The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 491

"Now do you understand why Vitas-1 is destined to launch? From the very beginning, the Professor's only goal has been to reclaim the Vitas Strain. Garrison is nothing but a chess piece he's been maneuvering for years. And keeping Sloane close is simply his way of maintaining a tighter leash on Garrison."

"Does Garrison actually know this?"

Vanessa shook her head. "No. He holds absolute trust and loyalty for the Professor."

Grant's previously composed gaze slowly bled into powerlessness, before finally settling into a hollow, desperate stare.

"Vanessa... are we really out of options?"

Vanessa turned to look out the window at the dreary winter sky. Her mind suddenly drifted back to the coffee shop. She saw Garrison undoing his stained collar and cuffs, exposing his muscular forearms, the sharp line of his collarbone, the bob of his Adam's apple...

She remembered his perpetually pale, bloodless face and the exhausted, shattered look in his eyes.

Initially, she had wanted to kill him. Just like she had killed Quinn Foster.

But...

That man was just too intoxicatingly tragic.

From the university labs to their clinical internships, from a Nobel laureate to a man left with absolutely nothing... she had watched him devolve from a radiant, arrogant youth into this silent, stoic shell of a man.

His broken, restrained, oblivious sex appeal was like a fine needle, silently piercing the softest corner of her heart.

She didn't want to kill him anymore. She wanted to... possess him.

"No."

Vanessa cut him off, her tone ironclad. "You cannot involve Knox Biotech. The web of interests between Knox and Lawrence Sterling runs deeper than you think. Their domestic intelligence network likely intersects with the Professor's. If word leaks to him, neither of us—hell, all of Deep Blue—will survive it."

She locked eyes with Grant, pronouncing every word with lethal clarity. "You have to handle this personally. Use your own men. People you trust."

Grant sat in silence for a moment, then slowly nodded.

"Understood. I'll do it myself."

*(This is the latest chapter)*