Chapter 7

Jasmine stared at Niall in the doorway. She didn't step aside or say a word. She just looked at him, her eyes asking why he was here. He stayed quiet for a few seconds before he finally spoke. "About Kendra… I turned her down." He paused, then added, "I don't want you to overthink it." Jasmine was thrown for a moment. She had been sure he was here to tell her he and Kendra were together. Instead, he stood there telling her he'd turned Kendra down and had come to explain himself, worried she might get the wrong idea. "What you decide with her doesn't have anything to do with me anymore," she said, her voice steady. Niall clearly hadn't expected her to be this indifferent. Surprise flickered in his eyes. "If that's all, I'm going to bed," Jasmine added. "Jasmine." Niall's hand came down on the doorframe, keeping her from closing the door. His voice dropped. "You haven't been yourself lately." Jasmine didn't answer. She let her gaze slide past him and shut the door in his face. The soft click of the latch cut off the man she'd spent ten years looking up to. Leaning back against the cold door, Jasmine let out a slow breath. A small, dull ache tightened under her ribs, as if something inside her were quietly wearing away. Going out of his way to explain something like this just wasn't Niall. He never wasted words he thought were unnecessary, not on her. In the past, she'd tiptoed around him, every high and low tethered to him, and he'd acted like he didn't notice any of it. She'd just watched Kendra confess to him and hadn't so much as flinched, and now he was the one coming all the way here just to clear things up. Why? A feeling washed over Jasmine, ridiculous and faintly sour. She had no idea how long she'd stayed like that before her phone started ringing, jolting her back to herself. "Jasmine! Did you see the acceptance notice that just went up in the internal system for that top journal? The paper titled 'New Materials' is by Kendra. "Didn't Mr. Shepherd and you lead that project? You're the one who spent months grinding out all that data!" Jasmine's stomach dropped. "What did you just say?" "Get on the system and look! It only has Kendra's name on it. Even Mr. Shepherd isn't on there. What is going on?" Jasmine snapped open her laptop and logged into the site. In the announcements section, the newest post practically jumped off the screen. "Congratulations to Kendra Leavitt, whose article as first author has been officially accepted by 'Materials Insight'…" "Materials Insight" was one of the top journals in its field. And the title of the paper was the very project Jasmine and Niall had poured most of themselves into these past few months. The idea had been hers. She and Niall had gone over it again and again, and she'd practically lived in the laboratory for three months to get the key data. By contribution, no one else should've been the first author. If it wasn't Niall, it should have been her. But in the author line, there was only one name—Kendra. Even Niall's name was gone, as if he were just some selfless assistant quietly working in the background. Jasmine called Niall right away and cut to the chase. "What's going on with the author list on that paper?" Niall's voice came through on the other end of the line. "I turned her down when she confessed. She's been pretty down about it, and it might affect her upcoming title review." Jasmine almost laughed in disbelief, anger buzzing under her skin. "So you use our research to cheer her up? You used my work to do her a favor. Did you ask me even once? Did I ever agree to that?" Niall's reply was calm, carefully sidestepping the point. "The data were already there. She put together the first draft. Having her as the listed author makes sense. The paper belongs to the research institute. "I have the authority to decide who goes on the author list. Your contribution will be acknowledged later." Jasmine's voice shook, caught between hurt and raw anger. Three months of her life had disappeared in a single sentence from Niall, handed off to someone else like it was nothing more than a stepping stone. And what a joke. Just minutes ago, she'd felt sorry for him because he'd finally bothered to explain himself. Now it was obvious. He'd only shown up so he could give the project to Kendra and sleep at night. "Acknowledged? How? Same as always? You dump my name in the acknowledgments and pretend that makes up for it? What am I to you, Niall? Some disposable workhorse who doesn't even rate a byline?"