Chapter 8

The line went silent. A moment later, Niall spoke, and his words chilled Jasmine to the bone. "Jasmine, didn't you come to the institute because you wanted to work with me?" Her fist closed around the phone until her knuckles burned. He kept going, calm and certain. "Titles and credit don't matter that much to you. Stay on my team, and I'll make sure you're looked after. But Kendra's different. "She needs those achievements to build a name for herself and push ahead in this field." A roaring filled Jasmine's ears, and her blood went cold. So he'd known all along. He'd always known why she gave up her shot at promotion and stayed an assistant. It wasn't that he didn't understand. He just didn't care. Worse, he'd turned her sacrifice and compromise into leverage, a convenient excuse to toss aside the work she'd poured her heart into. Ten years of blind devotion, and all she got from him was a careless, "It doesn't matter," and "Kendra needs it more." Jasmine opened her mouth to argue. To demand who he thought he was to decide what mattered and what didn't. To ask if he had any idea how many nights she'd gone without sleep, how many failed runs it had taken to get those results. But in the end, she just ended the call. She was too tired to fight anymore. … Not long after, the research institute hosted a major academic symposium. One of the headline events was a paper in a top journal, and Kendra's name was on it. Kendra was the one presenting. She stood onstage in a sleek dress and walked the crowd through the paper's core findings. Murmurs of approval rippled through the room. Everything was going smoothly right up until the Q&A. Out of nowhere, an anonymous online attendee dropped a message into the public chat. "I'd like to question the academic integrity of the presenter, Ms. Kendra Leavitt. The core data in this paper overlap significantly with experimental records previously published by Ms. Jasmine Chetney. "How does Ms. Leavitt explain the source of her data? Does this amount to stealing a colleague's work and falsifying the data?" The room erupted. The message was blown up on the main screen, every word brutally clear. Kendra stood frozen onstage, the color draining from her face as her panicked gaze snapped to Niall in the audience. The moderator tried to regain control, but the murmurs had already swelled too loud to contain. Jasmine's heart lurched, and she shot upright in her seat before she even realized she was moving. This wasn't her. She'd never meant for things to blow up like this. Right then, she felt someone staring at her. She looked up and met Niall's eyes. He was watching her over the crowd, brow furrowed, his eyes full of raw suspicion and a disappointment that cut deeper than anything. He didn't have to say a word. Jasmine could read every accusation in his eyes. Niall hadn't even bothered to ask before deciding it was Jasmine, that she'd gone anonymous out of spite over the authorship. In his eyes, she was the kind of person who would drag the research institute's name through the mud just to ruin Kendra's future. A sick weight settled in Jasmine's chest. Niall was already on his feet, striding toward the podium through a sea of staring eyes. He took the mic from Kendra's rigid hand and faced the restless hall. "I'm Niall Shepherd. About that anonymous accusation just now, I want to make one thing clear. Every part of this paper was done under my direct guidance and supervision. "I'm willing to stake my professional reputation on this. Ms. Leavitt is the primary contributor." He paused, then let his gaze drift to Jasmine, whose face had gone ashen. "Ms. Chetney is my assistant. Her role has mainly been support work and documentation. She doesn't have the expertise to carry out research of this level on her own. "This achievement belongs to Ms. Leavitt. There's no question about that." The room exploded. "Mr. Shepherd himself is vouching for her!" "So Jasmine was just doing grunt work?" "No wonder her name wasn't on it. Guess we were wrong before." Jasmine stood there, feeling like she'd been stripped bare and thrown out into the snow. Niall turned to Kendra beside him, her eyes rimmed red, and his voice softened. "Kendra, go ahead and finish your talk."