Chapter 80
Elara pressed the answer button. “Hello, Mr. Snapp.”
Her voice was distant and polite, stripping away any hint of late–night intimacy.
The man’s deep, magnetic voice came through. “I saw the ending news.”
Elara immediately asked, “How is Dr. Snapp?”
“He’s asleep.”
Hearing that Tobias wasn’t affected by the online rumors, Dara let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Theodore added, “I may have slipped him two sleeping pills to make sure he actually got some rest.”
Elara was baffled by this.
She hesitated before asking cautiously, “Was he very angry after reading the accusations online?”
“What made him shake with rage wasn’t the cheating allegations–it was the fact that his past conflict with Harold Judd from four years ago was dragged up again.
“Now, everyone thinks he was just jealous of a rising talent and deliberately tried to suppress Harold.”
After leaving Capitol University
guilt and unease had pushed Elara to block out anything related to her former school. Because of that, she had no idea what Tobias had gone through after she left.
“I personally know Harold Judd as well.” Elara spoke up.
Harold was Rosalie’s husband–she had seen him a few times at family gatherings.
He always wore thick black–rimmed glasses, had an average appearance, and dressed plainly. He wasn’t talkative, but he was perceptive.
Harold was quick to read the room, and he was diligent enough that the elder members of the Fisher family never found fault with him.
Compared to Elara, who had the Jones family as her backing, Harold was truly from humble beginnings.
Born in a small, struggling town in the north, he clawed his way up through sheer determination. He got into Havenford University University, then pushed himself even harder to earn a spot in Capitol University’s PhD program, eventually securing a teaching position there.
Rosalie was completely infatuated with what she called Harold’s “intellectually sexy brain“.
At the beginning of the year, she bragged to anyone who would listen that Harold’s position as dean was secured- that he was about to become the youngest dean in Capitol University’s history.
Elara remembered that Harold was also in the field of mathematics.
“Did something happen between Harold and Dr. Snapp?”
“You probably haven’t. read the paper Harold published four years ago. I’ll send it to you.”
Confused, Elara opened her laptop. As soon as she received the file Theodore sent, she clicked on it. She barely got a quarter of the way through before her hand trembled on the mouse.
How could this be…
1/2
Chapter B
Under the cool glow of the screen, her face gradually drained of color.
Every line she read felt like a sharp blade slicing through her chest as Harold’s paper for an incare resemblance to her doctoral research.
Then, she saw it her exact research data embedded within his paper.
It felt as if an invisible hand had clenched around her heart, squeezing it so tightly that it collapsed in on itself, choking the air from her lungs.
Elara forgot she was still on the phone until Theodore’s voice pulled her back to reality. By then, she was ice–cold all over, and all her fingers had gone numb.
“My father discovered that Harold’s paper was essentially a rewritten version of your PhD research. He was furious. He directly called out Harold for plagiarizing his student’s work and tried to contact you, but your number was no longer in service.
“Harold told my father that you two were relatives, and that you had willingly given him your research before” leaving academia to become a housewife. He said it’s good to ‘keep it in the family.‘
“My father was so enraged he ended up hospitalized. He forcibly blocked Harold’s application for a professorship, making quite a few enemies in the process. But six months later, Harold’s paper got published in an SCI journal, and his reputation skyrocketed.”
“I never gave my paper to Harold!”
Elara barely recognized her own voice–it was hoarse, and raw, like a wound torn open. “He stole my research!”
Four years had passed before she finally realized what had happened. Her work had been stolen, rewritten, and published in an SCI journal.
Harold had ridden her research straight to success. And now, she finally understood–Tobias’s resentment toward her wasn’t just disappointment.
It was a deep, unresolved betrayal.
