Tempted Trapped and Too Late to Run novel Chapter 362

By five o'clock the next morning, Clara was already up and about. She got straight to work, organizing all the strengths and weaknesses of the Bradford Group and sifting through an overwhelming eighty pages of documents. The deeper she went, the more confident she felt in handling all that information.

She remembered seeing some pretty impressive certificates before, some of the toughest to earn in the finance world. It made her wonder what she had been doing with her life until now. But that thought was fleeting as she quickly got back to work, sorting the documents. The way things were going with the Bradford Group, they had maybe two more years to turn things around. If they didn't catch the next big wave in tech, not even a miracle could save them.

Not long after she settled into the office, Scarlette called.

“Nicholas is gonna be giving a talk at Center College soon. The next five years are gonna be huge for AI, and there's this genius from Center College that everyone wants to snatch up. Are you thinking about making a move?” Scarlette asked.

This was right up the Bradford family's alley since they were in electronics. But their sales had been tanking because they just couldn’t keep up with the times. The old-school management kept pushing outdated TVs and air conditioners, only appealing to the older crowd.

Smart homes were the new trend, and AI was about to explode, with all sorts of robots coming into play. Having an AI genius on board was like striking gold.

Scarlette added, “Isn't your brother into this stuff?”

Clara's heart sank at the mention of her brother.

Scarlette, realizing she'd touched a nerve, tried to recover quickly. Everyone knew the Bradford family's situation, and Clara was too famous in their circles. People were just waiting for her to stumble.

“Clara...” Scarlette started, but Clara cut in.

“I’ll head over to Center College,” Clara replied, her determination rekindled.

Seeing Clara's spark return, Scarlette felt relieved.

With plenty of time on her hands, Clara hung up and drove to Center College. But just as she was getting close, Dylan's car accidentally bumped into hers.

She was ready to lose her cool and confront the driver, but then she recognized the license plate. Clara froze, suddenly feeling guilty. Hadn’t she promised Dylan a meal after the land deal was sorted out? But then Eden's drama had thrown her off, and she’d completely forgotten about it.

Since Dylan was at fault, she was ready to let it slide and get back in her car when his window rolled down.

Caught off guard, she couldn’t just ignore him, so she walked over.