How a Dying Woman Rewrote Her Epilogue

When Watts came over, he sat right down beside Elodie. "Mr. Silverstein, I need to discuss some work with Elodie-hope you don't mind?"

Jarrod was already striding toward the front of the room. "You should be asking the person next to you if she minds, not me. Her choices aren't mine to control."

Elodie glanced up at Jarrod, catching a subtle undertone in his words. The nuance was there, but unless you were really listening, you'd miss it. To everyone else, it just sounded like he was respecting her wishes.

Watts looked at Elodie, still in good spirits. "What's this about? Mr. Silverstein

never used to give up ground like that."

Elodie lowered her head, texting Lily: "You're not sitting with your sister?"

Watts's smile faded, his tone turning indifferent. "We're not exactly close. She can sit wherever she wants."

Elodie glanced discreetly toward Patricia. At that exact moment, Patricia looked back, tilted her head, and flashed Elodie a wink and a playful smile.

Elodie curled her fingers into her palm, keeping a tight lid on the flood of emotions in her chest.

The internal review was about to begin.

Jarrod, as the main lead, naturally took a seat up front.

Halfway through the process, things suddenly stalled. Someone on the team

frowned, double-checking the results-again and again.

Finally, a representative stepped forward, a grave look on his face. "Mr. Whitaker, we've run into a problem."

Jarrod looked up.

Klein stood as well. "What's the issue?"

The representative glanced at Jarrod, then at Elodie, replying with caution, "The testing parameters for the materials don't match up. The data points aren't lining up at all."

Elodie's eyes narrowed, her gaze sharp.

Klein's face grew serious. "What's going on? The data is critical-it determines our next round of investments. If the numbers don't match at this stage, the whole project gets delayed."

Time was money, and a setback now would mean starting over everywhere-a costly disaster.

The representative continued, "It's

the data Ms Thorne submitted. The values are significantly higher than forecast about a 10% jump over the test

expected range. But our a

results fall short of the numbers Ms.

Thorne reported. Frankly, it looks like the data was... manipulated."

Falsified data?

Elodie's face darkened slightly. She knew exactly how serious the consequences

were for tampering with official data on a government-level project.

Klein shot Elodie a look. "Could it be a mistake somewhere in the process?"noveldrama

Elodie got to her feet and walked over. "Which specific numbers don't match up?"

The representative responded, "The figures Ms Thorne submitted were 10% above the estimated benchmark-much higher than our target But Mr. Silverstein's team can't replicate those results. Ms. Thorne, can you confirm this is the real data? Or is there... something else?"

Elodie immediately understood the implication Was she, Jarrod's wife, inflating the numbers to help him lock down a decade-long monopoly for the company? Was she trying to push the project through the final review by submitting over-the-top results?

After all, there hadn't been this rigorous a testing phase before. If the old process still applied, they'd be cleared for launch already. Now, it was as if someone had set a trap and they'd just walked into it.

"Could I see the numbers, please?" Elodie asked quietly, her eyes intent.

The representative handed over both the actual test data and the figures Lily's team had submitted.

One glance was all it took.

Elodie recognized immediately: the confidential data she'd filed had been tampered with. The report in front of her was not the one she had signed off on.

Jarrod got up and joined her. Despite the mess, he looked unbothered, his voice calm. “There's been a misunderstanding here. Whether our material passes or fails is clear to everyone in this room-there's no need for these games."

He wasn't wrong. But the numbers simply didn't add up. If someone acted on this data, it would cause real trouble-potentially catastrophic.

Suspicions could easily spiral: were the two of them colluding as a couple, rigging the results to benefit their company and rake in profits?

"Maybe we should double-check," Watts said, his tone measured. "I can't believe Elodie would cut corners on something this important."