After the Fall A Leap into a Stranger's Arms novel Chapter 278

A chill ran through Shirley, but she managed a quick nod. “Don’t worry, Waldo. I’ll give it my all. I won’t let you down.”

“Good.” Waldo straightened his tie, stepped out, and signaled for his assistant to tidy up the office.

Back in her own space, Shirley pressed her fingers to her lips, which still felt a little swollen. A small smile crept in. Catherine, Waldo’s finally letting me in. Just wait. When I’m his girlfriend, I’ll be just as good as you, if not better.

As for fixing Resonance AI’s glitches, she’d sounded confident, but inside she was anything but. The core issues with Resonance AI were a mess. There were layers of logic she hadn’t figured out yet, and the bottleneck she’d hit lately had her completely stressed out.

Still, she had a meeting lined up with Amy, the developer behind Resonance AI. Shirley was determined to get some answers out of her.

***

At Nexus Dynamics, the news about Lawrence’s real identity spread like wildfire. The whole company was in shock. Who would have thought that Lawrence, who was supposedly just a consultant, was actually the mysterious founder of Nexus Dynamics?

Laura from PR, who’d once made it clear she liked him, was sitting at her desk, cheeks burning with embarrassment. Her thoughts kept drifting back to Lawrence.

Just then, her assistant rushed in. “Laura, the front desk just called. Lawrence is back.”

Laura jumped to her feet, her heart pounding. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, but I heard he came in holding hands with Catherine from R&D. Looks like they’re secretly dating.”

“What?” Laura’s excitement flipped to disbelief. Catherine? That new girl, the one always hunched over a laptop with her team? Had something been going on this whole time?

“I heard they were holding hands, looking super close,” the assistant added, almost apologetic.

Three in the afternoon, at the Blair Estate.

Shirley slipped through the door, already thinking about her plans for the night. She was going to Waldo’s place and needed to shower and change. She couldn’t risk disappointing him.

“Shirley, you’re home,” Alice called from the living room. She hesitated, then asked, “Did you tell Catherine about the Gates family necklace? What did she say?”

Shirley froze on the stairs, a wave of jealousy rushing over her. With someone like Lawrence, of course the necklace Catherine got last night had to be the real thing. So the Gates family had given her a collector-worthy piece, just like that. Mom had totally underestimated them.

“It’s true, Mom. The necklace the Gates family gave Catherine is the exact one you saw back then,” Shirley said quietly.

Alice stared at her, stunned. “What did you say?”