Jessica looked completely torn. “Elliot, I am sorry.”

Tears streamed down Elliot’s face.

“If you do not like me, then there is no need to wait and find excuses to fire me later. I will leave on my own. Right now.”

He slammed the door and stormed off.

For once, Jessica did not chase after him. She turned back, sat down in front of me, and let out a heavy sigh.

“This just became complicated.

“Even if Elliot was only supposed to be a stepping stone for you, he cannot leave right now. Landing the Foster Group Pharmaceuticals contract was not only because of your new drug. Elliot has been following up on the deal too.

“If he suddenly quits now, will the client start getting suspicious?”

Jessica sighed dramatically for a while before she suddenly looked at me.

“Brandon, can you help me put on an act?”

I looked at her calmly while she continued pretending.

Ever since she became unusually close to Elliot, I had sensed something was wrong.

Every time Jessica acted like she was stuck in a difficult situation, it usually meant she had another condition waiting for me afterward.

She had never planned to throw Elliot into the fire.

The real person placed on the chessboard, the one forced to carry all the consequences, had always been me.

I still nodded without exposing her lies and watched her continue the performance.

Seeing me cooperate, Jessica brightened at once. “If we want to keep Elliot around, you will have to suffer a little for now.

“In a moment, we will pretend to have a huge falling out. I will fire you, and you will leave all your research data behind so the project will not be delayed. Then when you come back later, you can take over immediately.

“Once Elliot sees that I chose him over you, he will work even harder for me. After this order is finalized, I will fire him right away and bring you back as vice president in style.”

Only then did I understand why Jessica had gone through so many twists and turns.

She wanted me to lower my guard so I would hand over all my experimental data before leaving.

Elliot was useless when it came to research. He had no skills, and he loved blaming everything else around him.

He claimed we excluded him and refused to share data with him. He even said that if he had had access to our research, he would have been the first to develop the new medicine.

That was why he accomplished nothing in the lab and eventually transferred to become Jessica’s assistant.

The first time Jessica saw him, her eyes lit up. She gave him a salary far above the company average, handed out bonuses, and showered him with gifts.

Elliot was never satisfied.

He believed he was a misunderstood genius and that we were all suppressing him. That was why he constantly targeted our research department.

I never expected him to still obsess over my data. I never expected my own girlfriend to go that far just to help him get it.

All that scheming was pointless then.

The medicine had already deactivated. There was no way the company could deliver the final product on time. Once the penalties hit, the compensation alone would cost hundreds of millions. Even selling the entire company would not be enough to pay it back.

Once the company collapsed, what was the point of supporting Elliot anymore?

The sudden power outage had already damaged the lab equipment earlier. A huge amount of data had been corrupted.

Even if Elliot took over the lab then, he would not gain anything useful.

I let out an icy laugh and handed the key to Jessica. “Fine. We will do it your way. All the data is stored in the instruments and computers anyway.”

The company was doomed, and I was resigning no matter what. The important data was safely stored on my personal flash drive.

As for the damaged files they wanted so badly, they could have fun with those.

Jessica looked overjoyed. She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around me.

“Brandon, I knew you understood me best.”

I sneered inwardly.

I understood her very well.

Otherwise, I would not have seen through every ugly little scheme in her heart so clearly.

After I walked out, I ran into Elliot at the end of the hallway. He flashed me a smug grin.

I walked straight past him without looking his way.

Neither of them knew that after all their scheming and running around, they would gain nothing.

The new drug that could have brought them unimaginable profits had already been ruined by their own cruelty.

Right in front of everyone, Jessica handed me a voluntary resignation form.

Several employees looked stunned. They had no idea what happened between Jessica and me behind closed doors, but everyone knew I was the backbone of the research department.

Jessica stayed unmoved.

I signed the form without hesitation.

“Good,” she said coldly. “Get lost. If anyone else wants to quit, I will gladly approve it today too.”

Many veteran employees were furious at her attitude and stood up to resign as well.

Jessica looked at them mockingly. “Let me remind all of you something,” she said. “Brandon already handed all the data over to me. If you want to leave, then leave. I can hire someone else to continue the work with this data.

“If you think you can threaten the company, dream on.”

To Jessica’s surprise, the researchers did not blame me after hearing that. They looked at her with expressions full of pity and mockery.

At that moment, Elliot looked up from his phone in excitement.

“Ms. Shaw, Mr. Foster is coming to inspect the drug development results.”

Jessica brightened at once.

She glanced proudly around the room at the remaining employees. “Anyone who stays will get a bonus once the first payment from the contract comes in.”

She then turned to me with open ridicule in her eyes. “I should thank you. You saved me a huge severance payout, and you spared me the trouble of getting rid of people one by one.

“I can hire new staff after you leave. Honestly, I was never comfortable with the entire research department being full of your people.

“And did you seriously think I would invite you back as vice president?” She laughed. “I was lying.”

I exchanged looks with the coworkers resigning alongside me. All of us knew there was about to be a very interesting show.

The partner for that deal, Griffin Foster, was one of the biggest names in the industry. He had invested heavily because he believed in the new drug I developed. He had even started building media hype ahead of time.

Hospitals everywhere already knew that Foster Group Pharmaceuticals was about to release a groundbreaking new medicine.

If the product failed to launch on schedule, it was easy to imagine how furious Griffin would be.

When that happened, every resource Foster Group could have provided would instead turn into weapons aimed straight at Jessica.

I smiled faintly.

“Since you saved money on severance pay, you should use it to hire yourself a good lawyer,” I said. “Otherwise the days ahead might become rough.”

Jessica clearly did not understand what I meant. She let out an icy snort.

“Stop acting jealous,” she said. “Once we establish a deep partnership with Foster Group Pharmaceuticals, this company will go public. By then, even if you begged to come back as an intern, you would not qualify.”

Soon, Griffin arrived with several researchers from his company. Jessica hurried forward to greet them warmly.

“The drug development was completely finalized yesterday,” she said confidently. “We only need a few more side-effect tests. We will deliver on schedule at the beginning of next month.

“Mr. Foster, this way please. I will personally show you the lab.”

The next second, Jessica opened the laboratory door herself.