Chapter 3

Nancy came to my room alone on the third afternoon. She placed my laptop on the bedside table and said, "Thanks for lending me your laptop. I just used it to revise my visa application materials."

I just hummed and didn't press any further. However, she didn't leave right away.

"Carmen, there really isn't anything going on between Aaron and me. At least, not until you're willing to let go of him."

I looked up.

"That's a novel take," I said. "Since when do you get to approve whether or not I let him go?"

Nancy looked a little flustered.

"That's not what I meant. Aaron stayed up all night in the lab, fixing the code while constantly checking his phone because he was worried that something might happen to you.

"You just suddenly announced that you were going to Wingdor. And he thought that maybe he was the one who forced you into making that decision."

"So?"

Nancy replied, "So, could you stop pushing him onto me one moment and then threatening to leave him the next?"

She took another breath and said in a low voice, "You just lost your parents, so everyone feels sorry for you. But Aaron is not your painkiller. He also has a life that he wants to live as well."

I had heard this line many times in my previous life.

Everyone kept reminding me of it every year after Nancy left him—that Aaron had given up on love for my sake. They told me that he was only staying by my side out of duty and kindness, and thus, it was a debt I owed him forever.

I looked at Nancy.

"Don't worry," I said. "I won't be taking any painkillers or clinging to anyone this time."

Nancy's eyes turned red. "Must you be so snide with your comments? I just wanted to fight for it for once. You've both known each other for 20 years, and I never even had the chance to speak up, and now, I finally—"

"Then go ahead and fight for it," I said, cutting her off. "Just don't demand praise from me for being 'classy' about your fight for the guy. It's exhausting."

The ward door opened just then, and Aaron walked in with my meds. He caught sight of Nancy's reddened eyes at once.

"What's wrong?"

Nancy shook her head. "Nothing. I just said the wrong thing."

Aaron instinctively shielded her behind him and said, "Carmen. Nancy came all the way here to apologize to you. Must you be sarcastic with her?"

I shrugged. "She was the one who wanted to cry. What's that got to do with me?"

"You weren't like this before."

I smiled. "Well then, maybe I was just dumb."

I then retrieved two things from my bedside drawer. One was the key to their startup studio, and the other was an access card for the project's backend system.

"It's a good thing you're here. I'm quitting the project," I told him.

Aaron froze for a moment. Then, he said, "Do you realize that we spent six months building this? If you quit now, all of that work will go to waste!"

"Just think of it as cutting your losses now."

"Do you always treat both relationships and work like spreadsheets?"

"Am I supposed to just keep taking losses if I don't calculate everything clearly and properly?"

His expression darkened at my retort. But just as he was about to speak, his phone rang. It was our professor from the college Innovation Center, Professor Bruce Ewing, and his tone was grave.

Apparently, at 1:17 am the previous night, Aaron's team's core model—which hadn't been made public yet—and their list of investors had been emailed to a rival team using an external account.

They'd traced the device used to send the email to my laptop. Even the account used to log in was mine as well. He ordered us to come to the college immediately to assist with the investigation.

The hospital room fell silent.

I looked at Nancy.

"You had my laptop last night."

Her face paled at once.

"But I swore I only used it to edit my visa application. I don't know anything about this."

Aaron blocked her from me at once.

"Nothing's been proven yet. Don't pin the blame on her that quickly."

I didn't say a word. He just gripped his phone more tightly and lowered his voice to warn me, "When we get there, just follow my lead. Don't say anything rash."