He Gave My Father's Lifeline to His Mistress

The bank card was even the same one from four years ago.

Every glance was a reminder.

The man I'd trusted, the man I'd forgiven, was the one who killed my father.

The tears came and wouldn't stop.

My phone chimed with a notification.

A friend request from Bess Hughes.

*Dear mentor's wife—thank you so much for agreeing to transfer Senior Professor Henson's unpublished Verdant Harvest Project to me! With that behind my application, getting into the Academic Research Council won't be a problem at all!*

Every nerve in my skull fired at once.

The Verdant Harvest Project was my father's agricultural research project, named after me.

He'd spent a full month in the fields himself for that study, working until his body gave out and he had no choice but to be hospitalized.

Before he died, the project was nearly finished. He asked me to verify the final results myself, fill in the remaining data, and file the patent. His last wish. The final mark on a life's work.

Last week I verified the data, and Jarvis took every bit of it the same day—said he needed to get a head start on the application materials.

I thought he genuinely cared about honoring my father's dying wish.

But now he'd told me my father's life should step aside for Bess Hughes, and the data my father clung to until his last breath was going to pave her way too.

I was half out of my mind by the time I burst into the lab.

Jarvis was there with his students, throwing her a celebration.

The two of them stood close in the candlelight, their shadows nearly overlapping.

What a joke.

Back when Jarvis had been reported for sexual harassment and suspended, he certainly hadn't looked this happy.

"Bess, you're incredible! You're the first person in the country to pull off this experiment! This is going down in history!"

Bess smiled, glancing shyly toward Jarvis.

"Oh, please. I couldn't have done any of it if Professor Swanson wasn't looking after every little detail for me."

The students around them piled on one after another.

"Professor Swanson's always so good to you. The rest of us mere mortals could never get that kind of treatment."

Bess blushed, rose on her toes, and pressed a kiss to the side of Jarvis's face.

The lab erupted in sharp, gleeful hooting.

"So sweet! Too sweet!"

A thousand tiny needles drove into my chest all at once.

So behind my back they were already this shameless—open enough for the whole room to cheer them on.

The corner of Jarvis's mouth curved up.

"All right, enough. Let's just—"

He didn't finish. I pushed the door open and stood there, watching them.

"Let's just what? Just kiss? Or just hurry up and finish the party so you two can get a room?"

The air in the lab froze solid.

Jarvis frowned, a flash of panic crossing his eyes, and waved the other students out.

"What are you doing here? This isn't your place."

Funny. He used to beg me to come. Used to wheedle and tease until I showed up to check on him, to pick him up.

He couldn't wait for everyone to know he had a wife like me. Pretty. Devoted.

"Then when am I supposed to come? Go on, tell me—what's next? What else of my father's are you handing her? Or is it something of mine this time?"

"You stole my father's data, you stole his surgery money, and you built your affair on top of his corpse! Why the hell shouldn't I be here? I want every single person to see these two animals for what they are!"

I ran toward the corridor, screaming it for anyone who could hear, my voice tearing raw.

No one looked surprised.

They looked at me the way you'd look at a lunatic.

The lab's security guard caught me before I got far.

Jarvis jogged over, wearing an expression of weary concern.

"Sorry about this—she's having another episode. I'll get her out of your way."

I stared at him in disbelief, and the moment I opened my mouth to speak, something struck the back of my neck hard, and everything went black.