Chapter 6

Gavin's pupils shrank sharply.

Lynn?

An engineer?

He almost thought he was hallucinating.

How could she be here? And become a core technical staff member of some project?

Shouldn't she be at home, or hiding in some corner he couldn't find, waiting for him to cool down, then coming back to apologize and make peace like she had done countless times before?

But Lynn acted as if she hadn't seen the storm raging in his eyes at all. She just calmly nodded to Professor Perez at the head of the table, then sat down gracefully in the reserved seat.

That seat happened to be diagonally across from Gavin.

"Alright, everyone's here. Let's begin." Professor Perez cleared his throat, his gaze sweeping across the room. "This time we're partnering with Torres Group to develop the 'Dawn' chip project. Our team will handle the core technical challenges, while Torres Group provides funding and subsequent industry support."

Professor Perez paused, looking at Lynn with encouragement and appreciation in his eyes. "Now, let's have Lynn, the core engineer of our project, introduce our preliminary technical proposal."

Everyone in the conference room focused their attention on Lynn once again.

Gavin's gaze locked onto her too, filled with scrutiny and inquiry.

In his memory, she had always been gentle, soft, revolving around the kitchen and the kids. She would be happy all day from a single compliment from him, and would feel dejected from his unintentional neglect.

But the woman before him now was confident, composed, and professional.

She opened the presentation. Clear logic, professional data, cutting-edge concepts flowed from her mouth. She seemed to glow, so dazzling that he found her unfamiliar, even somewhat blinding.

Watching Lynn on stage, confident and composed, he suddenly remembered that she used to be like this too, with light in her eyes. But later, for him and their family, she had gradually dulled all her edges—this unfamiliar sense of disconnect made him inexplicably irritated.

Just then, a soft voice sounded beside him.

"Lynn is really amazing. After all these years away from work, her professional skills are still so strong."

Gavin turned his head to see Sophie looking at Lynn on stage with admiration, though beneath that admiring gaze lurked a barely noticeable jealousy.

Sophie had pulled strings to attend this meeting as accompanying staff from the Torres Group partner—she had learned early on that Lynn was the project's core, and deliberately came to show her presence in front of Gavin.

Gavin had arranged it.

He had originally wanted to use this opportunity to help Sophie make her mark in the industry and pave the way for her future.

But he never expected that the core figure of this project would be Lynn.

An hour later, Lynn's presentation ended, and warm applause filled the conference room.

Professor Perez stood up first, looking at her with satisfaction. "Excellent presentation! Lynn, you truly didn't disappoint me!"

"Thank you, Professor." Lynn smiled modestly and began packing up her laptop and files.

The meeting ended, and people gradually dispersed.

Sophie immediately stood up and naturally walked to Gavin's side, intimately linking her arm through his.

Her voice was just loud enough for Lynn, who hadn't left yet, to hear.

"Gavin, Lynn's presentation was really good. I was completely captivated. To celebrate the successful launch of our project, let's have lunch together?"

As she spoke, she looked at Lynn with a challenging gaze, as if showing off her victory and claim of ownership.

This was her usual trick. In the past, every time, Lynn would be stung pale and flee in embarrassment.

But this time, Lynn didn't give them even an extra glance.

She finished packing her things and walked straight to Professor Perez's side, quietly discussing a technical detail from the presentation, as if everything around her had nothing to do with her.

Gavin's gaze remained fixed on Lynn's back.

She hadn't even looked at him once.

From the moment she entered until now, for over an hour, she had treated him like air.

This feeling of being completely ignored made Gavin instantly irritated.

He was used to her pursuit, used to her gaze always revolving around him. Now that she suddenly stopped looking, he felt uncomfortable all over.

"Gavin?"

Sophie sensed his distraction. Her hand tightened around his arm, her tone taking on a coquettish quality.

Gavin snapped back to attention, glanced at Sophie beside him, then at Lynn's retreating figure as she left the conference room with Professor Perez. His expression darkened.

"Let's go." He suppressed his displeasure and responded flatly.

Seeing that he had finally put his attention back on her, Sophie's face immediately showed a triumphant smile. She leaned even closer to him as they walked toward the elevator together.

However, when she looked back toward where Lynn had disappeared, the jealousy and malice in her eyes could no longer be hidden.

Before Gavin could think more about Sophie, his phone rang.

It was a notification from Ethan's homeroom teacher: [Parent-child sports day this Saturday. Both parents required to attend. Please arrange your schedules in advance.]

He glanced at it and put it down, not taking it seriously.

As a result, Saturday morning at seven o'clock, Ethan sat on the living room sofa, hugging his backpack, staring motionlessly at the entrance.

Rowan brought out breakfast, but he didn't touch his fork.

"Ethan, eat breakfast first."

"I'm not hungry."

Ethan kept his head down, his small hands gripping the backpack straps tightly.

Rowan's fried eggs were always too burnt, and the toast had hard edges. He suddenly remembered that Mom used to cut off the toast crusts and fry the eggs until they were tender. At night when he couldn't find the little blanket Mom gave him, he couldn't help looking at the shoe cabinet by the door.

He looked at the entrance again.

The door didn't make a sound.

Mom hadn't come home for several days.

Actually, he secretly looked at the shoe cabinet by the door every day. Mom's white flats were still there, covered with a thin layer of dust.

Before, Mom would wear those shoes every morning, bustling around the kitchen, warming his milk, frying eggs, cutting off the toast crusts because he didn't like the hard parts.

Now there was only Rowan in the kitchen.

Ethan waited another ten minutes, then finally picked up the phone and called Gavin.

"Dad, there's a parent-child sports day at school today."

"I know, I'll pick you up in a bit."

Ethan bit his lip, hesitated for a long while, then said quietly, "The teacher said both Mom and Dad need to come."