CHAPTER 48

Chapter 48

+25 BONUS

In just over an hour, Mabel appeared several times on the surveillance footage. By the third time, she seemed visibly flustered. If the labels of dilute sulfuric acid and concentrated sulfuric acid had indeed. been swapped, Mabel was undoubtedly the prime suspect.

Genevieve stopped the surveillance footage and instructed her assistant to notify Mabel to come to her office.

Upon hearing that Genevieve wanted to see her, Mabel immediately became nervous, glancing involuntarily at Lucia, who was sitting diagonally across from her.

However, Lucia didn’t even look her way, appearing calm and nonchalant as if nothing was amiss. Left with no choice, Mabel reluctantly followed Genevieve’s assistant to the office.

Just as she arrived at the door, her phone vibrated–it was a message from Lucia.

Lucia: [No matter what Genevieve asks, insist that you have nothing to do with it. You don’t know anything. If you dare to drag me into this, you know the consequences.]

Mabel replied with an “Okay“, and Lucia quickly unsent the message.

Mabel put her phone away and pushed open the door to the office.

Genevieve looked at her without much of an expression. “Have a seat.”

As Mabel sat down across from Genevieve, she feigned confusion. “Genevieve, what can I do for you?”

“This morning, you were in and out of the lab and R&D department several times. What was the reason for that?”

Mabel subconsciously balled her hands on her knees while she answered in a calm demeanor, “I went to the lab this morning to prepare for an experiment and realized I had forgotten to record some data from yesterday, so I went back to my desk to update it.”

“During this time, did you visit the reagent storage room?”

“No.” Mabel shook her head, then looked at Genevieve with disbelief. “Genevieve, are you suspecting me? I have no grudge against Nyla. How could I possibly harm her?”

Seeing the hurt in Mabel’s eyes, Genevieve calmly said, “I’m not suspecting you. I’m just planning to question everyone who was in the lab this morning. Since there’s no surveillance in the reagent storage room, we can’t be certain if someone swapped the labels.”

Upon hearing this, Mabel breathed a sigh of relief. She had taken a gamble, banking on the absence of surveillance in that area. She was confident that any suspicions would not stick to her.

Naturally, Genevieve didn’t miss the change in Mabel’s expression and continued calmly. “Although there’s no surveillance, Mr. Sumner’s team has arrived. They extracted several fingerprints from the labels of concentrated sulfuric acid and dilute sulfuric acid. They plan to compare them with the fingerprints of everyone in the R&D department.

“If no one’s fingerprints match, we can basically rule out the possibility of someone swapping the labels.

The smile on Mabel’s face gradually stiffened. She had been too panicked at the time and hadn’t even

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Chapter 48

remembered to wear gloves. If they checked fingerprints, she would be done for!

“When will Mr. Sumner’s people come to collect our fingerprints?”

“They’ll probably come this afternoon, but don’t worry. Collecting fingerprints won’t take long. It won’t delay your experiments.”

“… I see…”

have a

“Well, I don’t else here. You can go back to work.”

Mabel didn’t know how she made it back to her desk. The thought of Damon’s team coming in the afternoon to collect her fingerprints and discovering she had swapped the labels of dilute and concentrated sulfuric acid filled her with panic.

She looked up at Lucia, her gaze pleading for help.

Lucia frowned, then got up and walked toward the restroom.

Mabel quickly followed.

Entering the restroom, Lucia made sure the stalls were empty before locking the door. Her voice was cold as she questioned, “What’s with that mournful expression?!”