The room went still the moment I stepped in. Every head turned toward me, eyes sharp with curiosity.
“Joe, is this… our new teammate?” one of them asked, their tone a mix of excitement and disbelief.
Joe’s easy smile didn’t falter. “You guys are well-informed. This is Rae—”
Before he could finish, James’s voice cut through like a blade. “So, you kicked my junior off the project… for her?”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees. Joe’s jaw tightened. “Yes. I was going to explain to you privately—”
James laughed, but there was no humor in it. He turned his gaze on me, eyes burning. “My junior just earned her Ph.D. from one of the top ten research institutes in the world. She’s twenty-five. And yet somehow, Miss Rae here was able to squeeze her out? That must mean y
