The Night I Left, He Turned Grey

Cherry Cole snatched the phone away.

"Hold on." Nathaniel Cole took her phone back, zoomed in, and confirmed that the name was indeed "Leila Jennings."

He glanced over at the woman sitting quietly in the office, his gaze profound.

"What’s wrong?" Cherry Cole snatched her phone back again and also saw that the author of the paper was Leila Jennings.

Leila Jennings...

Leila Jennings?

Leila Jennings!

Cherry Cole’s expression shifted multiple times, and she too looked up.

"Th-th-this..." she stammered. "Same name?"

"I don’t know." Nathaniel Cole wasn’t sure either. He asked Cherry Cole, "Where did you get the paper? What journal is it from?"

"Didn’t I just tell you? The old man sent it to me. You told me to wait on the chip stuff, but I was getting impatient and wanted to do some more research myself. I failed, so he found this paper for me. It’s published in NSC."

NSC was recognized as the absolute top-tier journal across almost all scientific fields.

As Cherry Cole finished speaking, she swayed slightly.

"So, is Leila actually... a hidden big shot?" 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Her eyes lit up as she said it.

Nathaniel Cole goaded her, "Go ask."

"Why don’t you go ask?" Cherry Cole retorted.

Nathaniel Cole shot her a sidelong glance. "Don’t you want to know?"

"I do."

In the end, Cherry Cole admitted defeat. Filled with immense curiosity, she went over to Leila Jennings, obediently pulled up a chair, and sat down, her eyes blinking expectantly.

Leila Jennings had seen a similar expression on Cecilia Sinclair’s face before, but Cherry Cole’s eyes lacked Cecilia’s cunning; she simply looked like she wanted Leila to do something for her.

"Hm? What is it?" Leila Jennings leaned back in her chair and watched her quietly.

Cherry Cole took out her phone, the screen showing the paper’s title and author, and gently pushed it in front of Leila Jennings.

The moment Leila Jennings saw the title, she knew it was one of the papers she had published sporadically over the last few years. A flicker of surprise, gone in an instant, flashed in her downcast eyes.

"This person has the same name as me," she said calmly, pointing at the phone.

Leila Jennings had a naturally cool and reserved personality with few emotional fluctuations. Combined with her deliberate effort to hide her reaction, Cherry Cole couldn’t see through her at all.

But she wasn’t ready to give up.

"Are you sure it’s not you, Leila?"

Leila Jennings unlocked her phone, pulled up a name-search website, and typed in her own name.

The screen showed that there were six hundred twenty-nine people with the same name nationwide, with females accounting for 63.1% and males for 36.9%.

Cherry Cole immediately passed the buck. "See? I said it was just someone with the same name. My brother was the one who insisted I ask you."

Leila Jennings looked up in surprise. "He’s the one who had you ask?"

"Mhm," Cherry Cole nodded.

’If it was just Cherry Cole asking, my excuse would have been enough,’ Leila thought. ’But Nathaniel... that’s different. The implication is a little too obvious.’

’Nathaniel Cole knows perfectly well that the project The Cole Group is currently bidding on was one left behind by my former professor.’

’This is tricky.’

Cherry Cole was already messaging her brother.

[Not Leila, just someone with the same name.]

She didn’t hide it from Leila Jennings, who could see it all clearly. A reply came back quickly: a single "K."

’He didn’t ask any follow-up questions.’

’I can’t tell if he believed it or not.’

Leila Jennings glanced at her own phone. Nathaniel Cole hadn’t messaged her. Whether he believed her or not, at least he didn’t seem to intend to get to the bottom of it.

She lowered her gaze.

And went back to work.

No one else bothered her, but Sean Sinclair’s messages kept coming, one after another. Leila’s eyes started to ache from the sheer volume, so she just muted him.

When she left work, she saw Sean Sinclair waiting for her downstairs at The Cole Group again. She used the crowd as cover to slip back into the lobby and leave through a different exit.

When Sean Sinclair called again, she told him she was already at her mentor’s wife’s place. By the time Sean rushed over to The Thorne Residence, he found his car couldn’t even get in.

He angrily slammed his hand on the steering wheel.

He fired off a text.

[Leila, do you really have to be like this?]

[When are you going to stop being angry?]

[Can we meet once you’ve cooled down?]

Afraid he would keep pestering her, Leila Jennings replied with a "Yes," which finally made Sean Sinclair quiet down a bit.

Sean Sinclair hadn’t been home recently and had even cut off Cecilia Sinclair’s allowance. It got to the point where Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair called to scold Leila Jennings, asking her what it would take for her to finally stop.

Meanwhile, her lawyer also told her that without a complete chain of evidence, the chances of successfully suing Cecilia Sinclair were slim. The only benefit of dragging things out was to make life difficult for the Sinclairs.

Leila Jennings asked for Cherry Cole’s opinion.

Cherry Cole said, "Making her life miserable is good, too. Let her suffer for a few more days, then make Cecilia Sinclair come and kowtow to you in apology."

"Kowtow?" Leila Jennings shook her head. "That’s not realistic. Cecilia Sinclair would rather we both go down in flames."

"It was just a figure of speech." Cherry Cole’s eyes darted around. "The day you make her apologize to you, I have a way to get even for you. Leave it to me!"

"Okay." Leila Jennings smiled faintly and said to her, "Tomorrow is the weekend. I’m going to treat your brother to dinner. Do you want to come?"

"Can I come?" Of course Cherry Cole wanted to go! She immediately whipped out her phone. "I’ll ask my brother."

She sent the message and received a blunt, one-word rejection.

[No.]

Cherry Cole nudged her with her elbow. "Why don’t you ask him? Maybe he’ll change his mind."

Leila, half-doubting, sent the message, only to receive the same one-word reply.

Cherry Cole pouted.

’Looks like there’s no way around it.’

’My dear brother wants some one-on-one time with Leila. Understandable, understandable.’

"What groceries do you need to buy? I’ll just have someone deliver them directly to you. It’ll save you a trip to the supermarket, and it’s tiring to carry things by yourself. Plus, the supermarket is far from here, and you don’t have a car. And while I’d love to drive you myself, I get too mad thinking I’m not invited!"

Leila Jennings nodded. "Okay, I’ll send you a list, but you have to let me pay you for them."

"I know, I know." Cherry Cole nodded, then looked around. "I offered to let you stay at my place before, but you refused. Now you’re staying at someone else’s place. I’m upset."

"Then what can I do to make you feel better?" Leila Jennings asked, feeling as if she were back at the orphanage coaxing a child.

Cherry Cole threw her arms around her. "I’m staying here with you tonight!"

Leila Jennings nodded.

She was, of course, happy to have her.

Cherry Cole cheered up and continued, "Actually, I don’t have any particularly close friends. Girls from families like ours mostly go into the arts. Few of us take over the family business as a female CEO, and even fewer bury their heads in a lab doing research. Besides, research is really time-consuming."

"Mm." Leila knew.

She had never really had friends, partly because her personality wasn’t warm or outgoing, and partly because she was genuinely busy.

"Even though we all see each other at various banquets and events, it’s just a few pleasantries, nothing deep. A lot of people want to be good friends with me, but I’m... not really into it." Cherry Cole put it rather diplomatically; in reality, most of the girls who wanted to befriend her were just trying to curry favor.

That night, the two of them lay in bed and talked for a long time.

「Early the next morning.」

Leila Jennings received a check-in photo from Claire Rhodes.

[Swiped in for class.]

「At the same time.」

Sean Sinclair also received a notification.

He got himself ready, planning to go wait for Leila to get out of class.