Chapter 2 — Solène POV :
One month.
I spent one month trying to cram years of medical study into my brain. Did it help?
Of course not.
You can't learn medicine in thirty days. Do you know what a posterior tibial artery is?
No? Me neither.
Arteria thoracodorsalis? Sounds like a dinosaur.
And hepatic portal vein? Yeah. No clue.
I dropped my head onto my desk, shoving my hair back with both hands. "I'm dead. They're going to know. First day? Try first hour."
And the whole French student cover? Please. My French skills were limited to croissant, au chocolat, and voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir. Not exactly academic material.
"C'est tous," I muttered. That's it. I was screwed.
My phone buzzed. Jorge.
"You alive?" he asked, casual, like I wasn't about to fake an entire medical education.
"Perfect," I deadpanned. "Tomorrow is my last day on Earth. I'm feeling amazing. Voilà."
He chuckled. "You'll be fine."
"I graduated once, Jorge. I was free. Now look at me—going back. Why me?"
He paused, and I could practically hear him thinking about Lara and Max. "You know why. Good luck."
Click. Call over. No emotional support hotline here.
That night, I didn't sleep. I lay awake, staring at the ceiling, picturing anatomy textbooks closing in like walls.
Morning hit like a slap. I took a cold shower just to stay upright. Drank three coffees. Three. Put on some makeup, nothing crazy, just enough to say I'm alive, and threw on a casual-but-cute outfit.
Then—knock at the door.
"Yeah?" I shouted.
Max. "Let's go."
I followed him downstairs. Lara was waiting by the car, leaning against it like she didn't secretly care way too much.
"Morning," she said. "We're driving you to the gates and then staking out nearby. Take this." She handed me a phone. "Numbers saved: Mom is me. Dad is Max."
I snorted. "Mom and Dad? Seriously?"
Lara rolled her eyes. "It wasn't my idea."
Max grinned proudly. "Mine."
"Obviously."
The drive to Blackwater University was silent for a while. Big, expensive, luxurious campus. Smelled like medicine and money. The kind of place where people got degrees and others disappeared.
I stared up at the main building. White stone. Glass walls. Clean. Cold. Dangerous.
Was I ready for this? No. Not even close.
But if it meant saving lives, stopping whatever sick experiment was happening here—I was going in.
I took a breath and stepped toward the doors.
Day one of Janette Marine.
Let the disaster begin.