How a Dying Woman Rewrote Her Epilogue

"Sorry..." Elodie felt her eyes sting with unexpected tears.

Alexander's irritation was palpable, but he couldn't stand to see Elodie like this. "What are you apologizing for? If anyone deserves an apology, it's the land itself for you monopolizing the wild vegetable patch for three years. Go say sorry to Mother Earth, not me."

Elodie couldn't help but feel a mixture of laughter and tears.

Honestly, Alexander had known she'd come.

Esmeralda, with her loose lips, had already spilled everything to him.

"You're not late," Alexander said, letting out a long sigh as he looked up at the ceiling. "As long as you've figured things out, it's never too late to start over. With your talent, what company wouldn't want you? VistaLink Technologies only truly shines because you're part of it."

Elodie's abilities had once earned her a special recruitment straight into the research institute.

She should never have been left to wither in obscurity.

For years, everyone had admired the jaw-dropping U.N2 drone, crediting the invention to him. People lined up at VistaLink's doors, desperate to get in because of the U.N2. But in truth, it was Elodie who had reached those heights at just twenty years old—a benchmark nobody has surpassed even now.

She'd given others years to catch up, but no one had managed to outpace her groundbreaking ideas and tech from back then.

"You're really okay with me joining VistaLink?" Elodie could barely express what she was feeling.

Alexander snorted. "Esmeralda already agreed, all on her own, to bring you on as a partner with your tech. I'm just curious to see what kind of leap forward you'll bring to VistaLink. Be there Monday morning!"

He was always tough on the outside, but Elodie knew his heart was soft.

She broke into a genuine smile, maybe the first real one she'd had in ages. "Thank you, Alex."

gruff huff and turned to mingle with

finally lifted from

seemed brighter, her exhaustion

made her way over to examine one of the

a wave of commotion swept through

saw Jarrod and Sylvie arriving, accompanied

room-people were abuzz,

protectively kept Sylvie close to his side. She looked away, deciding not to pay them any more

turned her focus fully to the ingenious design of the drone

saw that Jarrod didn't so much as glance her way,

Elodie, was

she managed to score an invitation

gone to ridiculous lengths just to

her. By the time she looked up, Maurice and Joseph were already standing in front of her, Jarrod and

sneered, "You're just a housewife who knows how to do laundry and cook what are you doing poking around here? Do you have any idea how expensive these things are? If you break one, do you really think you could pay for it with

pretending to be some kind

gave Elodie a smirk that

the billiards club

way Elodie could

she wanted to pretend, couldn't

you really think snagging an invitation would mean anything?" Maurice sighed theatrically. "Sylvie is the real deal a PhD from Pinecrest Institute of Technology. Maybe you should

drones, just

end of Maurice's words. Sylvie was calm, not giving away