When fate plays its hand (Miranda)

Chapter 0809

While Paul was huffing and puffing, trying to master rolling a snowball, Miranda was in the lab, deeply engrossed in logging data. Madison and Sebastian had already gone home, leaving her alone.

Initially, Miranda felt a little off without Madison’s constant chatter filling the space. But as soon as she stepped onto the workbench and immersed herself in her tasks, the feeling melted away.

Miranda had long since learned to embrace solitude. During those years Hansel confined her to the mansion, she’d grown accustomed to being alone–reading alone, studying alone, cooking alone, eating alone, and waiting alone.

In academia, one could work in collaboration or solitude. Miranda had understood this truth early on.

At noon, she finally stretched her neck; it was sore from hours bent over her work. She then went to the break room for lunch. The meal, prepared earlier that morning, only needed a quick reheat in the microwave.

As she ate, she scrolled through her phone and stumbled upon a social media post that Silas had shared an hour ago. The caption read, ‘‘I’m all snowballed out.”

The attached image showed three rows of snowballs, all perfectly uniform in size and neatly aligned in the snow. Three whole rows!

Miranda found it… rather impressive. She gave it a like and commented, “So cool, Dr. Quinton.”

Silas instantly replied, “I’m not the cool one here.” And he added a smiling emoji at the end.

if unsatisfied with his earlier comment,

Confused, Miranda replied, “What?”

comment? She simply shrugged it off, finishing her lunch and taking a

easier to finish early and head home. Everything

her street, she noticed two kids outside the building next door. They

surprisingly detailed–complete with a nose, eyes, a

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Chapter 0809

stainless–steel colander for a hat. It looked so charming and lifelike that Miranda couldn’t help but pause and watch as the children carefully patted snow onto the snowman’s belly,

sight of Miranda standing there, her attention entirely absorbed by the

looked so focused, even more so than when she was conducting experiments in

that much?” Paul’s voice

her face lighting up instantly. “Dr. Jefferson, you’re back

wasn’t just referring to completing two sets of data

“It’s so well done.

her compliment, the two children turned and enthusiastically invited her to join. ” Miss, come play

guys keep playing.