Hannah looks at Seth.
Seth looks at the table.
"The framework — I came across it during my research." Her voice is still controlled but the edges are fraying. The slight speed. The slight pitch. "I adapted it. The core concept evolved significantly in my hands. That's not plagiarism, that's—"
"You just told this room you were Snow," Luke says. He hasn't moved. "That's not adaptation. That's identity theft."
The word lands. Identity theft. Not the technical legal kind. The other kind — where someone watches what you built from a distance, waits until your absence looks like vacancy, and moves into the space you left.
The room shifts. Heads turning. The quality of attention changing from polite competition interest into something harder.
Professor Seth stands. Slowly this time. "I'd li
