It was nothing, really.
A phone on the table buzzed to life.
Jarrod spared it only a passing nce.
Unknown number.
He pressed decline.
Whoever was on the other end seemed to grow impatient and kept calling, again
and again.
In between flipping through The Harcourt Group''s files, Jarrod simply blocked the
number.
Elodie hadn''t rested for long.
Herst episode had caught everyone off guard.
There was still unfinished business at the research base-she needed to wrap up
phase one of the project.
She made her way to the hangar to test the new system.
System maintenance was a tedious process, requiring round after round of
diagnostics.
By the time she finished, evening was drawing near.
Walking from the hangar toward the data center, she crossed paths with Watts,
who had just stepped out of his car.
Ever since the incident a while back, Elodie hadn''t seen Watts in some time.
Watts caught sight of her-his usuallyposed expression flickered with
something unspoken.
He stood there, watching her.
Elodie barely nced up before returning her focus to the data sheets in her
hands.
The higher-ups were still investigating her im about the data tampering.
Clearly, it wasn''t a simple matter-there were no leads yet.
But Elodie had already figured out enough.
She knew exactly what kind of person she was dealing with.
She had no intention of speaking to Watts again.
She didn''t bother with a greeting, just turned to head upstairs.
But Watts called out first. "Elodie, can we talk?"
She had no choice but to stop.
There was no one else around; his voice was clear and direct.
Watts could see it inly-Elodie''s indifference, her refusal to even acknowledge
him.
He walked over, eyes lowered,
regarding her. "You''ve been avoiding
me, haven''t you? There''s really no
need I''m just here to hand in my
resignation from the project team."
Elodie turned to the side, expression unreadable.
She didn''t dignify that with a response.
Watts gave a helpless shrug. "You think I set you up, don''t you? The data
tampering, your suspension... all of it?"
Elodie closed the folder, her voice
calm and without a trace of anger.
Whether you did or didn''t doesn''t
matter. You''re just a colleague.
Office politics don''t interest me."
Watts'' eyes darkened at that.
Elodie turned and walked away.
He could only watch her go.
Only now did the full weight of her detachment hit him-cold and unmistakable.
A colleague?
Irrelevant?
Her tone had been almost gentle, emotionless, yet the wordsnded with a sting
that left him deeply unsettled.
Watts frowned, storm clouds gathering in his usually easygoing eyes.
He barely noticed.
Something else was nagging at him.
Patricia''s call.
He climbed back into his car.
"I called him, and every time he just
blocked me! I only wanted to invite
him to my exhibition! Is that too
much to ask?" Patricia''s voice was
edged with anger and
agitation-party music thumped in
the background, half-drowned by her
frustration.
Watts frowned in silence.
He knew Patricia wasn''t in a great ce these days.
Her parents had split. She''d grown up mostly abroad, unsupervised, with a
temperament that could swing to extremes.
And then there was...
Patricia had been adopted by the Aldridge family.
Years ago, she''d made a scene about not being their biological child.
Especially when it came to Jarrod-anything involving him was a minefield. A few
years back, Jarrod''s indifference had sent her into a tailspin.
For months, she couldn''t even hear his name.
She''d either lose herself in her art, refusing food and sleep, or drown her pain in
alcohol.
Watts knew that artists-especially those with some fame-often ledplicated
lives. Patricia, given her background, was more vtile than most.
"Where are you?" Watts'' voice was cold. Patricia''s current state worried him.
"Tell me," she said, sidestepping his question, "if I dragged Elodie to my
exhibition, Jarrod would have to show up, wouldn''t he?"