Chapter 114

Several people around the room turned to look at Elena.

She was well known in the department.

She was one of the strongest dancers in the program, striking enough to draw attention wherever she went, and even casual clips of her practicing in class had gone viral after classmates posted them online.

Yet everyone also knew that her own social media had very little dance content.

Most of what she used to post was makeup, jewelry, and pieces of her everyday life. Even then, she hadn't updated in weeks, and recently, most of her older posts had disappeared altogether.

A few people knew why.

Her ex-boyfriend had never liked strangers online calling her their wife or sending her inappropriate messages. Elena herself hated the harassment, and Adrian had always been generous with her, so she'd never needed the money badly enough to tolerate it just for the sake of building an audience.

Besides, Westbridge wasn't exactly easy on its students.

Still, most of that was speculation.

And it belonged to the past now.

"I'm entering," Elena said.

The girl with the BVLGARI bracelet blinked.

Her surprise quickly turned to confusion.

"Wait. Elena, do you realize what you're working with?"

Elena looked at her.

"With your face, you could post some random cosplay video and probably go viral overnight. If you actually have time to spare, why not go on something with real exposure first? Get famous."

Elena considered that.

"And then?"

"And then?"

The girl raised an eyebrow.

"You monetize it. Brand deals, paid appearances, management contracts. Attention is money. With your looks and your dance background, build a big enough following and you could be making six figures from sponsorships and appearances alone. And if a production company or casting director noticed you, even better."

Elena was silent for two seconds.

Six figures?

She thought briefly of the properties Richard had given her.

Then of the jewelry.

Never mind.

There was absolutely no reason to say any of that out loud.

Elena liked money too.

Very much, actually.

But right now, she had the luxury of choosing something for a different reason.

Someone had given her enough support that she could spend time doing what she genuinely liked.

Elena looked up.

"I think I'd still rather see my name printed in a book."

The classroom quieted slightly.

"One that sits in a library," she continued. "Something somebody might still pick up years from now."

The girl with the bracelet opened her mouth, then closed it again.

For once, she seemed to have nothing to say.

The round-faced guy with glasses quietly gave Elena a thumbs-up.

A student sitting nearby leaned toward her.

"So how are you going to write the research part?"

"No idea."

Elena tilted her head.

"I've decided to start by reading a lot."

That afternoon, Elena showered after training and left the studio exhausted.

Halfway to the library, she remembered something.

She had forgotten lunch.

Again.

Elena stopped walking.

Hopefully a certain someone wouldn't ask about that tonight.

She continued toward the library.

At one of the search terminals, she began typing in keywords.

motor control and neuroscience

embodied cognition

cross-cultural nonverbal communication

evolution of human movement and expression

mirror neuron systems and imitation

Some of the terminology was difficult enough that she had to stop and think about what it actually meant before she could even make sense of the abstracts.

After a while, the words on the screen started blurring together.

It took her far longer than expected to find material that seemed useful.

She spent the rest of the afternoon in an interdisciplinary section of the library, moving between books, journal databases, and increasingly incomprehensible abstracts.

By early evening, she had accumulated a stack of books that looked far more ambitious than she felt.

The library was beginning to empty.

Elena checked out the books, carried them back to the parking garage with considerable difficulty, and dropped the stack onto the passenger seat of her Audi.

"Excuse me."

A younger student passing nearby glanced at the books.

"You probably shouldn't leave those on the seat. If you have to brake hard, anything heavy can become a projectile."

Elena looked at the stack.

Then at the student.

"You're right."

She sighed.

"But judging by traffic at this hour, I'll be lucky if this car reaches twenty miles an hour before I get home."

The student paused.

"...Fair point."

Elena stared at the books for another second.

Then, despite everything she had just said, she picked them back up and moved them into the trunk.

Better not to tempt fate.

By the time the Audi finally crawled through evening traffic and reached home, it was completely dark outside.

The entry hall was quiet.

The butler came forward as Elena stepped inside.

"Mr. Sterling just got back as well—"

Before he could finish, Richard appeared from farther inside the house.

He walked straight toward her and naturally took the stack of books from her arms.

Elena had needed both hands to carry them.

Richard tucked the entire stack against one side with a single arm, one broad hand supporting the books from underneath.

His dress shirt was open at the collar, the top two buttons undone.

His eyes moved over Elena first, then dropped to the books in his arm.

He stopped.

The book on top was a blue-gray hardcover. A fine network of interconnected neurons spread across the lower corner of the cover.

The Emergence of Movement: Embodied Cognition, Mirror Systems, and Cross-Cultural Nonverbal Communication.

Below the subtitle was the author's name.

Dr. Owen Ward.

Richard stared at it for a moment.

Then he tapped the cover lightly with one finger.

"Dr. Ward."

Elena leaned closer and looked up at him.

"You know the author?"

Richard was silent for a beat.

"He was a senior visiting scholar at the university when I was there. His work focused on nonverbal social signaling through the framework of evolutionary biology."

Elena stared at him.

"Can you say that like a normal person?"

Richard looked down at her.

"I took his class."