Chapter 27 - The Hudson Crossing
By three o'clock that afternoon, the Faculty House was surrounded by news vans, satellite trucks, and flashing police cruisers. Live reporters from CNN, MSNBC, and the New York Times were already broadcasting aerial shots of the campus quad, narrating the shocking collapse of one of the nation's oldest academic corruption scandals.
Casey walked down the grand stone steps of Philosophy Hall into the crisp October air, breathing in the scent of falling leaves and wood smoke. Her academic career at Columbia was officially over—not because she had failed, but because the institution itself had imploded under the weight of its own criminal history.
As she reached the iron gates of the campus, a familiar black sedan idling by the curb flashed its headlights twice.
The passenger door swung open. Dominic sat behind the wheel, looking relaxed in his dark coat, tapping his fingers lightly against the steering wheel to the rhythm of a jazz song playing softly on the radio.
"Need a ride, Doctor?" he asked, leaning across the center console with a genuine, unhurried smile.
Casey didn't hesitate. She pulled her coat tighter against the wind, slid into the passenger seat, and pulled the heavy door shut, locking out the noise of the campus and the reporters shouting questions behind them.
"Where are we going?" she asked as Dominic shifted into gear and pulled smoothly into the Morningside Heights traffic.
"We're heading back up to Beacon," Dominic said, glancing over at her with a warm, assessing look. "Alistair is brewing a pot of very strong black coffee, and your mother called from Columbus ten minutes ago to say her discharge papers cleared ahead of schedule. She wants to know if we have room for her in the guest house."
Casey felt a genuine, unburdened laugh bubble up from deep inside her chest—the first real laugh she had shared in over a year.
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"Tell her the guest house has a magnificent view of the Hudson," she said, leaning her head back against the leather headrest as the New York skyline began to recede in the rearview mirror. "And tell her I finally finished my dissertation."
Dominic chuckled, pressing down gently on the gas pedal as the sedan accelerated northward toward the open road and the quiet mountains beyond.
