?Chapter 198:


    She forced a smile. “Mr. Briggs, about yesterday—it was a mistake. Let’s not take it too seriously. Just pretend it never happened, okay?”


    William’s expression didn’t change, but something flickered in his eyes. Pretend it never happened?


    She had run away like he was some kind of disease, and now she wanted to erase the momentpletely?


    His jaw tightened, but he said nothing.


    Meanwhile, Ste spun around and left for work without another word. She wasn’t going to dwell on this.


    At theb, her team was moving into phase two of the experiment. The first phase had been sessful—spirits were high.


    But then the morning fell apart. The tests failed. Again. And again. They couldn’t pinpoint the issue. Every critical point triggered a new error.


    By lunchtime, theb felt like a pressure cooker.


    “What are we even doing?” Sandra slumped in her chair, exasperated. “We crushed phase one, but now we can’t get past the start of phase two?”


    Everyone was frustrated.


    The progress should have been easier, given their aplishments with the first phase.


    Why were they not making any progress?


    Ste tried to keep morale up. “Take a breath, all of you. We’ve done it once, we’ll do it again. Let’s eat and reset—we’lle back with fresh ideas.”


    Setbacks were part of science. She knew that. A good leader stayed calm. But not everyone agreed. Standing near the equipment table, Cecelia scoffed. “Easy for you to say, Sylvia. You didn’t even touch the equipment today—you’ve been on data sorting all morning. No wonder you think it’s ‘no big deal.''”


    The others, hearing Cecelia’s outburst, tried to calm the situation before it got out of hand.


    Sylvia’s non-participation in that day’s hands-on experiment was part of the team’s division ofbor—it had nothing to do with her personal abilities.


    “Cecelia, we’re all team members here. I’m sure Sylvia also hopes we can finish the experiment soon, so there’s no need for suchments,” Sandra said, stepping in to mediate.


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    But Cecelia wasn’t done. She set the equipment down and turned, arms crossed, her voiceced with contempt. “Really? Why can’t we talk about herck of ability? Isn’t she always hanging around with William? She used her connections to unfairly get in our team, and even if our group gets eliminated, it won’t affect her joining the project team.”


    Elbert’s voice cut through the tension, firm and disapproving. “Cecelia, that’s enough. You can’t just throw around usations like that.” He knew better than anyone—if it weren’t for Sylvia, their group wouldn’t have even made it this far. Theb ess during the Allen debacle, the incubator incident—they owed her, not the other way around.


    While he didn’t know the exact nature of her rtionship with William, Elbert knew one thing for certain—Sylvia never coasted, and she never dragged the team down.


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