been secretly tested with unprecedented success rates.

Victor Blackwood stood at the back of the auditorium, arms folded, hidden in the shadows with Markus beside him.

"That's her?" Markus asked quietly.

Victor didn't answer.

He was too busy watching the woman he'd kissed last night command the attention of Nobel Prize winners like it was her birthright.

And maybe it was.

Isabella adjusted the mic.

"I was asked to explain the mechanism behind the compound codenamed V-2135," she began, her voice calm, cold, and deliberate.

One of the lead researchers on the panel frowned. "That's classified. We only received results last week."

"I submitted it," she said.

A stunned silence followed.

Then she lifted a hand and clicked the remote in her palm.

A projection appeared behind her—chemical chains, formulas, test results. The compound was real. Verified. Impossible to fake.

"I created V-2135 three years ago," she continued. "Under the name 'Arca.'"

Gasps spread across the audience.

Arca. The underground codename for the anonymous prodigy whose emergency formulations had saved high-ranking patients around the world. Whose cures had appeared out of nowhere, always at the last moment.

"Impossible," someone muttered.

Isabella met his gaze. "Then disprove it."

Victor watched her, unmoving.

She wasn't even trying to prove herself.

She was just… being.

Undeniably brilliant.

Undeniably hers.

After her segment, Isabella didn't linger. She descended the stairs and moved past the gawking crowd with measured poise, cutting through whispers like smoke through glass.

But when she reached the lobby—Victor was already there.

Waiting.

Her heels clicked to a halt.

"You followed me here," she said.

He stepped closer. "I wanted to see you. The real you."

She frowned. "And what did you see?"

"A woman who could dismantle a world... or save it," he said softly.

Their eyes locked.

And for once, he didn't try to touch her. Didn't smirk. Didn't push.

He just stood there—watching her like a man who had found something priceless… and knew he wasn't worthy of it yet.

Later that night, a message blinked on her screen.

[AshenWolf]: "They all saw you tonight. But I've known who you were long before they did."

She stared at the screen.

And for the first time, replied without hesitation.

[SkyeEcho]: "Then you're either a genius… or a fool."

[AshenWolf]: "Maybe both. But I think I'm falling for a ghost."

And for a moment, Isabella Lin let herself feel—

Just a little.

Next Chapter Teaser: Victor begins connecting more dots—Isabella's investments, her racing record, her suspicious absences. But when he confronts her, she's not defensive—she's dangerous.