Once the door closed, only the two of us remained in the lab.

Fabian watched me in silence for a moment, then sighed.

"Fine. I wasn't thinking clearly."

"Since you won't give it up, let's drop the whole thing. Forget I said anything."

I didn't respond. Didn't even look at him.

Fabian suddenly wrapped his arms around me from behind, his voice impossibly gentle.

"Sara, we've been married for years."

"Why argue in front of a student and give people something to gossip about?"

He said he'd just had a lapse in judgment—that he felt sorry for Doris because she had talent but hadn't found her footing yet, and he'd been too eager to help her along.

But it sounded like nonsense to me. I pushed him away with a cold laugh.

"Fabian, are you lying to me?"

I stared straight into his eyes.

Every word deliberate.

"Why did it have to be my paper you took for Doris?"

"And our tenth anniversary essay collection—why is she suddenly the heroine?"

"Fabian, don't you think you owe me an explanation?"

His gaze dropped slightly. Something unreadable flickered in his eyes.

"Our essay collection has nothing to do with Doris."

He pulled a manuscript from his study drawer.

"Look. This is this year's edition. I finished writing it—just haven't sent it to the publisher yet."

I froze. Flipping through a few pages, I saw it was indeed different from the tenth volume circulating online.

"That doesn't make sense. Where there's smoke, there's fire."

I opened my laptop and pulled up the essay collection that the internet claimed Fabian had written himself.

"It's all over the internet. Everyone's saying the heroine in this one is Doris."

"She even posted about it on social media to celebrate."

"You didn't know?"

Fabian sighed, looking helpless.

"Sara, how old are you? You're really going to believe baseless rumors from the internet?"

"As for Doris's post—I saw it too."

"I asked her about it. She said she posted it on a dare during a game of truth or dare at a party with friends."

"Young girls these days are all like that. It was just for fun."

I studied the man standing before me. He looked as sincere and composed as always. Not a single crack in his facade.

But something still felt off.

"Really?"

Fabian gave me his word again and again.

"That essay collection was fake. How could I possibly make another woman the protagonist?"

"Don't forget—publishing an essay collection for you every year was our wedding promise."