Chapter 366: A Widening Rift

Seeing Sierra like that, Johnathan panicked and felt a wave of frustration. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. He reached out to grab her. “Let’s go home and talk.”

But Sierra avoided his hand and took two steps back. “I’ll be staying at the lab for the day.”

Johnathan was about to get angry, but Sierra’s mocking cut in: “Don’t worry, I won’t lie to you. You’ve got a tracker on me anyway. You can find me anytime.”

She didn’t give him a chance to respond. She flagged down a cab, jumped in, and left.

Johnathan’s face darkened completely. He got in his car and followed. The group trailing behind to keep an eye on things looked defeated.

“This is bad,” Mateo muttered. They couldn’t hear what was said, but judging from their faces, it was clearly worse than before.

“Think it’s because of that guy?” The café had a glass storefront—they’d all seen the man who approached Sierra.

“Damn it, I’m going in!” Mateo, impulsive as ever, jumped out of the car. No one could stop him. They could only watch as he went in.

No one knew what the man said to him, but Mateo’s face didn’t look good, and then the two of them started fighting.

At first, everyone figured Mateo could handle it. But within moments, he was overpowered. Stone and the others couldn’t sit still. They rushed in to help, and the whole thing turned into a brawl.

No one had expected even Stone would barely hold his own—and even looked like he was losing. Draven and Maddox exchanged glances, both reading the same serious concern in each other’s eyes.

The fight had drawn attention, and soon someone called the cops. Not long after, they were all…

Chapter 366: A Widening Rift (Continued)

Sierra had no idea what had happened after she left. She had already arrived at the school. Seeing the familiar car following behind, her gaze turned cold.

She headed straight for the lab’s dormitory wing. There were dedicated rest areas for lab staff, since it wasn’t uncommon for people to work overnight or skip going home. The school had set up several small dorm rooms near the labs for this reason.

Johnathan watched Sierra enter the building, his expression even gloomier. He was about to go in after her when he got a call from Maddox.

After hearing what Maddox said, his expression changed. “I’m on my way.” He looked up at the lab building one last time, then drove off.

Sierra stood by the window and watched his car disappear, finally letting out a small breath. Realizing how tense she’d been, Sierra froze for a second. In the past, Johnathan had always made her feel safe. This was the first time he’d made her feel suffocated and anxious.

She closed her eyes, trying to sort through everything between her and Johnathan.

Meanwhile, Johnathan arrived at the police station. Maddox and Draven were helping Stone and Mateo handle the paperwork. Mateo wasn’t in too much trouble, but Stone was. His identity wasn’t ordinary; the incident had drawn the attention of quite a few people.

Luckily, Maddox and Draven had kept their cool and hadn’t joined in the fight. They’d even gotten nearby witnesses to delete photos and videos they’d taken. Otherwise, with Stone’s background, a viral clip online could’ve caused real damage.

“What happened?” Johnathan asked, stepping in and scanning the situation. Maddox gave a quick rundown of what happened after Johnathan left. When he got to the part where Mateo went to confront the man, Johnathan looked stunned—then touched.

Only a few people would’ve done something like that. But when he heard that Mateo hadn’t been able to win, and even Stone had nearly been overpowered, Johnathan’s expression turned complicated. Mateo was no match for him, sure—but against a regular person, Mateo would’ve had no problem. And Stone? No need to even mention it. He was from the military—not someone to mess with.

That meant the guy they’d fought was far from ordinary.

“What’s his background?”

“I made a few calls. He’s a Chinese expatriate, just recently returned. Supposedly planning to invest in something.”

They didn’t have much time, so the information was limited. The group exchanged a look but said no more.

A while later, Stone and Mateo were released. Neither looked very happy—especially Mateo, who hadn’t expected to drag Stone into trouble.

“If I’d known the guy was that tough, I never would’ve gone in like that.”

“Total disaster,” he muttered, glancing at Stone. “What are you gonna do when we get back?”