Chapter 3

The next morning, I arrived at the MIT laboratory as I always did.

It was nine o'clock before Mark and Chloe appeared, arriving one after the other.

One drove while the other arrived on a Bluebike, an orchestrated "chance encounter" at the entrance of the building.

Their effort to arrive separately only made the connection more conspicuous.

"Funny, isn't it? They always seem to show up at the exact same time," Jessica whispered into my ear.

Jessica was a lab assistant whom Mark had recruited specifically, much like Chloe. Her technical skills were mediocre at best, but she was pretty, lively, and possessed a keen sense for office politics that made her popular. She was exactly the type of woman most men preferred, though Mark seemed to view her as nothing more than "office scenery."

Chloe trailed behind Mark. When her eyes met mine, she immediately lowered her head like a startled rabbit.

Mark, however, was as composed as ever. He reached into his bag and handed me the stomach medication he had failed to buy the night before.

"Specifically got this for you. Is it still hurting? Did you have breakfast?" He placed a container of oatmeal on my desk.

Jessica rolled her eyes, found the scene boring, and turned away.

"Did your mother call you?" I asked.

"About what?" He countered.

I offered a thin smile. "Nothing."

Everything could wait until the project was finished. I had spent over six months on this research, and we were on the verge of a breakthrough. I wasn't about to let my hard work go to waste, especially since my doctoral thesis depended on these data sets.

Mark seemed to let out a quiet, unnoticed sigh of relief.

Trouble found me again during the afternoon tea break. Jessica held up a paper bag from Mike's Pastry, looking conflicted. "Oh no... there's only one piece of Boston Cream Pie left. Both Evelyn and Chloe wanted it."

A heavy silence fell over the room.

Mark stepped out of his office and, without a moment's hesitation, handed the pastry to Chloe.

Chloe stole a glance at me. "But... what about Eve?"

"She doesn't need special treatment," Mark said casually. "We're all adults here."

Chloe's face flushed with a mixture of shyness and triumph as she began to eat the pie.

I wouldn't have known the full extent of the slight if my phone hadn't pinged with an Instagram notification from a "Special Follow."

The post was captioned: [Giving the best of everything to you!]

It featured a photo of a half-eaten Boston Cream Pie.

By the time I clicked on the notification, the post had already been deleted.

Fortunately, I was fast enough to take a screenshot.

When I looked up, I realized everyone in the lab was watching me. Their eyes held a strange, mocking glint of schadenfreude.

As I glanced around, I caught the reflection of their phone screens in the black glass of a nearby monitor.

Mark had posted an identical update, but this time he had blocked me from seeing it.

The content was the same, except for an added meme—a mischievous face with the caption: "Almost got caught."

Everyone in the lab could see it except me.

No wonder they were wearing those expressions.

"Evelyn," Jessica said with a performative sigh of envy, "I'm so jealous. Mark treats you so well."

The smiles around the room turned even more twisted.

"Pfft!" Chloe finally lost her composure, spraying her milk tea across the table and turning bright red from coughing.

"Be careful," Mark said, his voice dripping with affection as he ruffled her hair.

He then turned to the others with a stern face. "What's so funny? Get back to work unless you don't want your bonuses."

He turned back to me and personally delivered a mango pudding and an iced Americano to my station.

"Take a break," he said. "You work too hard."

Once I had decided to let go, my mind felt remarkably clear.

I felt no particular pain at the sight.

I only wanted to focus on the work and finish the project as quickly as possible.