Chapter 3

"Alex, this was Sophie's job. Emily was just here to help us out," Amanda spoke up.

She couldn't take it anymore and broke the awkward silence.

Standing up to Alex in front of everyone could get her in trouble, but she didn't care. It had nothing to do with me.

She held onto my wrist, making it clear she wouldn't let anyone pin this on me or let me get hurt.

Alex paused for a split second, his brow furrowing so slightly it was almost unnoticeable.

He looked over at me, like he was waiting for my explanation, and for once, his eyes weren't as icy as before.

Once someone called him out, the others immediately joined in.

"Alex, you can try to shut us up, but we're still going to speak up! Sophie went off to her driving lessons without telling anyone, so our group was short-handed and Emily was just helping us out," one of them said.

"Yeah, Emily didn't do anything wrong. If there's a problem with the data, blame Sophie for skipping out. What's that got to do with Emily?" another chimed in.

They'd been annoyed with Sophie for always bailing and dumping her work on everyone else. They used to keep quiet, but now they just didn't care anymore.

Alex fell silent for a long moment, a heavy cloud of regret settling in his eyes.

"I jumped to conclusions today. I'll have a word with Sophie about this," he finally said. "You've all worked hard. Go ahead and call it a day, or you'll miss the cafeteria before it closes."

Just as everyone was quietly pleased that someone finally spoke up for justice, Alex's eyes locked onto me.

"Emily, stay," Alex said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Everyone was stunned, not sure what was happening.

Then Alex Carter spoke up, his voice icy and distant. "This lab isn't a playground. Once you step in, there's no such thing as just helping out. There's no excuses, no shortcuts. Every step has to follow the rules.

"Emily, your grip on the reagent bottle was wrong. Since you messed it up, you're staying to wash every single reagent bottle before you leave."

I looked up at him in shock, but he just turned his head away, refusing to spare me even a single glance.

My lab mates weren't having it. They were all fired up, ready to jump in and defend me.

But Alex cut them off with a cold, threatening warning. "Anyone who helps Emily today can forget about coming to the lab tomorrow."

Nobody expected things to blow up like this. Everyone was left completely stunned.

I knew Alex was just trying to make me swallow my pride.

It was just a few hundred reagent bottles? Whatever.

If that was what it takes, I would wash them.

I looked at him and calmly said, "Fine, Alex. It's on me, I'll take care of it."

But even after I agreed, Alex's face didn't show a hint of satisfaction. He still looked as cold as ever.

He hesitated for a second, then turned and strode out of the lab.