Dumping Him for His Uncle (Natasha and Zachary)

The moment Nicole finished her sentence, she regretted it. She should have pushed Molly a little harder.

But it was too late now because she heard Matthew's voice on the other end of the line. "Forget it. I'll figure something out myself. As long as she's okay, that's all that matters."

Before she could say anything else, he hung up.

Nicole stood there, a strange feeling gnawing at her.

After she left, Natasha stepped out from a corner where she'd been quietly watching.

Between what she had just overheard and the strange attitude Nicole had shown all day, everything clicked into place.

Still, when Natasha had saved Molly, there were no witnesses. If she wanted to expose Nicole, she would need solid proof. Still, she wasn't in a rush. It seemed like there was already a rift between them anyway.

The next day, Natasha only arrived at the lab in the afternoon.

She glanced around but didn't see Nicole anywhere. It wasn't until she asked Xavier that she found out Nicole hadn't shown up that day.

"When did you start paying attention to her?" Xavier teased. He was in an unusually good mood today.

With Nicole gone, the lab was blissfully free of meaningless chatter.

"Mind your own business," Natasha said flatly, turning her focus back to the experiment.

They were working on developing a new drug, one specifically for use on animals.

"Who submitted this batch of research data?"

Natasha was engrossed in her work when a loud thud made everyone jump. A blue folder was slammed onto the table.

Turning around, they saw Nancy standing there, fuming. Natasha, like everyone else, felt confused.

"It wasn't me. I always use transparent folders," Xavier blurted out quickly.

He let out a relieved breath, but Nancy's gaze sharpened, locking onto both of them.

"Do either of you know who submitted it?"

Each set of experimental data had a label at the back, so Natasha went straight to the last page to check the names written.

"Nicole and Sidney," she read aloud.

Sidney Wagner was a young guy, even younger than Xavier, by the looks of it.

Hearing his name, he nervously shuffled forward.

"Fix the data and bring it back to me," Nancy said sharply, jabbing a finger at the folder.

Her tone made it clear that the report had serious problems. Given how harshly she reacted, it was obvious the mistakes weren't minor.

But it also showed that Nancy wasn't unreasonable. She hadn't lashed out at Sidney, though he was partly responsible.

What Natasha didn't expect was that, in less than half an hour, Sidney was already grabbing his folder and getting ready to leave the lab.

"You didn't just reshuffle the order of the data, did you?" Natasha asked.

She normally wasn't one to meddle, but Sidney was new to the project. And worse

yet, he'd gotten dragged down by Nicole.

"Don't worry. I fixed everything," Sidney said, giving her a curious look.

Natasha just nodded and didn't think too much of it.noveldrama

"He's working with Nicole. Why are you helping him?" Xavier grumbled, shooting a dirty look at Sidney's back.

It didn't matter to him whether Sidney had chosen to work with Nicole or not. Just being associated with her was enough to leave a bad taste.

"I didn't help him with anything. And maybe you should focus on the experiment instead of gossiping," Natasha said. She gave him a light smack on the shoulder. Xavier winced and rubbed at the sore spot, muttering complaints.