Seven Years Of Votes And Always One Short Chapter 06

Dad fumbled for his phone and dialed Jo’s number.

“We’re sorry, the number you dialed is not in service.”

He dialed again.Still no answer.

Mom’s face paled, and she shook as she punched in Jo’s number.

The cold automated voice echoed from the speaker.

Mom’s voice shattered.

“She blocked me…”.

On pure reflex, Miles pulled up WhatsApp to message her.

His thumb swiped a few times and stopped cold.

He’d forgotten. He didn’t have Jo on WhatsApp. Never had.

Back then, she had stood there blushing, holding up her code and asking him to scan it.

He’d brushed her off, claiming her profile picture was too hick..

It hit Grandma all at once.

“Head for the airport! She must be boarding a plane for France. Hurry and stop her!”

The whole family bolted out the doors in a stampede.

Pearl trailed after them, then spoke up. “Did Jo do this on purpose? If she’s that brilliant, why did

she never tell us?”

“Was she waiting to watch us humiliate ourselves?”

Mom stopped dead and swung around to face her.

Her tone held a sharp edge no one had heard before.

“Jojo is not that kind of person.”

Pearl’s face locked up, her eyes flooding red on the spot.

But no one came to coddle her.

Mom was already gone.

Dad went for the car with a face like thunder.

Miles kept his head down, scrolling through flight details.

For the first time, no one spared her a backward glance.

Back inside, the banquet hall had descended into bedlam.

Guests whispered heads together, phones aloft everywhere.

The news alerts had already reached some of them, and gasps kept rippling through the crowd.

Grandma kept her smile propped up by sheer will, fending off the reporters.

“Viewers, we’re live at the Sherman estate. Professor Jo Linley is said to be the Sherman heiress.

Let’s see where she stayed!”

He pushed open the storage room door and asked pointedly.

“Is this where Professor Jo Linley lived?”

Grandma hurried after him, her face livid.

“No, you’ve got the wrong room.”

She pointed toward a guest room at the far end of the hallway.

“That is the room prepared for Jojo!”

But the moment that door swung open, it was kibble bags and dog toys from wall to wall

Not a trace of a human being

The live comutuents wat laes berk

dang your own bath daughter live in a stage mum? How can anyone do that?)

[This is wild, Fermat Prize winner stuck in storage tule the dog gets the guest bedroom?)

Is this the refinement of a century-old prominent family?

The guests drained out of the banquet hall, savoring the show as they went.

“So the Shermans turned away a Fermat laureate, but the dog made it into the family Bible?”

“Acentury-old dynasty? More like a century-old punchline.”

“They throw their own daughter out the door and cradle their adopted one like the crown jewel?”

“Does Professor Linley need the Shermans’ blessing? The woman holds tenure at France’s most prestigious university!”

Grandma stood in the doorway, her knuckles white.

She tried to explain, but cameras were trained on her, and for the first time she saw every word she said would sound wrong.

The meticulously planned broadcast of a “century-old dynasty’s grand reunion” had curdled into one long joke.

By the time Mom, Dad, and Miles reached the airport, Jo’s flight had long since lifted off.

In the end, it was a reporter who couldn’t stand to watch any longer and suggested they contact her

doctoral advisor.

The family rushed to the university next.

Her advisor’s voice was thick with confusion.

“Jo’s family? But isn’t Jo an orphan? Every holiday, all these years, she stayed on campus. She never once mentioned having a home to go back to.”

Mom and Dad went silent on the spot.

Miles hurried forward. “Professor, when will Jo be back?”

The advisor took a moment before answering.

“She left yesterday for her position in France. She won’t be back for years.”

Mom’s voice was clogged with tears. “Professor, would you take us to see where she lived?”