She Quit Her Family and Found Herself novel Chapter 157

Hulda's clear, steady voice carried through the microphone. "First, let me correct you. Although I left the institute for seven years, I never once abandoned my scientific career. Over those years, I continuously published papers in various national scientific journals. All of this is publicly verifiable. Secondly, my work in deducing and optimizing the Quantum Crystal Oscillator Gyroscope never stopped for a single day. The only thing that changed was that my workspace moved from an institute laboratory to my home study. My assistant and the researchers at our institute can all testify to this fact."

Abby nodded vigorously. "That's exactly right! On Director Atherton's very first day back, she shared an incredibly massive, heavily detailed optimization summary with every researcher here. That summary single-handedly resolved several bottlenecks we had been stuck on for ages."

After speaking, Abby confidently turned to her peers. "Right, Mr. Dalton? Dr. Lynch?"

Harvey Dalton forced an awkward smile and nodded.

Dr. Lynch, however, nodded emphatically. "Yes, absolutely."

The reporter had never expected the situation to turn like this. One second ago he thought he had caught her red-handed, and the next, his smug expression was frozen solid.

Maintaining direct eye contact with the malicious reporter, Hulda continued. "As for your assumption that there will be a 'second time'... I can explicitly tell you right now, there will not. One failed marriage is more than enough for a lifetime. Furthermore, the reason I originally left the institute was not solely because of my marriage. As for the actual reason, that is my personal privacy, and I have no comment on it."

She had initially left the institute to draw a definitive line between herself, the Sterling family, and her identity as Hulda Sterling.

But she refused to drag those details into a public professional setting like this.

Especially with Caspian sitting right there in the audience. If she brought it up now, it would sound as if she were airing grievances specifically for his benefit.

Right now, all she wanted was to be her own person—the brilliant, independent Hulda.

"Well..." The reporter, who had been so arrogant moments ago, was now entirely speechless.

Standing tall on the stage, Hulda looked down at him. "Do you have any other questions? If not, I will move on to the next person."

Without waiting for him to stammer out a reply, she smoothly shifted her gaze. Her tone remained completely unbothered. "However, for all following questions, I expect them to be strictly related to today's technical theme. I will not answer anything unrelated to my profession moving forward."

Down below, Brandon let out a long sigh of relief as he watched Hulda handle the crisis with effortless grace. He instinctively glanced at Dr. Atherton, whose face was still dark, and felt a pang of guilt.

It was his fault for not screening the reporters properly, forcing his colleague to face such a vile attack.

*"Just focus on taking care of Miles. My business is none of your concern."*

*"Do your job as a housewife. You have no right to meddle in anything else."*

*"Hulda, drop the act and stay in your lane."*

*"Don't ever come to the company again. It's a bad look."*

It was terrifying. The cruel, dismissive words he had carelessly thrown at her were now replaying vividly in his mind, stabbing into him repeatedly.

Over all those years, he hadn't stepped foot into her study even once.

If he had walked in just one time—even for a second—he would have immediately realized she was far from the ignorant, boring woman he had written her off to be.

In this devastating moment, Herbert realized he didn't know his own wife at all.