Chapter 3

Grandma’s room was filled with old newspapers and plastic bottles she had a habit of collecting.

On her nightstand, I found Julian's old high school notebook.

Grandma only had an elementary school education. Her handwriting was shaky and crooked.

“Remember Julian. My boy.”

“Julian. My boy.”

“My boy.”

Every page was filled with Grandma’s desperate struggle to remember Julian as her mind slipped away.

On the very last page, there was a photo of Grandma and her late son.

I put the photo in my bag. Just as I was about to leave, Julian called.

"Maya, bring a clean set of clothes to the hospital for me. Underwear too."

His voice was tired but satisfied. What had happened between him and Chloe in the hospital was painfully obvious.

I clenched my phone, whispering to myself over and over that it didn't matter anymore.

When I reached the ward, Chloe blocked my way.

She stood there, arrogant and smug. "Professor Cooper, Julian is exhausted. You should come back later."

"I don't need to go in. Just give him these clothes."

My flat tone seemed to trigger her.

"Maya, stop pretending you don't care! Seeing me so close to Julian must be driving you insane with jealousy, right?"

"Oh, you probably don't know. When your grandma was on the operating table, I lied to Julian. I told him my own grandma had wandered off and was missing. That’s why he left right after opening your grandma's skull."

"In his heart, you and your grandma don't even make up a fraction of my worth."

Chloe smirked, pointing to the hickeys on her neck.

"So what if Julian marries you? You’re just a shield to protect us from a scandal. If he didn't worry that a student-teacher relationship would ruin my future, do you think he would have ever accepted your confession three years ago?"

Rage flared inside me, and I slapped her hard across the face. She deliberately threw herself backward, knocking her own grandmother’s wheelchair over in the process.

The door swung open, and Julian walked out.

"Julian! Professor Cooper said it’s our fault Grandma Evelyn died! She... she wants us to pay with our lives!"

Chloe sobbed hysterically as she pulled her grandmother up, touching the back of the old woman's head.

"Julian! Blood! Grandma is bleeding!"

Julian’s eyes turned red with fury. He raised his hand and slapped me across the face so hard that my vision blurred.

I held my burning cheek, unable to believe that the second time he had ever touched me was to avenge Chloe.

"Julian! She threw herself down! It had nothing to do with me!"

Tears filled my eyes as I pointed to the security camera at the end of the hallway. "If you don't believe me, check the cameras!"

"Professor Cooper is right," Chloe sobbed, clinging to Julian. "If I hadn't appeared in front of her, she wouldn't have hit me. I wouldn't have fallen, and Grandma wouldn't have been hurt. It's all my fault!"

Julian lifted Chloe’s grandmother back onto the wheelchair, glaring at me like I was his worst enemy.

"Maya, you’re insane! Grandma Evelyn died because of a surgical failure. How can you blame an innocent girl?"

"And if you’re going to lie, at least make up a believable story! This is Chloe’s grandmother. How could she possibly hurt her own family?"

In his rush to wheel the old woman to the emergency room, Julian didn't even steer around me. He pushed the heavy wheelchair straight over my hands as I lay on the floor.

He knew I had a critical experiment scheduled for tomorrow.

As a fellow professor, he knew better than anyone how much precision and hand stability were required to handle those delicate chemical reagents.

We were so close to finalizing the safe version of the drug!

Julian, did ten years of love really mean nothing to you?

I huddled on the cold floor, nursing my bruised hands. Finally, I dragged myself up, placed the clothes and the old photo on Julian’s bed, and left a sticky note on his bedside table.

“Read Grandma’s journal.”

To clear my head and escape his presence, I packed my bags and moved into the university dorms.

My research assistant came to find me, looking panicked. She told me that the previous batch of the drug Julian used on Grandma had severe chemical flaws.

Several lab mice had died of organ failure over the past few weeks.

My worst fears had come true. That was why I had delayed Grandma's surgery—the drug wasn't ready. But Julian had gone behind my back and used it anyway.

Fortunately, I had sent multiple samples of the drug for testing. The results all confirmed the compound was highly toxic and unstable.

For the next two months, I locked myself in the lab, working day and night until I finally successfully synthesized a safe, stable alternative compound.

When I finally stepped out of the lab, I checked my phone.

There was no missed call from Julian. Not a single one.

For two whole months, he hadn't even checked if I was alive.

It’s time to let go, Maya. He doesn't care about you.

I let out a long sigh and called back the only missed call on my phone—it was from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders.

After accepting their offer to join their research team, the university dean invited me to give one final lecture on campus.

I agreed. During the lecture, I projected my unpublished research paper onto the screen.

But before I could even finish my opening remarks, a student stood up with a microphone and shouted, "Professor Cooper! You’re a thief! How can you steal your own student's research and present it as your own?"

"Have you run out of talent? Is that why you have to resort to plagiarism?"

"You don't deserve to be a professor! Get off the stage!"

My assistant ran up and handed me her laptop. My exact paper had already been published on a major medical journal website a month ago.

The authors listed were Chloe Bennett and Marcus.

The students in the lecture hall, fueled by outrage, started throwing plastic bottles and trash at the stage.

Just as a heavy thermos was about to hit my face, Julian suddenly rushed on stage and shielded me, taking the blow to his shoulder.

"Stop it! Maya would never plagiarize! She’s just been too busy lately and uploaded the wrong file!"

"Wrong file? Professor Vance, are you trying to cover for your girlfriend? Look at the dates! The paper was published under Chloe’s name a month ago!"

"If Chloe hadn't submitted this paper early, she would have lost her chance to secure her Ivy League PhD fellowship!"

"But... with Maya’s reputation, why would she need to plagiarize a student?"

"Professor Vance, if she didn't plagiarize, why are you hesitating?"

Julian's stuttering defense only made me look more guilty. I realized then that he had planned this.

"Julian, you did this, didn't you?"

I had forgotten to change my Google Drive password over the last two months. To get Chloe that Ivy League fellowship, he actually stole my life’s work.

Julian looked at me with no remorse.

"You caused Chloe’s grandmother to get fifteen stitches. Giving up a paper is the least you can do to compensate her."

"Don't worry, Maya. Even if your reputation is ruined, I will still marry you."

"I truly want to spend the rest of my life with you."

I let out a bitter laugh. "To protect a pathological liar, you ruined my career, and you call that a good life? You really are heartless."

"Julian, you’re the one who abandoned Grandma on the operating table and killed her. Do you really think you deserve a good life?"