He Wanted My Research, She Wanted My Seat, I Wanted Out Chapter 06

He Wanted My Research, She Wanted My Seat, I Wanted Out Chapter 06

“Even if Henrik stole Camila’s files, that doesn’t prove he gave them to me!”

“Camila is just grasping at straws. Even in court, you can’t prove I was involved!”

“My research is really mine!”

I nodded. “Then let’s go back to the earlier question. Where’s the watermark in the project files?”

The moment I brought the watermark back up, Tessa’s tense shoulders relaxed. She looked at me with renewed confidence.

“Camila, can you stop wasting everyone’s time? What watermark? The committee already said there’s no watermark!”

I turned to the committee member at the computer.

“Could you change the background color to black, please?”

She paused, then caught on. She nodded and clicked.

Both documents on the screen went black.

The black text vanished completely.

In its place, tiny white letters, densely scattered across every page.

[Camila Mercer CR]

I pointed at the screen.

“That’s my watermark.”

—

“Tessa, you were so sure there was no watermark, weren’t you?”

“And if this project is yours, then why does every page have my name on it?”

Everyone’s eyes went wide. The stares at Tessa turned sharp with doubt.

Tessa froze for a solid minute. Her fingers fidgeted against her thighs. She always did that when she was nervous.

“No… this is my research…”

She bit her lip, then jabbed a shaking finger at me.

“I get it now. You… you added these watermarks when you stole my files.”

“This watermark doesn’t prove anything!”

I held her gaze, calm and certain.

“Tessa, this watermark proves everything.”

I asked the operator, “You’ve seen this type of watermark before, haven’t you?”

Tessa swayed on her feet.

The operator nodded, fully understanding now. She clicked each watermark, one by one, starting from the first page.

Every click brought up a timestamp, the exact date it was added. Impossible to alter.

She looked at Tessa with narrowed eyes.

—

“These watermarks weren’t added all at once. They were placed at random times over five straight days.”

“So Camila would have had to be at your place for five days, accessing your computer at all hours and you never noticed?”

Tessa stammered. “I… I don’t remember.”

“You don’t remember?”

“Camila and I were close. She stayed over all the time…”

Another committee member made a phone call. When he hung up, he fixed Tessa with a cold stare.

“I just confirmed with your building’s security footage. Camila visited your place only once, on July 3rd. She stayed for half an hour, and you left together.”

“But these watermarks were added between August 10th and August 15th.”

“Over those days, at every hour of the day, a new watermark was inserted into the file.”

“That rules out any possibility that Camila snuck into your place and tampered with your files.”

“The only plausible explanation is that you stole her pre-watermarked documents.”

Tessa’s mouth hung open. No words came.

Beside me, Dr. Thompson finally leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath.

—

I turned to Tessa.

“So, care to explain how my watermarked project files ended up in your hands? And how they became your submitted work?”