Whie They Played in the Snow

Jessica looked completely torn. “Elliot, I am sorry.”

Tears streamed down Elliot’s face.

“If you do not like me, then there is no need to wait and find excuses to fire me later. I will leave on my own. Right now.”

He slammed the door and stormed off.

For once, Jessica did not chase after him. She turned back, sat down in front of me, and let out a heavy sigh.

“This just became complicated.

“Even if Elliot was only supposed to be a stepping stone for you, he cannot leave right now. Landing the Foster Group Pharmaceuticals contract was not only because of your new drug. Elliot has been following up on the deal too.

“If he suddenly quits now, will the client start getting suspicious?”

Jessica sighed dramatically for a while before she suddenly looked at me.

“Brandon, can you help me put on an act?”

I looked at her calmly while she continued pretending.

Ever since she became unusually close to Elliot, I had sensed something was wrong.

Every time Jessica acted like she was stuck in a difficult situation, it usually meant she had another condition waiting for me afterward.

She had never planned to throw Elliot into the fire.

The real person placed on the chessboard, the one forced to carry all the consequences, had always been me.

I still nodded without exposing her lies and watched her continue the performance.

Seeing me cooperate, Jessica brightened at once. “If we want to keep Elliot around, you will have to suffer a little for now.

“In a moment, we will pretend to have a huge falling out. I will fire you, and you will leave all your research data behind so the project will not be delayed. Then when you come back later, you can take over immediately.

“Once Elliot sees that I chose him over you, he will work even harder for me. After this order is finalized, I will fire him right away and bring you back as vice president in style.”

Only then did I understand why Jessica had gone through so many twists and turns.

She wanted me to lower my guard so I would hand over all my experimental data before leaving.

Elliot was useless when it came to research. He had no skills, and he loved blaming everything else around him.

He claimed we excluded him and refused to share data with him. He even said that if he had had access to our research, he would have been the first to develop the new medicine.

That was why he accomplished nothing in the lab and eventually transferred to become Jessica’s assistant.

The first time Jessica saw him, her eyes lit up. She gave him a salary far above the company average, handed out bonuses, and showered him with gifts.

Elliot was never satisfied.

He believed he was a misunderstood genius and that we were all suppressing him. That was why he constantly targeted our research department.

I never expected him to still obsess over my data. I never expected my own girlfriend to go that far just to help him get it.

All that scheming was pointless then.

The medicine had already deactivated. There was no way the company could deliver the final product on time. Once the penalties hit, the compensation alone would cost hundreds of millions. Even selling the entire company would not be enough to pay it back.

Once the company collapsed, what was the point of supporting Elliot anymore?

The sudden power outage had already damaged the lab equipment earlier. A huge amount of data had been corrupted.

Even if Elliot took over the lab then, he would not gain anything useful.

I let out an icy laugh and handed the key to Jessica. “Fine. We will do it your way. All the data is stored in the instruments and computers anyway.”

The company was doomed, and I was resigning no matter what. The important data was safely stored on my personal flash drive.

As for the damaged files they wanted so badly, they could have fun with those.

Jessica looked overjoyed. She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around me.

“Brandon, I knew you understood me best.”

I sneered inwardly.

I understood her very well.

Otherwise, I would not have seen through every ugly little scheme in her heart so clearly.