The office went completely silent.
The Integrity Director looked at my phone.
Then at Ethan.
—Miss Lin, are you formally requesting an investigation into unauthorized deletion of academic work and a potentially malicious complaint?
—Yes.
Ethan immediately stepped forward.
—There’s no need to involve the police.
I looked at him.
—Why?
His expression tightened.
—Because this is an internal university matter.
—Last night you said someone’s future was insignificant compared to Nadia’s feelings.
I smiled.
—Surely you aren’t suddenly worried about consequences.
Nadia clutched his sleeve.
—Ethan, my chest hurts.
He turned toward her automatically.
That reflex told me everything I still needed to know.
—Sit down. Breathe slowly.
The Integrity Director interrupted.
—Miss Kang, medical services are downstairs. If you’re unwell, we’ll call them.
Nadia froze.
Apparently, being offered an actual doctor was less useful than having Ethan panic around her.
The director turned to the university technician who had just entered.
—Retrieve the computer logs from yesterday.
The counselor frowned.
—Is that necessary?
—Very.
Twenty minutes later, the technician connected his laptop to the room’s screen.
—The library computer was logged into a student cloud account at 4:13 p.m.
He read the ID aloud.
Ethan Jiang.
Nobody spoke.
Ethan slowly turned toward Nadia.
—What?
The technician continued.
—At 4:27 p.m., a folder named “Final Version” was opened.
My mouth almost curved upward.
—And?
—At 4:29, the primary document was deleted.
—Whose document?
The technician enlarged the metadata.
The title appeared across the screen.
THESIS_EJIANG_FINAL_REVISED.docx
Below it:
Author: Ethan Jiang.
Student number: 2021-77426.
Ethan stopped breathing.
Nadia stared at the screen.
—No…
The technician clicked again.
—The file was then deleted from the recycle bin.
The Integrity Director looked at Nadia.
—Did you do that?
She immediately shook her head.
—I thought it was Olivia’s!
The moment the words left her mouth, everyone froze.
Even the counselor closed his eyes.
I leaned back.
—Interesting.
Nadia realized what she had admitted.
—No, I mean… I accidentally—
—You just admitted you intentionally deleted a file because you believed it belonged to me.
Her face became white.
—I was confused.
—You emptied the trash too.
—I panicked!
The Integrity Director’s voice became cold.
—Miss Kang, deleting another student’s academic work deliberately is serious misconduct, regardless of whose work you believed it was.
Ethan suddenly grabbed the edge of the table.
—Can the file be recovered?
The technician hesitated.
—Possibly.
Hope flashed across his face.
—Then recover it.
—There’s another problem.
He opened the submission portal.
The deadline clock showed two hours and eighteen minutes.
—Mr. Jiang has not submitted a thesis.
Ethan stared.
—That’s impossible.
The technician looked at him.
—Your account shows no submission.
I finally spoke.
—Because he gave me his thesis two days ago.
Every head turned toward me.
Ethan looked almost relieved.
—Yes. Exactly. Olivia corrected it. She must have another copy.
He turned toward me.
—Send it to me.
I stared at him.
For four years, I had edited his papers.
Corrected his citations.
Rebuilt his presentations.
Covered for his missed deadlines.
And somehow he had mistaken love for permanent unpaid labor.
—No.
His face stiffened.
—What?
—I don’t have your final version.
—You worked on it!
—I corrected the draft you sent me and saved it to your account.
The same account Nadia had destroyed.
His lips parted.
—You must have downloaded a copy.
—I didn’t.
Panic finally appeared.
—Olivia, stop joking.
—Why would I joke?
I repeated his own words.
—In the worst case, you delay graduation for a year.
His face went gray.
Nadia began crying.
—I didn’t know!
Ethan spun toward her.
For the first time in four years, there was no tenderness in his expression.
—You deleted my thesis?
—I thought it was hers!
That answer made it worse.
—So you meant to destroy Olivia’s?
Nadia stopped.
The room went silent again.
Ethan stared at the girl he had defended against me twelve hours earlier.
Something finally cracked.
—You told me it was an accident.
—I was angry!
—Why?
Tears streamed down Nadia’s face.
—Because she was graduating.
—So?
—Because after graduation you were going to marry her!
There it was.
No illness.
No misunderstanding.
No innocent mistake.
Jealousy.
Nadia’s voice rose.
—Once you married her, everything would change! You wouldn’t come whenever I called. You wouldn’t stay with me when I was sick. You wouldn’t—
Ethan stepped backward.
—You destroyed a thesis because I planned to marry my girlfriend?
Nadia reached for him.
He moved away.
The Integrity Director turned toward the counselor.
—And who filed the academic misconduct complaint against Miss Lin?
Nobody answered.
The technician raised a hand.
—I checked the submission source.
He displayed an IP record.
Campus faculty housing.
Then the registered network user.
Professor Daniel Jiang.
The counselor’s face collapsed.
Ethan stared at his uncle.
—You reported Olivia?
Professor Jiang slammed his palm on the table.
—I was protecting you!
—From what?
—That girl has always been too ambitious. She humiliates you constantly.
I almost laughed.
—By getting better grades?
His face darkened.
The Integrity Director opened the complaint file.
—The report also states Miss Lin falsified her secondary school history.
I finally gave him the number I had offered earlier.
He called.
The conversation lasted less than five minutes.
When he hung up, his expression had completely changed.
—Miss Lin’s academic history is legitimate.
Professor Jiang frowned.
The director continued.
—And the missing records are restricted because she attended the International Science Academy under a protected research program.
Ethan looked at me.
—Protected?
I said nothing.
The director looked almost impressed.
—Her parents are Dr. Helena Lin and Dr. Marcus Lin.
The room changed.
Even Ethan knew those names.
Directors of the Lin Institute for Advanced Molecular Systems.
International prize winners.
The research center currently funding three university laboratories.
Nadia whispered:
—But Ethan said she was an orphan.
I looked at him.
Ethan looked away.
That hurt more than I expected.
—Why?
He answered quietly.
—I didn’t want people thinking you were with me because of family connections.
I laughed.
—So you erased my family to make yourself look better?
Nobody defended him this time.
The Integrity Director closed the folder.
Professor Jiang was removed from the investigation immediately because of his conflict of interest.
The university opened formal proceedings against him for filing an unsupported accusation and abusing his position.
Nadia was referred for disciplinary review.
As for Ethan…
the clock kept moving.
One hour.
Forty minutes.
Twenty-five.
The technician recovered fragments of the deleted thesis, but not enough for submission.
Ethan sat in the hallway with his head in his hands.
I walked past him.
He grabbed my wrist.
—Olivia.
I pulled away.
—Don’t touch me.
His eyes were red.
—Please. You know my research better than anyone.
That was true.
I could probably reconstruct the missing sections faster than he could.
—Help me.
I looked at him.
—Last night, I asked whether your own future would be insignificant if Nadia’s health were involved.
He closed his eyes.
—I was wrong.
—You were cruel.
—I know.
—You let people insult me.
—I know.
—You accused me of destroying my own thesis.
His voice broke.
—I know.
I glanced at the countdown on his laptop.
Twelve minutes.
Then I stepped aside.
—Good luck.
He didn’t submit.
The system closed at midnight.
Ethan’s graduation was postponed.
Mine wasn’t.
Three weeks later, I stood onstage receiving the university’s highest undergraduate research award.
My parents had flown home for the ceremony.
When I stepped down, Ethan was waiting near the exit.
He looked exhausted.
—Congratulations.
—Thank you.
—Nadia admitted everything.
I nodded.
I already knew.
The investigation had also discovered she had exaggerated several medical episodes to keep Ethan near her.
Her actual condition was manageable and had never prevented normal emotional stress.
Professor Jiang lost his supervisory position.
Nadia was suspended.
Ethan remained enrolled, repeating his final research year.
—Olivia.
He looked at me.
—Can we start again?
For four years, that question would have been everything I wanted.
Now it sounded strangely small.
—No.
His eyes reddened.
—I protected the wrong person.
I shook my head.
—That wasn’t the real problem.
—Then what was?
I looked at the man who had once run through rain because he couldn’t bear seeing me treated unfairly.
Somewhere along the way, he had started believing my pain mattered less because I loved him enough to endure it.
—You didn’t just choose Nadia.
I stepped backward.
“You decided I was the person whose future could be sacrificed without consequence.”
Then I turned and walked toward my parents.
A month later, I left for an international doctoral program.
Ethan eventually graduated one year late.
I heard Nadia disappeared from our social circle after the disciplinary case.
None of it mattered anymore.
Because the thesis she meant to delete had never been mine.
But she did destroy something that night.
She destroyed the last excuse I had for believing Ethan still deserved a place in my future.
