Chapter 5: The Truth

Daisy Dyer’s POV

I was looking at the spectrometer when I was trying to get my readings for the day. It was an exhausting day as I just got back from my lab that I was teaching. I don’t think that I would ever get the idea that I was teaching undergrads.

 I smiled as I was remembering that my friend, Ella Lattone, who was working at WWF will be visiting as she wanted to look around for any spot of the Master’s program that she wanted to join here.

 And of course, as a good friend of mine, she will be staying with me.

 “What are you smiling about?” I startled when Lucia was standing beside me before I was smiling at her.

 “Nothing. I was just excited that my friend will be visiting me later,” I said as I was smiling at her. She nodded before she was looking at my readings.

 “Well, that’s a good start. Have you uncover anything from your father’s journals?” She asked me. I nodded at her.

 “Yes, I did. My father believes that the meteorite was the first one to hit the Old Ocean and we were trying to compare the readings if they matched or not,” I said as I was taking some of the notes before Lucia nodded and looked around.

 “Is Dylan in?” She asked. I shrugged before shaking my head.

 “I haven’t seen him all day. So I think he might be at the Physics department to do something with his research. I think he was bored to be here with me,” I said as I was smiling at Lucia. She laughed.

 “How can he be? You’re charming! If anything, I say he has some trouble with his eyes then if he was avoiding you,” Lucia said before someone was clearing their throat behind us. We turned to look at an amused Dylan before us.

 “Are you guys talking behind my back?” He asked as he arched his eyebrow at me. I chuckled before Lucia was grinning at him.

 “If you heard what are we talking about you, that was not talking behind your back,” Lucia said before she was patting my shoulder and went out of the room. Then, she popped back in again.

 “Oh, and there will be a conference in 3 days. I hope you guys don’t mind accompanying me. And don’t worry, the expenses have been covered,” she said as she winked before she left me with Dylan.

 I was taking some more readings as I saw Dylan was moving to his desk before he was doing something there, in the corner of my eyes.

 If I was being honest, I was a little nervous with Dylan Windell in the same room as me. The sexual tension that I felt for 2 years now has been escalating and I don’t know if I can control it any longer.

 “So, did you get anything interesting while I was gone?” Dylan said as he was moving around the lab to set up his work. I shrugged before I was writing the result before he stood behind me.

 How do I know?

I can sense his body heat whenever he's near. And I think he did not know that his body heat was driving me crazy. I wanted to jump him but I know better than to have a relationship with my partner.

 “…remember no romance with your partner or anyone that will be working with you. It comes with complications,” Barb’s advice echoed through my body. I was sighing before Dylan took my chart.

 “Hey!”

 He was looking at the chart as I was trying to get from him. He was taller and stronger than me. That’s why I was trying to make sure that everything will not be seen by him or anyone until I was submitting my papers to the board.

 “Hey, give it back,” I said as I was handing out my hand. Dylan smirked at me before he was still reading the result.

 “It seems that you have been completing some work on your own, Ms. Dyer,” he said.

Ms. Dyer? He never said that whenever we were alone in the lab. So, I don’t think he was joking when he was looking at the result.

 “You think so?” I asked him before his stormy eyes were looking into mine.

 “Yes, and I think I know where to you got this from,” he said before he was handing out the result sheet to me. I took it before he was taking out something from his backpack. He dumped the paper on the table before I was looking at him/

 Dylan asked me to look at it and I did. It was the scientific journal that my father has written about the meteorite and the theory of it with the formation of the Old Ocean. I don’t know how Dylan got his hand in this article.

 “Was that mine?” I asked him before he nodded. I felt violated. He never takes anything without permission, so why now?

 “You must be wondering how I got this paper since it was yours, correct?” He asked me as I was looking at him, unblinking. I don’t want to give anything away but he was forcing my hand. He smirked before he was putting his hands in his pocket.

 “Did you know that my father also helped your father to write this paper?” He asked me as my eyes widened at him. I shook my head. He sighed before he shook his head.

 “Of course not. How am I to expect that you know such a thing?” He mumbled before he was looking at me.

 “Did you know how Theodore George Windell died?” He asked me. Is that his father’s name and he asked me how he died?

 Who does he think I was? Charles Xavier, that can read his mind?

I shook my head before he was laughing bitterly. I was looking at his strange reaction when we were talking about his father right now. And what does it have to do with my father?

 “Did you know that he had a best friend named Jayson?” He asked me. Again, another shook off my head before he sighed.

 “I’ve been reading my father’s journal and turned out this Jayson was his colleague as well. But for now, it suffices to say that his best friend has stabbed him in the back,’’ he said before he was looking at me. I arched my eyebrow.

 “And what has that gotten to do with my father?” I asked him as he was staring at me.

 “Jayson was your father, Daisy,” he said before I was reading his eyes and the emotions behind them.

 Anger, frustration, despair, revenge.

Revenge. That was something that I never have seen in him before. What changed? Then I blinked and tried to piece the puzzle together.

 My father worked with his father for his theory but I did not know that until he told me just now. Furthermore, what was his father’s contribution to this?

 “Wait, are you saying that my father was the one that came up with the theory that meteorite was the first to kick start the formation of Old Ocean?” I asked him as Dylan laughed again.

 “You don’t have any idea, do you?”

 “Now you speak in riddles,” I said as Dylan was looking at the paper before his stormy eyes were focused on me. It was hard but I don’t cower from it. Far from it. 

 I was turned on.

This anger, this frustration that he felt for me was more than anything that I ever experience in the past 2 years that I got from him.

 We were partners, lab partners yes, but other than the casual greeting and all that, I did not have any chance to talk with him or have some conversation that was not an academic topic. It was always an academic topic.

 ALWAYS.

I looked at him before he scoffed at me. He stood up straight as he was regarding me with his eyes.

 “Stop playing innocent, Dyer. I know that you know your father had stolen something that my father worked for. And with that, I think you want to do the same with me. Isn’t that was the reason that you wanted to be my partner when you know I don’t share any knowledge with anyone?” He said as he was looking at me as if I was a low born woman. Then, I did something unexpected.

 I slapped him.