Chapter 134 Chapter 134

Chapter 134 Chapter 134
“Stop talking such childish nonsense!” Rosana hissed, her patience wearing thin.
Rosana, who just a second ago had been the kind mother, slammed her phone down on the table, ignoring the end of the video where the million-dollar earring appeared.
“Eliane Crispim lived in Américo and was just a mediocre teacher at an elementary school out in the countryside. Katherine was one of her country-bumpkin students. Back then, Eliane felt a lot of compassion for the girl. She thought she was a poor orphan abandoned by her relatives, so she took very good care of her out of pity. She often invited her over for dinner at her humble home, and over time the two formed an unhealthy mother-daughter bond. That’s all there is to it.
Nísia was still suspicious. Her instinct told her there were missing pieces in the puzzle.
“Mom, how do you know these details about the countryside so well? At the last parent-teacher meeting, your interaction with Mrs. Crispim didn’t seem familiar to me at all. You acted like strangers.”
Rosana waved her hand, dismissing the question impatiently, a cold gleam in her eyes.
“Don’t worry about those little things from the past. Just focus on your future.” You need to do perfectly well in this Saturday’s Chemistry Competition. Only then, by bringing home the prize and glory for the Lutz family, will I have the perfect justification to take you back home. We’ll talk about the rest of the gossip later.
After saying that, Rosana lowered her eyes to her crystal wine glass. She was deeply pensive for a few moments.
And suddenly, a terrible and brilliant idea blossomed in her calculating mind.
An idea that would allow Nísia to completely crush Katherine Lutz in the Chemistry Competition, eliminating the girl once and for all, without it looking like an “accident.”
Rosana raised her eyes, staring at Nísia with frightening intensity, and asked in a whisper:
— Nísia... you said you heard the argument. Does Professor Eliane Crispim usually send or prepare special food for Katherine Lutz to eat at college?
Nísia chewed a piece of lobster and replied, shrugging:
— I’m not entirely sure if it’s every day, but judging by her daughter Mirela’s outburst, it must be true. After all, if it weren’t a pattern of pampering and special meals, why would Mirela be so mad with jealousy that she’d scream in the hallway?
Rosana lightly touched her protruding pregnant belly. A few fine lines of cruelty formed around her eyes, and a predatory, dark, and much more evident smile appeared on her face.
“I see. So… things are going to be incredibly easy for us.”
Nísia blinked, intrigued and a little frightened by her mother’s expression.
“What’s easy?”
Rosana served her a spoonful of creamy soup with sadistic slowness.
“Listen carefully, my daughter. Since the last monthly exam, your father has drastically changed his opinion of Katherine. For this National Chemistry Competition on Saturday… although Daniel hasn’t said so explicitly so as not to hurt your pride, I know very well that he also has high expectations regarding that girl’s genius.” Do you understand what I’m saying? If she wins and brings home the gold, the Lutz family will adopt her as their new prodigy heir. And you will be forgotten.
The food in Nísia’s mouth suddenly took on a bitter taste of wax and ashes. Her eyes widened in panic.
“Then… this time I have to defeat her no matter what, fair or foul!” Nísia hissed. “Otherwise, I’ll have no place in this family in the future!”
“Exactly,” Rosana smiled deeply, a smile that would make the devil himself recoil. “And securing your victory won’t be difficult at all. Eliane herself will do the dirty work for us.”
On the other hand, completely oblivious to the Lutzes’ disgusting schemes, Katherine had charted a very different course after classes ended.
With the exam just hours away, and it already being a hot Friday night, she didn’t go home to review the periodic table.
Instead, she got in her car and drove straight to the imposing campus of USP.
From 6:30 p.m. until exactly 8:30 p.m., she spent two full hours locked away in one of the university’s state-of-the-art laboratories, rented under a false name. There, in total isolation, she worked meticulously on the olfactory development of LM’s new, luxurious line of perfumes.
The giant LM corporation was a global empire in the daily-use chemicals and cosmetics sector. And she, under the untouchable identity of Josiane, was personally and exclusively involved only in the high-end perfumery sector and rare aromatic formulas. The rest of the empire—bath products, lotions, and makeup—was managed with an iron fist by directors and highly specialized employees who had never seen her face.
Of course, as the hidden majority shareholder and mastermind behind the brand, the final decision on any LM Group launch still rested in her hands, so her daily life was far from the quiet existence of a typical college student.
At exactly 8:33 p.m., after balancing the base notes of the new fragrance, she took off her white lab coat, closed the heavy, reinforced door of the laboratory, and left the sterile storage room.
She walked to a private rest area off the laboratory. She chose a fragrant, earthy, and refreshing incense from a velvet-lined drawer and lit it in an antique bronze burner. Tenuous, lazy wisps of milky white smoke began to rise from the edges of the burner, purifying the chemical-laden air and intoxicating her senses with a scent of peace.
Feeling her stomach growl, she opened the mini-fridge, which, to her disappointment, wasn’t exactly “full of food” as she remembered, but rather filled with loose ingredients.
With her delicate chin resting on her index finger, she thought for a moment and finally accepted culinary defeat. She grabbed a can of cold craft beer. Then she found a package of imported, super-spicy instant noodles in the cabinet. To add a touch of luxury to the misery, she added two sliced sausages and a perfectly boiled egg, poured in the boiling water, covered it, and waited the long three minutes.
She placed the steaming bowl of noodles on a small glass side table, walked over to the room’s enormous skylight, sank into a soft and absurdly comfortable leather chair, and picked up a small portable telescope to gaze at the night sky.
The huge glass window framed a square piece of the universe. The night sky was clear, free of light pollution, and filled with cold, radiant stars.
Katherine took a sip of her beer, gazing at the constellations. Each star suspended in the darkness seemed to hold an ancient, unknown story that could touch the heart of anyone who cared to look up.
In that rare, tranquil, and deeply pleasant moment, the peace was shattered by the vibrating buzz of her cell phone in her pocket.