After the Fall A Leap into a Stranger's Arms novel Chapter 46

Something didn’t add up. Catherine was supposed to be in France studying art, so how had she suddenly ended up at Veridian?

Had she fooled everyone? Pretending to go to Polaris for art, while secretly enrolling at Veridian? Shirley stared at Catherine’s profile, watching as she shifted from artist to tech prodigy in the blink of an eye. Now this was interesting. Sometimes, when your opponent was too weak, the whole game just lost its flavor.

Arms folded, Shirley let out a soft, cold laugh as she looked at the screen. “Catherine, even if you really are Nancy, so what? I’ve already finished Resonance AI. Do you honestly think you can beat me? You’ll always be playing catch-up.”

She quickly fixed her expression and left the office. She could just picture Waldo right now, completely blindsided. He was probably rushing off to confront Catherine. The way Catherine had hidden the truth all these years must’ve broken his heart. Five years together, five years of lies—no one would take that well. Let those two exes keep hurting each other. It was what they did best.

***

Sprawled on her living room sofa, Catherine stretched and rubbed her eyes. She wouldn’t officially start at Nexus Dynamics until next Monday, so for now, her “office” was wherever she could balance her laptop. That’s when her new phone buzzed. She didn’t even need to check. That number was burned into her memory. Waldo.

How did he even get this number? What did he want now?

She picked up, her voice flat and a little annoyed. “Yeah?”

“Catherine, where are you? I need to see you.” Waldo sounded tense, almost desperate.

“If you’ve got something to say, just spit it out,” she replied, not bothering to hide her irritation.

“Catherine, eight years ago, you said you were going to Polaris for art. Why did you end up at Veridian studying tech? Is it true—are you Nancy?” His voice was ragged, emotions all over the place.

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