Chapter 3

The room fell silent for a few seconds. Then, I heard her speak.

"We'll go together."

At that exact moment, the last bit of struggle inside me disappeared.

I bent down and picked up the offer letter from the floor. A sharp fragment nicked the pad of my thumb, and blood slowly began to seep out, but I felt no pain at all.

I simply smoothed out the paper, walked over to the desk, picked up a pen, and signed my name right in front of them. As the pen moved across the page, I was surprisingly calm.

Brittany's face paled instantly. "Harry."

I looked up at her and said, "From this moment on, I'm not going to wait for you anymore."

She stood frozen, looking as if she had something to say. However, Tyler beat her to it by reaching out and grabbing my phone. By the time I reacted, he had seen the draft email on the screen.

His eyes flickered slightly before he handed the phone straight to Brittany.

"See for yourself."

It was a scheduled email that I had written last night and originally intended to send right after the awards ceremony.

In it, I didn't accuse anyone or make any arguments. I simply stated that I would step down from the joint research project, give up all subsequent publicity and authorship credits, and cooperate with every handover.

I just wanted to leave quietly to preserve the very last bit of my dignity. Yet, after Tyler finished reading it, it was as if he had finally caught me red-handed.

He deliberately asked me, "Why did you have to choose tomorrow of all days? That's the day Brittany receives her award. Are you trying to ruin her?"

I looked at him and said nothing.

Brittany had read the email as well. When she looked up at me, her expression had turned grim.

"Harry, why do you insist on dragging this out in front of everyone?"

I found that statement ridiculously ironic. In her eyes, I was apparently making a scene with my exit.

"The email hasn't been sent yet," I said.

"But you've written it." She stared at me. "Do you have any idea how important tomorrow is?"

Suddenly, I didn't care to explain myself anymore.

It wasn't that she didn't understand why I was leaving. She just cared far more about tomorrow's awards ceremony and her own reputation and future. As for me, I was merely an unpredictable risk who couldn't be allowed to mess up her plans.

The next second, she reached over, grabbed my phone, locked the screen, and slipped it directly into her pocket.

"Before the awards ceremony is over, don't you dare do anything."

I watched her, completely speechless for a long time. After five years together, she couldn't at least give me an explanation; instead, she was suspicious of me.

The next day, I went to the auditorium as planned. Since my name was on the schedule, I couldn't avoid it.

What was more, I had spent countless late nights slaving away on that project. I could walk away from Brittany, but I couldn't disown the work I had built with my own hands.

The moment I entered the venue, I noticed something was wrong. Several junior researchers from our group gave me bizarre looks when they saw me. It looked as though they wanted to say something but didn't dare speak up.

I borrowed a tablet from a nearby staff member and opened the anonymous campus news thread. The top pinned thread on the homepage had a glaring title.

"A male researcher has been harassing his female lab partner and coercing her into going public with their relationship on the day of the awards ceremony with the project's results."

The thread didn't state any names, but every detail pointed at me—the joint project, the awards ceremony, the email, and the secret relationship. At the very bottom, a screenshot of my unsent draft email was attached.

A chill instantly ran down my spine. My phone had been with Brittany all night, so aside from her, no one else could have gotten hold of that screenshot.

I looked up toward a spot not far away and saw Brittany walking into the hall together with Tyler. He was dressed formally and wearing a smile on his face as he stood beside her. It was as if he had belonged by her side all along.

People nearby were greeting them, their smiling faces filled with unspoken assumptions.

I walked straight up to her and asked, "Did you post that thread?"

She had clearly seen it too, and her brows furrowed. "It wasn't me."

"Then how did that screenshot get leaked?"

Before I could get her answer, Tyler's eyes welled with tears. "I'm sorry, Harry. It was me."