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.

planned. She breezed through her initial interview and was hired on the spot. The straightforward process and the superficial interview seemed like mere formalities. They hired her without

with a flourish. If it weren't for Star Enterprise looming large before her, she'd find it hard to believe any of it was real, including

to receiving her ID badge, everything was wrapped up smoothly in just a single day. It felt as though she was

After finishing onboarding, instead

to an adjacent, spacious building. Inside, the space was filled with mechanical displays and operational areas dedicated to

dropped a hint. "Gerald,

hair and a noticeable belly, scrutinized Imogen intently behind his thick glasses.

accepted Imogen's resume

expert poached from a prestigious institution by some higher-up. However, he was surprised to learn

demanded his special

the resume back to Skylar, snapping, "I don't care if she's connected to some higher-up! I won't have such a 'specially recruited' slotted into my department.

entire office turned to look at

it down. This

a company as large as Star Enterprise, assigning someone with just an associate's degree would be considered too low,