The Wrong Woman

Jasper felt flustered and hastily attempted to deflect. "I could tell something was bothering you, and I figured it might have been related to the interview."

Imogen wasn't convinced by his explanation, which seemed full of holes. She questioned, "Maybe I'm just in a bad mood from a botched interview. How do you know I didn't even attend?"

Jasper fell silent, leaving Imogen staring at him, clearly baffled. He quickly shifted gears, making his way to the kitchen. "You haven't eaten dinner yet, have you? Let me whip something up for you." "Jay," Imogen called after him.

Jasper remained focused on cooking. "What are you in the mood for? Maybe some beef?"

"Are you really not going to explain?"

"I was just guessing."

Imogen let out a deep sigh, unsure of how to respond.

Jasper avoided addressing the question by spending the entire evening holed up in his study, deeply immersed in work, and retiring to bed late into the night.

Enterprise's HR department as planned. She breezed through her initial interview and was hired on the spot. The straightforward process and the

signed her employment contract with a flourish. If it weren't for Star Enterprise looming large before her, she'd find it hard to

was wrapped up smoothly in just

After finishing onboarding, instead

going straight home, Skylar led her to an adjacent, spacious building. Inside, the space was filled with mechanical displays and

a hint. "Gerald, meet our specially recruited newcomer. Please make sure she settles

50s with thinning hair and a noticeable belly, scrutinized Imogen intently behind his thick glasses.

Imogen's resume

and studied it, initially assuming she was a highly paid expert poached from a prestigious institution by some

"specially recruited" demanded his special attention and

tossed the resume back to Skylar, snapping, "I don't care if she's connected to some higher-up! I won't have such

the entire office turned to

it down. This

on his hips, delivering a stern and prideful reprimand. "This is R&D. Even if a company as large as Star Enterprise, assigning someone with just an associate's degree would be considered too