But in reality, he'd played dirty—dragging me into a plagiarism scandal, destroying my reputation, forcing me to hand over the authorship.
My chest heaved. The color drained from my face.
"I need to find Fabian!"
I spun around and ran into the Research Center. The next second, I stopped dead in my tracks, frozen in shock.
My workstation had been ransacked.
Petri dishes lay shattered across the floor. The hard drive containing all my research data had vanished without a trace.
"Professor Morton said your experimental design has critical flaws. All your projects are suspended."
Doris stood in the doorway, chomping on gum with infuriating nonchalance. Pinched between her fingers was the USB drive I'd backed up my data to just last night.
She dangled it in front of my face, her expression pure provocation.
"Thanks for all those late nights you pulled for me, Professor Pruitt. Now it's all mine."
Gone was the fragile, innocent girl from before. The woman standing before me now was a completely different creature.
I lost it. I lunged for the drive.
Doris didn't even flinch. She tucked the USB into her lab coat with maddening calm.