A Call from the Future Begged Me Not to Apply to Harvard Chapter 05

A Call from the Future Begged Me Not to Apply to Harvard Chapter 05

“Even if Mark stole Emily’s research files, that doesn’t prove he gave them to me!”

“Emily is grasping at straws. Even in court, that wouldn’t prove I was involved.”

“That research is mine. I did it myself.”

I nodded. “Then let’s go back to the original question.”

“Where is the watermark in your research file?”

The tension in Sam’s shoulders eased.

She looked at me like she’d already won.

“Emily, can you stop wasting everyone’s time? The panel already confirmed there is no watermark.”

I looked at the digital forensics specialist operating the computer.

“Could you change the page background to black?”

She paused, then seemed to understand what I meant.

With a few clicks, she changed the background of both documents to black.

The black text vanished.

In its place, rows of tiny white letters appeared, densely covering every page.

[ Emily Harper]

I pointed at the screen.

“That’s my watermark.”

“Sam, you just swore there was no watermark in either document.”

“And if this project is yours, why is my name stamped across every page?”

Everyone stared at Sam with fresh suspicion.

She froze, rubbing her fingers along the sides of her pants, the nervous habit she always fell into.

“That’s-that’s my work…”

She bit her lip and pointed at me with a trembling hand.

1 figured it out. You added the watermark when you stole my files.”

That watermark proves nothing!”

I held her gaze.

Actually, Sam. It proves everything.”

I turned to the technician.

“You’ve worked with this type of embedded watermark before, haven’t you?”

Sam took an unsteady step backward.

The specialist nodded and opened the document’s embedded audit log, checking the watermark entries one

by one.

Each entry displayed a tamper-evident timestamp tied to the document’s version history.

She looked at Sam with narrowed eyes.

These timestamps show watermarks added at irregular intervals across five full days.”

Are you saying Emily was in your apartment for five straight days, using your computer without your

knowledge?”

Sam stammered.

‘L.. I don’t remember.”

‘Don’t remember?”

Emily and I are close. She stayed at my place all the time…”

Another panel member placed a call, then hung up.

He turned to Sam, his expression grave.

“I confirmed it through your apartment building’s security footage and visitor records. Emily visited on July 3, stayed for thirty minutes, and left with you.”

“The watermarks in this file were added from August 10th to 15th.”

“During that period, new watermark entries appeared at random hours, both day and night.”

“That rules out any possibility that Emily altered the file on your computer.”

“The only reasonable explanation is that you stole a copy of Emily’s file after she had already embedded the

watermarks.”

Sam stared at the screen, speechless.

Dr. Miller finally leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath.

I turned back to Sam.

“Then explain how my watermarked research ended up on your computer and was submitted under your

name.”