My Mafia Dominant Is Back

9. The Unexpected Disaster

In the days that followed, Lyla felt an incredible sense of relief. On the academic front, having broken through her psychological barriers, she suddenly found herself brimming with inspiration. Her progress with the research group’s project advanced smoothly, and everything seemed to fall into place.

On the personal side, she hadn’t seen or heard from the Shadow Master at all. It was as though he had taken her rejection to heart and finally left her alone.

Strangely, Jessica had also been ignoring her. Other than briefly seeing her during department meetings, Jessica seemed to go out of her way to avoid Lyla, acting as if they had never been friends.

Lyla couldn’t shake the thought that maybe Jessica had started dating the Shadow Master. Maybe, under his influence, Jessica had decided to distance herself from Lyla as some kind of punishment.

Every time this thought crept into her mind, Lyla felt a confusing wave of emotion rise up inside her. It was hard to pinpoint exactly what it was, like a melted Sour Patch candy in her chest—bittersweet, sticky, and impossible to shake.

Luckily, this odd feeling was quickly replaced by the excitement of a new experiment led by her advisor.

The project aimed to explore the relationship between pain levels and pleasure, and the lab had recently acquired new equipment that could measure endorphin levels in real-time. Researchers could apply varying levels of electric current to induce pain in the participants and observe the fluctuations in their endorphin levels.

As a new PhD student, Lyla wasn’t yet qualified to conduct the experiments herself. She acted as a research assistant, responsible for data collection and cleaning. Despite this, she was thrilled to be part of it. Her advisor had promised that if she contributed enough to data processing, she could be listed as a co-author on the resulting paper.

This was a huge opportunity for her. Lyla threw herself into the project, working tirelessly. She became so engrossed that thoughts of the Shadow Master faded away entirely.

One evening, a few weeks later, Lyla found herself staying late at the lab again. The next day was crucial—she was scheduled to present the preliminary data analysis to the funding partners. The meeting would determine whether the project would receive continued financial support.

Her advisor was very serious about this presentation, which was why he had entrusted the important task to Lyla. She felt honored but also deeply anxious. Wanting to be fully prepared, she decided to review the data one last time, making sure everything was perfect.

Time slipped by unnoticed, and before she knew it, it was already ten o'clock at night.

Lyla let out a deep breath and took a sip from the iced Americano on her desk. She had bought it earlier that afternoon and had forgotten about it in her busyness. Now, the ice had long since melted, and the watery brown liquid had an awful taste that made her grimace. Disgusted, she threw the rest of the coffee into the trash.

The bitter taste in her mouth lingered, so she decided to head down to the vending machine on the first floor for a drink to wash it away. The building was eerily quiet, completely deserted, but Lyla enjoyed the peace. Instead of taking the elevator, she chose to walk down the stairs, using the time to stretch her legs and clear her mind.

When she returned to the lab with her drink in hand, she froze at the sight before her.

The coffee cup she had thrown into the trash was now back on her desk, spilled across the surface. The cup lay on its side, and the liquid had soaked her notebook completely.

“No!” Lyla cried out, rushing to her desk. She yanked the laptop from the pool of coffee, her hands shaking as she opened it. The screen flickered with a mix of blue and black static before emitting a soft ''pop'' sound. A burnt smell wafted from the side of the computer, and the screen went completely dark.

To make matters worse, the coffee had seeped into the drawer beneath the desk. When she opened it, she found her backup USB drive submerged in the liquid.

Lyla felt the room spin around her. She forced herself to breathe, trying to stay calm. She distinctly remembered throwing that coffee away. Had someone come in while she was gone and done this on purpose? Who would hate her enough to sabotage her like this?

At that moment, a familiar voice cut through the silence.

“Oh dear, how could you be so careless? Spilling your coffee like that... looks like both your laptop and USB drive are ruined.”

Lyla’s heart skipped a beat as she whipped around. Standing in the doorway was Jessica, smirking at her with a look of smug satisfaction.