The old woman was suddenly at a loss for words.

She stared at Jarrod for a long time, unable to say anything.

Jarrod, however, didn’t raise his voice or lose his composure. Once he’d made his point clear, he relaxed, a gentle smile tugging at his lips. “Alright, Grandma, let me take you home. This ends here. I’ll handle my own affairs.”

That was his final word, shutting down any further interference.

The old woman opened her mouth, struggling, “You…”

But nothing more would come out.

All she could do was brush Jarrod’s hand away. “No need! Go keep Elodie company!”

Jarrod glanced at his indignant grandmother, slipped one hand into his pocket, and shook his head with a quiet, amused sigh.

Maurice and Joseph approached from either side, unaware of what had just transpired between the grandson and grandmother. Maurice looked puzzled. “Why would Raleigh suddenly ask about that? If this really gets out, won’t Sylvie be the one everyone gossips about?”

Jarrod didn’t respond, his attitude unreadable.

Joseph exchanged a look with Maurice, then turned to Jarrod. After a moment, he spoke up. “Sylvie’s never had any official status. If things really did go public, well… it was her own choice.”

Maurice looked stunned.

Jarrod lifted his eyes to meet Joseph’s gaze.

The flight control system team was still working at full tilt in the following days.

After Elodie resolved a string of data and licensing issues with various vendors, she made sure everything was running smoothly and reliably.

Back at the office, Esmeralda sauntered over, smirking. “That huge Silverstein family gala—wasn’t it supposed to be for you? Now everyone’s saying the party’s because Jarrod has some big news.”

Elodie kept typing, unfazed. “Is that so?”

Esmeralda handed her a phone. “You know how I’m in all those group chats- work, social, everything. Lately, there’s been all kinds of gossip. People are saying someone spotted Sylvie outside the hotel with Jarrod that night. The rumors are wild, like the Silversteins are so overjoyed because Jarrod’s finally getting married!”

In Eldermere, there were only so many big shots at the top. Naturally, all sorts of stories made the rounds.

Privately, nobody could resist a bit of gossip.

Elodie wasn’t interested. They were divorced, after all; whoever Jarrod wanted to marry was his own business. She figured he was probably still in the process of convincing his grandmother, anyway.

Suddenly, the door to Elodie’s office burst open.

Alexander strode in, his expression unusually grave.

Elodie had rarely seen him look so serious. Even Esmeralda dropped her usual nonchalance. “Alex, what’s wrong?”

Alexander set his phone down in front of Elodie.

“Take a look. Someone in the industry is making accusations-saying our VistaLink Technologies flight control system plagiarized some initial code and technical solutions from a Neural Intelligence engineer’s work from two years ago.”

Esmeralda’s eyes went wide. “Are they insane? What kind of joke is this?”

Elodie was surprised-so much so that she almost laughed. She glanced over the content on Alexander’s phone.

It was a post from a tech industry news account.

It explicitly claimed that her new flight control system’s breakthrough was due to stealing part of a technical solution developed by an engineer at Neural Intelligence.

At this stage, the post was still only raising suspicions.

“Word is spreading fast. The rumors are starting to snowball, and it’s not looking good for us at VistaLink,” Alexander said, clearly frustrated. How could something so outlandish even be taken seriously?

Esmeralda looked furious. “Which engineer is spreading this nonsense? Do they even dare confront us face to face? Elodie’s been working on this for years— those people couldn’t figure it out even if you handed them the solution, and now they’re accusing her of stealing?”