I Let My Eighteen Year Old Self Cancel Our Engagement Chapter 06

I Let My Eighteen Year Old Self Cancel Our Engagement Chapter 06

The folders kept going.

The third, fourth, fifth-every name belonged to someone in the lab who had helped Zoey at some

point.

In the chat logs, she always said the same kind of insincere things to their faces. But then she’d turn around and laugh about it with someone else.

[Men are so easy to manipulate. The ones with girlfriends are the best. The more guilt they feel, the more willing they are to make it up to me. Now I’m famous in the lab for being understanding.]

Owen stood in front of the screen, his face pale as chalk.

Zoey panicked. She rushed forward to grab the flash drive, but Eloise blocked her with a firm hand. “Don’t rush. Don’t we still have Owen’s?”

The last folder on the screen was clicked open.

The first image was a direct chat between Zoey and her friend.

[Owen is the most boring one. Every single day, all he thinks about is papers and experiments. And the guy managed to drag out a relationship for ten whole years.]

(His girlfriend is something else, too-she actually put up with all of it. Oh well. At the end of the day, isn’t my name still going in his acknowledgements page?]

Owen’s breathing caught. He stared at the screen like he couldn’t believe it.

Eloise flipped the page.

The next one was even more glaring.

[What attraction could he possibly have to me? I just need someone to help me write my papers.]

[He’s the senior guy in the group, about to graduate soon. His resources, his connections, his letters of recommendation-all of it is useful to me.]

[Once I’ve got my path smoothed out, who would have time to indulge him with the junior-senior labmate act?]

No one in the living room said a word. Only the images scrolling on the screen remained.

(His girlfriend is kind of pitiful. She stuck it out for ten years, thinking she had it locked down J

[But honestly, with guys like that, the longer you wait around, the more stale it gets.]

[What’s the point of her taking care of his life day and night, organizing data behind the scenes? And yet men still fawn over me.]

[I’m the only name in his acknowledgements page in the end.]

Owen’s hands began to shake slowly.

He finally turned to look at Zoey. “Zoey… is all of this real…”

Zoey cried and lunged forward. “Owen, I was just talking nonsense with my friends. Bragging. You know? Just bragging! I don’t know how someone got hold of all this stuff…”

She spun and grabbed Eloise. “It’s you! You gave this to Willow, didn’t you? Out of everyone here, you’re the only one in computer science! You borrowed my laptop before!”

“Owen! If she can hack into my computer, she can forge chat records!”

She tried to explain further when suddenly a recording played from the screen.

It was Zoey’s voice outside the BBQ place that day, frighteningly clear.

“Owen said sometimes holding your hand feels like holding his own.”

“People always like what’s young and fresh, right?”

Then came another segment.

Zoey sounded like she was on the phone.

“Owen? Don’t worry, I already got him under control. That idiot, as soon as I cried, thought everything was his girlfriend’s fault.”

Zoey could barely stand now. Her lips trembled for a long moment. “Owen, I… I really didn’t mean to. I’ve been in the program for six years. I was so scared of not graduating on time. I have no background, no one to help me. I had to figure it out on my own.”

Brandon cut her off coldly, “That’s what you call figuring it out? You’ve been treating all of us like fools!”

After saying that, he turned toward Eloise, but she shoved him away.

Tyler, eyes red, pulled out his phone. “My girlfriend also broke up with me because of you. You sic back then that a relationship without trust wasn’t worth holding onto. So that was your plan all along!”

Zoey was forced to retreat step by step, using the table for support to avoid falling.

Owen stood aside, like his soul had been drained. After a long pause, he asked in a hoarse voice, “Zoey, tell me, is any of this true? Have you been driving wedges between us this whole time?”

Zoey shook her head, crying. “Willow was just jealous! She’s twenty-eight. Of course she’s terrified that you’ll leave her for someone else. I’m different. I’m still…”

“So even now, you’re still trying to slander her!” Owen suddenly cut her off, his eyes welling with red. “She’s clearly better at research than I am, yet she still quietly organized everything, putting in

the effort, never once losing patience.”

“She took care of me and our relationship sincerely, with her whole heart.”

“It was me. I couldn’t see through you…”

“And it’s me who doesn’t deserve her!”