All Chapters of Not My Bride: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1 A Marriage of Convenience

I must have looked terrible. Jane Vance's smile faded too, and she reached for my hand, trying to comfort me."It's just a fake marriage." She took my hand, her expression sincere. "Once Lucas secures his position at the lab, we'll find an excuse to get divorced."I forced myself to calm down and listen to what Jane was saying, but my hands were still trembling.Six months ago, I had a bad feeling when she pulled strings to get Lucas Miller, her senior, into the lab. He simply wasn't qualified to work in a lab at this level.Rowan Sterling, the lab's main investor, cared deeply about individual productivity. Once the records were reviewed, Lucas' poor performance would come to light, and he would be dismissed before long.Even if Jane had made an exception to get him in, it would not be enough to keep him there.Little did I know, Jane would come up with such an unconventional solution.He had a stable marriage himself, so he tended to favor talented people who had families of t

Chapter 2 The First-Author Credit

"You have a point. Lucas is Jane's senior from the same academic program, and he's a postdoc at a prestigious university. He's far more impressive."I stood there quietly, making no move to argue with them.Just then, Jane came around from the other side. She scowled when she heard their conversation."All right, that's enough. Get back to work. If you have time to gossip about people behind their backs, you have time to run a couple more models."The group immediately fell silent and scurried away.Only then did Jane notice me standing on the other side of the room. A trace of awkwardness crossed her face as she hurried over to reassure me."Don't take it personally. They're just big mouths. They don't mean any harm."I scoffed sarcastically. "I wonder how long they're going to keep running their mouths."A flicker of irritation crossed her face."Well, what do you want me to do? We're all colleagues. Do you expect me to chew them out over something this trivial? Or do you wa

Chapter 3 I Changed My Mind

I nearly laughed out of anger. "So I'm supposed to thank you for giving my paper—and all the work I put into it—to your husband?"Jane frowned. "Have you not gotten over my marriage with Lucas? You never used to care about things like this. Do we really need to draw such a hard line between us?""I didn't care before because I thought you and I were going to be in this together. But now, you're married to someone else. How dare you take the work I poured my heart and soul into and give it to your husband?"Instead of getting angry, Jane merely smiled. "I knew it. You are just jealous. Relax, I'll definitely divorce Lucas and be with you. Stop being so petty, okay?"I took a moment to steady myself before replying coldly, "I don't care whether you divorce him or not. I just want to be the first author."The smile disappeared from Jane's face as she rubbed her temples."There really is nothing I can do this time. The submission deadline is tomorrow, and the system won't let us make

Chapter 4 The Wrong Photo

"Give me some time. I'll handle it.""That's fine. I'm here to tell you I've already submitted my resignation." I kept my voice calm. "As for the system, I'll leave the lab's access active for another month so you have time to find a replacement."Jane's expression darkened. "Have you had enough? Resigning? Do you have any idea what's going to happen to the lab without you?""That's your problem, Prof. Vance."With that, I walked around her and headed for the door."You're really just going to leave?" She grabbed me from behind, her voice suddenly frantic. "Five years together, and you're throwing it all away?"I turned around and saw her bloodshot eyes."We'd been together for five years, and you were the one who walked away first. When you went to City Hall and married Lucas, did you ever stop to think about what that would do to me?"Jane didn't know how to respond.After a long moment, she let go of me, her tone once again calm and self-assured. "I know that you're upset

Chapter 5 Access Revoked

Had Jane stayed with Lucas all night while he was getting an IV infusion?That must have been the night of my birthday.According to Jane, there was an emergency meeting at the lab, and she canceled our dinner plans at the very last minute. That night, I made a wish over my birthday cake all by myself.Did she really turn down important plans to go shopping with him?I remembered that one, too. It was the premiere of a movie we'd planned to see together long ago. She'd said she had to finish a grant proposal before the deadline and told me to go by myself.The seat beside me remained empty throughout the entire movie.Now, I finally knew the truth. Every time Jane had said she had something she needed to take care of, she had actually been spending time with Lucas.I was already disappointed in her, but remembering all of it still made me want to throw up.I had already made the necessary arrangements with Joanna, so there was no reason to let them keep using my system.Ja

Chapter 6 The System Is Gone

Everyone was thrown into a state of unprecedented panic.Without the analysis system, all their expensive equipment and mountains of data were practically worthless.They could not even complete the most basic data preprocessing, let alone move on to analysis and modeling.Jane froze in front of the screen. When she finally came back to herself, her face had gone ashen, and her whole body was trembling.Rather than anger, panic was setting in.Seth hadn't done it out of spite or anger. He was genuinely disappointed, and he'd simply taken back everything he'd given her.Jane hurriedly looked down at her phone, wanting to message Seth and at least persuade him to restore the authorization for now.She could make it up to him slowly afterward, but when she looked at the message she had just sent, she realized her message had failed to go through."Unable to deliver message."She instinctively called his number."The number you have dialed is currently unavailable…"She called a

Chapter 7 A Perfect Result

"Now that you've slept with someone else, I don't want this relationship anymore," I said coldly.Jane panicked. "I haven't. Nothing happened between Lucas and me. You're the only one I love, I swear."I pulled out my phone and showed her the photos Lucas had sent me, along with his taunting, boastful messages."You two have been living together, haven't you?"The moment she saw the photo of Lucas with his arm around her, all the color drained from her face."When did this happen? I didn't… His lease was up, and he couldn't find another place right away, so I let him stay with me for a while. I was drunk that night. I honestly don't remember anything from it…"I rolled my eyes. "You don't even know when it happened, but you know you were drunk that night. Also, can't you see what Lucas told me? What about all those times you left me to stay with him while he was getting an IV drip, or went shopping with him? Were you intoxicated each time?"Jane went completely still. A few seco

Chapter 8 The Price of Deception

Lucas was ecstatic. He did not even bother cross-checking the results before turning the data into a polished report and sending it to Rowan.He gave it a sensational title, claiming that the target identified in the study could become a promising target for a new generation of anticancer drugs.In a note at the end, he even recommended that the company immediately increase its investment and accelerate the translation of the research into practical applications.Rowan took the report seriously. He immediately convened a high-level project review and brought in three experts from the industry.It was not until the day of the review that Jane learned what Lucas had done. What happened afterward became an industry-wide joke for the rest of the year.The three experts took only twenty minutes to spot the absurdity in the report's data."The effect size is too perfect. It is so perfect that it looks fake.""Which version of the analysis module did you use? This could only have come

Chapter 9 For the Rest of Our Lives

Just as Lucas was on the verge of breaking down, Jane finally spoke."I'm not getting a divorce. You wanted to keep me tied to you, didn't you? Then we'll stay tied for the rest of our lives. I can't pay off the $50 million on my own. You're going to help me pay it back."Lucas completely broke down. "You're insane! We're in a fake marriage! You can't—"Jane laughed."There's no such thing as a fake marriage under the law. You signed the papers, so it's real. You wanted to stay at this lab, didn't you? Well, the lab is gone, but the debt isn't. From today on, you're responsible for every cent of it too."With that, she walked into the bedroom and shut the door.Lucas stood there for several seconds before grabbing his suitcase and practically crawling toward the front door, desperately twisting the doorknob.Nothing happened.Jane had locked the door when she went inside.Lucas slowly slid down onto the floor, covered his face with his hands, and burst into tears.…Ever sin

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