To everyone on the outside, we were the golden couple, the picture-perfect pair of the research world.
Only I knew the balance had never been equal. Not from the start.
I loved him far more than he ever loved me.
I came from an ordinary family and fought my way here on my own.
He came from privilege, had decent talent, was proud and self-centered, and used to being put on a pedestal.
Michelle Fox was his junior labmate, five years younger, dependent on him since they were students. In front of him she was always soft, always helpless, always *Les this* and *Les that* in that clingy little-sister voice.
I'd minded. Of course I had. But every time, he gave me the same line: "She's just a kid. Why are you making it into a thing?"
I believed him.
I talked myself down again and again. Be mature. Be generous. Try to understand him.
A year ago, the National Core Research Lab was recruiting talent. The entire province had one recommendation slot, and the department unanimously chose me.
It was the platform every researcher dreams of. The goal I had been working toward for over a decade.