Don't Mess with the Girl with Candy novel Chapter 1406

"Miss Sloan..."

Seeing the sheer panic on her face, Professor Peter offered a warm, grandfatherly smile from the judges' panel.

"We will grant you five minutes to contact your source," Peter stated. "As long as you can produce the signed authorization and the raw data, we will accept your entry."

"I'll try."

Jenna immediately shot a desperate look toward a completely shell-shocked Professor Dawson.

He was just as stunned. Jenna had actually secured files from Dr. Nocturne?

Even he hadn't seen them! (He pouted internally).

"Professor, could you please call Juniper over?"

Jenna pleaded nervously. "I was too intimidated to ask for her number."

Juniper was easygoing enough, but she always had this cool, unapproachable aura.

Jenna had never worked up the courage to ask for her contact info.

"Huh?"

Dawson blinked, snapping out of his daze. "Juniper Payne? Oh, right! She's here today!"

Knowing his star student, he knew she wasn't the type to boast.

If she said she knew Dr. Nocturne, then she absolutely knew her.

"She's here?!"

Hope flared in Jenna's chest, a brilliant smile breaking through her anxiety. "Where is she?"

"Right there!"

Professor Dawson aggressively pointed his finger, and instantly, hundreds of eyes swiveled toward the dim corner where Juniper sat.

"She really showed up!" someone from the medical cohort whispered loudly. "Do you think she can actually call Dr. Nocturne on the spot?"

"Highly unlikely!"

Leland Landon scoffed loudly. "Did you see the guy sitting next to her? That's the CEO of the Schwartz Group, Shanley Schwartz!"

"With a billionaire fiancé backing her, forget some medical files, he could probably buy her the moon."

"Wait, are you implying... she bought the files off the black market, and Dr. Nocturne has no idea?"

A student next to him scratched his head, looking troubled.

Seeing no reaction, the host raised his microphone, his voice echoing loudly. "Are you refusing to respond because there is some hidden truth behind these files?"

"???"

The crowd's suspicion deepened. Because she was sitting so far back, all they saw was a girl refusing to look up, seemingly dodging the cameras.

Was she guilty?

She had to be!

If those files were stolen, she wouldn't just be getting Jenna disqualified—she'd be turning Eclara University into an international joke.

Anyone would be sweating bullets in her position.

"Miss Payne..." The host's voice rang out again, this time laced with visible annoyance.

The auditorium began to buzz, loud whispers of condemnation rippling through the rows.

Right at that moment.

A cold, resonant, and impossibly authoritative voice cut through the noise: "Give her a second."

The camera crew scrambled, panning slightly to the right, projecting a breathtakingly handsome, aristocratic face onto the jumbo screens.