Chapter 80
Eddy’s gentle gaze darkened in an instant. He reached out to snatch the dark gray hair clip from Fernando’s palm. “Why do you have my wife’s hair clip?”
But Fernando deftly sidestepped Eddy’s hand, offering the hair clip directly to Blanche.
Blanche stared at Fernando, bewildered. Why was her old friend cornering her like this? Weren’t they supposed to pretend they barely knew each other?
“I found it in the lab, of course,” Fernando replied coolly.
Before the words had even faded, Eddy seized Fernando by the collar. “Why did you take my wife to the lab?” he demanded.
His cold gaze swept over Blanche, lingering on the ruby necklace at her throat before returning to Fernando’s face. The gem was perfectly intact, but the chip inside was gone. Eddy suspected Fernando had sabotaged his plans, using lab equipment to extract the chip.
Ignoring the anger simmering between them, Fernando placed the hair clip gently in Blanche’s palm, leaving Eddy’s aggression hanging in the air, as ineffective as a fist thrown into fog.
“Plenty of people saw,” Fernando said breezily. “Mr. Simmons.”
The three of them glanced around. Sure enough, a crowd of reporters had gathered, some with cameras rolling, broadcasting their little drama live. The tabloids would have a field day: two powerful men fighting over a woman, and not just any woman, but the wife of a billionaire. The story was practically writing itself.
At that moment, Felipa stepped forward. “Mrs. Simmons, did the professor return your hair clip to you?”
She handed Blanche a folder. “You forgot to take the project proposal
Chapter
with you.” Inside was the Al + NextGen Medicine proposal. “Yesterday, even though Mr. Simmons and our professor had a bit of a
disagreement, our institute still hopes to collaborate with The Simmons Group.”
“Was it you who found the hair clip?” Eddy turned to Felipa, taking in her composed, professional demeanor.
“Yes, Mr. Simmons,” Felipa replied quietly.
Only then did Eddy release Fernando’s collar, regaining his usual composure. With a deliberate calm, he smoothed Fernando’s tie-ostensibly straightening it, but with a force that nearly choked him.
“Professor Reese, as I said before: if your name’s on the project, The Simmons Group isn’t interested.”
Fernando’s face flushed red as he tried to pry Eddy’s hand away. The two men locked eyes, neither willing to back down.
“Look! They’re about to fight!” a reporter called out, the crowd’s
excitement breaking the standoff at last.
Eddy gave Fernando a hard pat on the chest, a veiled threat in his voice. “And I can promise you, Professor, no one in Novandria will ever invest in your project.”
In Novandria, what Eddy Simmons said was law; his word could make or break fortunes.
Blanche couldn’t understand why Fernando kept risking Eddy’s wrath to get close to her. Did he not know she was planning to leave Eddy? Was that why he kept pushing, hoping she’d walk away?
She’d have to find a way to warn him: he couldn’t keep drawing attention like this.
Fernando met Eddy’s threat without flinching. “Mr. Simmons, sooner or later, your company will come begging for our institute’s partnership.”
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“We’ll see,” Eddy replied coolly, steering Blanche out of the research building.
He’d had Fernando investigated, but turned up nothing. The man’s background was a blank slate, and yet he kept appearing around Laney, stirring up a sense of crisis Eddy couldn’t shake.
He would not let Laney have any contact with that man. If necessary, he’d make sure Fernando disappeared from Novandria for good.
As they stepped outside, a giant screen on the building’s facade suddenly boomed with the emcee’s voice, broadcasting the press conference live.
The crowd outside paused, turning their attention to the screen.
“Professor Fernando Reese is an internationally renowned scientist. At sixteen, he left home to study abroad, enduring hardship for twelve years. He’s made groundbreaking discoveries in mechanics, materials science, engineering, and bionics, and has been inducted into multiple national academies of science. Today, he joins Ivycrest University as a tenured professor and Director of Engineering, lending his expertise to our country.”
“Let’s give a warm welcome to Professor Reese!”
Applause thundered from the audience as Fernando took the stage, brimming with confidence as he launched into an impassioned description of his research.
Blanche remembered all the times his life had been threatened abroad,
the obstacles he’d faced trying to return home. She couldn’t help but feel relieved and happy for him, seeing him finally get the recognition he deserved.
Eddy noticed the look of admiration Blanche gave Fernando, his brow tightening in frustration. He hadn’t expected his rival to be a scientific prodigy. Suddenly, he realized that bringing Fernando down might be far more difficult than he’d thought.
