Chasing the Unexpected

Instantly, everyone in the R&D department turned their eyes to Lucia.

Genevieve had never spoken to Lucia in such a harsh tone before, leaving Lucia more surprised than embarrassed. “Genevieve… what’s wrong?”

Genevieve didn’t respond and simply turned to walk back to her office.

As Lucia felt the curious gazes of her colleagues, her face turned red with embarrassment. When her eyes met Nyla’s, her anger flared even more. She was certain Nyla was waiting to see her make a fool of herself.

Suppressing her rage, she bit her lip and followed Genevieve into the office.

As soon as the door closed, Genevieve threw a document onto the desk in front of her. Take a look!”

Her tone was full of disappointment, and her gaze on Lucia was disapproving.

Confused, Lucia picked up the document and began to browse. Her face grew paler with each page, and her hands started to shake. How could this have happened?

Upon seeing Lucia’s guilty expression, Genevieve’s voice grew colder. “I used to think you were meticulous in your work. Do you even realize what you’ve done? Tampering with experimental data? Do you know how many lives are at stake if your drug goes to market?!”

“Genevieve… I know I was wrong. I just wanted to make our data look better…”

Genevieve let out a bitter laugh. “Are you sure you only wanted the data to look better? The first batch of lab mice showed various complications, yet you didn’t record any of it. You falsified the records, saying everything was normal. If your drug hit the market, it would be tantamount to murder!”

Lucla panicked under Genevieve’s icy stare. She had been so careful–how had she gotten caught?

Suddenly, she thought of Nyla. The details in the report matched the timeline since Nyla joined the company. It had to be herl

Nyla had been there only a week and had already noticed the falsified data.

Lucia bit her lip hard, seething with anger and hatred. She wished she could storm back to the department and slap Nyla, that wretched woman!

“Genevieve… I’m so sorry. We’ve been developing this drug for over a year with no progress. I got desperate and made a terrible mistake. Please, forgive me this one time. I swear it won’t happen again!”

Genevieve stared at Lucia coldly, scrutinizing her.

Lucia couldn’t meet her eyes and looked down, feeling even guiltier.

After a few long minutes of silence, Genevieve finally spoke. “I’ve already reported this to the headquarters. I’ll try to speak on your behalf, but the final decision is out of my hands.”Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

For years, Genevieve had believed Lucia to be diligent and conscientious. But after seeing the report exposing her data falsification, she lost all respect for Lucia and had no intention of covering for her.

Lucia looked up in disbelief. “Genevieve… you could have covered this up for me. Why did you report it to

the headquarters? Does one mistake erase all the hard work I’ve done?”

She had spent countless nights working on experiments, sometimes even sleeping in the lab. Why was Genevieve focusing only on her mistake and not acknowledging her efforts?

When Genevieve saw that Lucia showed no real remorse, her voice hardened. “The hard work you’ve

done is what you’re paid for, especially when it comes to developing life–saving drugs. I can accept failure in experiments, but I will not tolerate fraud. No excuses.”

Chapter 23