Elodie hadn’t expected Charlie to give such a decisive answer.

She glanced up at his stern face and, for a moment, felt as if she were being shielded unconditionally—an unfamiliar sensation for her.

Sylvie’s shock was written all over her face.

Charlie’s words had landed with such finality, they shattered the careful arguments she’d prepared on her way here, leaving her with a vague, inescapable embarrassment.

Worse yet, Elodie had witnessed her being rebuffed at the door.

Jarrod shot Elodie a glance, a flicker of something unreadable passing through his eyes before he composed himself and spoke with steady calm. “Since you already have someone in mind, Professor, and you’re not considering anyone else at the moment, I won’t press the issue.”

Sylvie’s lips had gone pale. She cast Elodie a complicated look-part derision, part resignation—but she understood the situation well enough not to say anything more.

Charlie met Jarrod’s eyes. For someone so young, Jarrod was remarkably poised and discreet. He’d done everything right for this meeting: tracked Charlie down at VistaLink Technologies, requested a face-to-face, showed respect without arrogance, and knew how to read the room.

And yet…

His judgment was astonishingly poor.

“Mr. Silverstein, you may go now.” With that, Charlie turned and walked away.

Elodie didn’t spare them so much as a glance, following after him without hesitation.

There was no point arguing with people who’d already made up their minds about her. Better to spend her energy where it mattered.

She planned to talk with Professor Sterling about the flight control system and chip she’d been leading research on since before the holidays. If she could discuss it in detail with him, she might have a real shot at pushing the country’s drone technology forward a goal that urgently needed his input.

Jarrod watched Elodie’s retreating figure for a long moment before finally looking away.

Sylvie’s expression was sour. She’d been the golden girl all her life, always the favored one, and now she’d lost out to… an academic nobody?

“So, did you settle it?” Maurice hurried over, sounding out of breath.

Jarrod’s eyes darkened a little as he replied, “Professor Sterling turned us down.”

Maurice was taken aback. “What? Then who did he pick?”

“Elodie.” Sylvie forced her voice to remain even as she spoke the name.

Maurice froze, his mind struggling to catch up. After a long pause, he blurted out, “…Seriously? Her?”

He paced, baffled, hands on his hips. “That doesn’t add up! Did Sterling put in a word for her to get her in on a technicality? Even if he wasn’t going to pick you, shouldn’t it have gone to the candidate who scored highest in the second round?”

How could it possibly be someone like Elodie?

Sylvie let out a slow breath, rubbing her aching temples before replying coldly, “I don’t know the details, but Elodie must have at least met the minimum score for the second round. Otherwise, even if Sterling wanted to pull strings, there’d be nothing to pull.”

Maybe Elodie had just barely scraped by-just enough for the professor to make an exception.

It was the only logical explanation. If Elodie had only squeaked past the cutoff, then there must’ve been a gap of dozens of points between their scores. She hadn’t even come close to Sylvie’s threshold.

There was no comparison.

“Has the professor always been like this? Isn’t he worried about accusations of favoritism?” Maurice couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Sylvie had regained her composure. “People will talk, but that’s their problem. At the end of the day, he’s not going to risk tension with his own family just to avoid a little gossip.”