I Was His Wife, Then His Widow, Then No One's But My Own novel Chapter 165

Nora stood up and turned around. The watching colleagues automatically parted, clearing a path for her.

The same people who had just been urging her to yield and apologize were now too afraid to even breathe heavily.

Seraphina's face was ashen. "Impossible... That's impossible."

Just moments ago, she had declared in front of everyone that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the data. Now, the simulator had smashed the results right in their faces, every single frame a slap to her pride.

Nora shot her a look, her voice devoid of any excess emotion. "Do you understand the consequences now? A simple data deviation could have made all the experiments we've been running completely worthless."

Seraphina's breath hitched, but she stubbornly tilted her chin up. "Maybe this simulator is getting old, and the results it's spitting out aren't accurate. Or maybe—who knows if you tampered with the data you inputted?"

Nora suddenly barked out a harsh command, "Enough! How long are you going to keep throwing this tantrum? I'm a researcher, I'm not here to play house with you."

She shot Seraphina a venomous glare, turned on her heel, and marched straight toward Zelda Vance's office.

She truly hadn't wanted to make the situation so ugly, but Seraphina had pushed for it. She had tolerated it once, twice... if she didn't draw a hard line today, everyone in the institute would treat her like a pushover.

When Nora pushed open the door to Zelda's office, the icy fury hadn't completely faded from her face.

Zelda looked up, saw her expression, and asked, "Why do you look so awful? What happened?"

Nora recounted the entire incident in the lab from start to finish.

Less than twenty minutes later, Arthur Caldwell pushed open the office door.

He had gray hair but exuded a robust energy. The moment he entered, his booming voice commanded the room. "Nora! What's so important that you had to drag an old man like me all the way over here? I was having a drink, and Zelda's call scared me so badly I nearly dropped my glass. You have to compensate me for that."

Nora stood up, bowed slightly, and offered an apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry for bothering you, Professor Caldwell. But I really have something critical to discuss with you. It's about the experimental data."

Arthur waved his hand dismissively to show it was fine. Only then did everyone notice he hadn't come alone. Standing behind him was a boy who looked eighteen or nineteen, standing at least six-foot-two. He wore a clean white hoodie and dark casual pants. His features were handsome, but there was an unmistakable shyness and youthfulness about him.

Arthur chuckled and stepped to the side. "Forgot to introduce you. This is my new graduate student, Julian Zimmerman."