Chapter 81
Tobias had been betrayed by his own student–and he genuinely believed Elara had willingly handed over her research to Harold.
It gnawed at him for years. So, when he saw Elara again five years later, his emotions were a tangled mess, stuck. like a bone in his throat.
Theodore asked, “Do you still have an old copy of your paper?”
Elara lifted a hand to cover her stinging eyes.
“My old laptop was ruined. Someone spilled milk on it, and it never turned back on after it crashed… Later, the housekeeper threw it away as trash”
Beau was even younger at the time. While she held him in her arms, he had accidentally knocked over a glass of milk. The liquid had spilled straight onto her laptop’s keyboard.
Her first instinct had been to pull Beau away, making sure he hadn’t been burned. She had soothed him for a long while before he was willing to leave her arms.
By the time she had turned back to her laptop, the screen was already blue.
Panicked, she had reached out to Harvey for help, hoping he could get one of his tech specialists to recover her files.
“My engineers aren’t here to fix your laptop. Find someone else.”
“That laptop has all my university research!”
“You dropped out. Whatever a mere undergrad wrote, does that even count as research?”
His voice had been laced with alcohol, deep and languid, while Niamh’s laughter rang out beside him.
“Harvey, who’s calling?”
“Spam.” The call had then ended with a cold click
Hot tears slipped silently down her face. Clutching her broken laptop, she had gone from repair shop to repair shop, hoping for a miracle.
Every technician had taken one look at it and shaken their heads.
When she was on her way to the fourth repair shop in the middle of the night, her phone rang. It was Ethel.
“Where the hell have you been running around? Why aren’t you at home taking care of your kids?”
“There are housekeepers at home…”
“Beau cries when he doesn’t see you. I don’t care what you’re doing–get back here immediately!”
Elara sat on a chair, wrapping her arms around her bent knees. Once, her children had been the one thing she couldn’t bear to let go of
But now.
She couldn’t help but ask herself this. What exactly had marriage and motherhood brought her?
Her long, black hair cascaded down like silk. As she rested her cheek against her knee, she took a deep breath, inhaling the dampness in her nose.
+25 BONUS
“I let Dr. Snapp down.”
Biting her lower lip, she knew–even if Harold had stolen her research, she had no proof.
Theodore’s voice that was warm and unwavering cut through her despair.
“Don’t cry over spilled milk. If Harold climbed up by stepping on you, then you’ll just have to drag him right back down.”
Early the next morning, the ALI Math Competition Commitee released a five–hour–long video of Elara’s preliminary exam on their official social media.
The caption read:
“This is the full surveillance footage of Elara’s preliminary round. Anyone who can prove she cheated will receive a 100–thousand–dollar reward.”
Within a minute, over 100 thousand people had tuned in. Netizens pulled out their metaphorical magnifying glasses, eager to analyze every frame.
The ALI Math Competition had strict rules. Contestants were required to set up five cameras at their testing location, each positioned at precise angles and distances.
Every contestant was captured in 360–degree surveillance, with at least one camera placed 15 feet away to ensure no one could feed them answers.
On top of that, their computer screens were monitored in real–time.
This level of scrutiny was what made the ALI Math Competition so prestigious.
With the 100 thousand dollars bounty on the line, major streamers rushed to go live, hoping to find any shred of evidence that Elara had cheated.
Netizens were determined–even if there was only the slightest flaw, they’d blow it up. Then, under the watchful eyes of thousands, Elara appeared in the footage
“Holy shit! She’s gorgeous!”
“Why did no one tell me Elara Jones is a total knockout?
