He Called Me A Stone And Chose Her Pearl Chapter 16
After that day, Vanessa reluctantly started trying to read.
She couldn’t sit still for long. Soon, she came to me with a history of border governance and asked me to write notes in it for her.
“Why?” I asked. “Weren’t you the one who forbade me from having any contact with Nolan? Why do you want me talking to him for you now?”
She stormed out in a rage.
Later, she paid a graduate student to ghostwrite her notes, which she then copied out by hand. Sure enough, Nolan saw it as a sign that she was finally getting serious, and the two of them made up.
Not long after, our former mentor, Professor Ruth Caldwell, held a commemoration for her retirement.
I brought her a restored map proposal and research paper that had taken me months to complete. Ruth had just opened it when Nolan’s voice cut through the room.
“Laurel, wasn’t copying Vanessa’s handwriting enough for you? Now you’re stealing her research, too?”
Vanessa was standing nearby, holding an identical paper, her eyes red as if she’d been deeply wronged.
Before I could speak, Ruth closed the file.
“Nolan, be very careful when you accuse one of my students.”
“Laurel has been in my research group since she was sixteen. I have watched her develop her methods of argument, her cartographic style, and her prose. I know her work when I see it.”
She turned to Vanessa.
“As for why this other paper is identical, perhaps you’re the one who should explain that to us.”
Vanessa burst into tears and fled the hall.
This time, Nolan didn’t follow.
He looked from me to the two papers, and the suspicion in his eyes deepened.
“Laurel, are you hiding something from me?”
I met his gaze coldly.
“What is there between us for me to hide?”