Chapter 85
David shook his head. “It’s no use. Josie’s paper has already been published. Even if someone agrees to publish Natalie’s, it won’t make a difference now.”
Aiden asked in surprise, “How could this happen?”
He thought, ‘How did Josie even manage to get her paper published? She doesn’t have any connections in Aloville. She probably doesn’t even have the contact info for those magazine editors!’”
David’s face twisted with bitterness. “You think we lost to Josie? No, you’re wrong. We lost to her mentor.”
He then smiled indifferently. “Delilah has never been willing to accept losing to me. It’s only natural she’d want to win back her pride. Josie’s situation just gave her the perfect opportunity. It’s just a pity about Josie. She picked an obscure topic and thought she’d struck gold. However, she doesn’t realize she’s just a pawn to be tossed aside once she’s no longer useful. She might not even be able to graduate in the end. After all we’ve been through, I can’t help but feel sorry for her.”
Aiden helped David to his feet.
He said, “Professor, you’re just too soft. She chose her own path. We’ve already done everything we could for her. If she can’t graduate, that’s on her.”
“You’re right. Even if I feel bad for her, there’s nothing more I can do.” David gestured for Aiden to leave. He added, “Natalie’s a promising student. You and the others should keep an eye on her and don’t give her a hard time. And make sure you take care of what I asked you to do.”
David had his doubts about Natalie at first, but after seeing the revisions she made to her paper, he realized she’s on par with Vincent and Gavin in terms of ability. With a bit of guidance, he felt that she would have a bright future ahead of her. As for Josie, she was always just the most useful pawn. David only felt sorry since she ended up in Delilah’s hands.
He thought, ‘It doesn’t matter. She’s just a dumb country bumpkin with no vision and no sense of the bigger picture. There is no way she will be able to defeat Natalie. Delilah’s plan will fall through eventually. After losing to me once, she will lose every time in the future. She’ll never be able to surpass me. The Reedshaw family isn’t the kind of family I need to suck up to anymore!’
After leaving David’s office, Aiden gathered the rest of the group to talk over how they were going to apologize to Josie.
Aiden said, “The professor wants us to be sincere. If she actually comes back because of it, great. If not, at least we’ve done our duty. After this, whatever happens to her is none of our business. Got it?”
After hearing Aiden’s words, the others nodded helplessly. They knew Josie had won this time, but they also really felt just how determined and distant she’d become. She wasn’t that girl they could push around however they wanted anymore. If she really did come back, there was no way she’d let them walk all over her again.
They thought, ‘Turns out, after all that, she just wanted to come back. Honestly, who would switch majors in their senior year, and to something so niche? Graduating would already be tough enough, and as for finding a job? Forget it. If it were us, we’d want to come back too.’
“I’ll write the apology letter,” Kyle Langton volunteered, raising his hand.
Everyone agreed. It seemed like they all supported the idea of Josie coming back to the team. But Natalie, who had been listening to all this, turned pale.
Her eyes were red as she tugged at Aiden’s sleeve. “Aiden, is my paper not going to be published? Has Professor Lawson given up on me?”
“Of course not!” Aiden said, thinking back to what David had said. He felt sorry for Natalie. Originally, they wanted Natalie to beat Josie, but they didn’t expect that Josie would get so lucky. She actually ended up with Delilah, who was at odds with David, on her side.
Aiden explained, “This time, with Professor Wilcourt’s help, Josie managed to get her paper published before yours. Since both papers were on the same topic, the journal rejected ours. But Professor Lawson said this isn’t your fault. It was his personal feud with Professor Wilcourt that dragged you into this and forced you to yield to Josie. He feels really guilty about it.”
Natalie felt a small surge of relief and excitement inside.