Bonnie shot a triumphant look at Veronica, barely containing her smug satisfaction.

Beside her, Penny beamed with maternal pride, genuinely delighted for her daughter's apparent victory in this social gathering.

Veronica, characteristically unbothered, kept her gaze fixed on her teacup. She sipped quietly, almost fading into the background like a shadow, making no attempt to insert herself into the animated discussion between Niall and Silas.

Maverick watched with growing satisfaction as Niall received lavish praise from the assembled experts. This was exactly the kind of recognition he'd always wanted to see.

Just then, Niall's phone vibrated with another message from Preston.

"DataPulse is truly remarkable – a genuine innovation powerhouse. Dario is impressive as their founder, but the engineering team he's assembled shows extraordinary creativity too. I'm planning to visit again soon. Looking forward to having more in-depth conversations with Dario and some of his brilliant engineers."

The Altair journal maintained a rigorous double-blind review process, meaning reviewers couldn't see author identities until after acceptance. Until now, Preston had been completely unaware of who had actually written the paper that had so captivated him.

Niall read the message, assuming Preston was expressing regret about not having had a deeper conversation with Dario during their previous meeting. She began typing a comforting response when Silas's voice cut through her thoughts.

"Couldn't resist checking out that paper already, could you?" he asked one of his students with an indulgent smile.

"Professor, it's incredible!" the student replied, eyes bright with excitement. "The core methodology increases large model long-text processing efficiency by more than tenfold! Engineers worldwide have been staying up all night analyzing it. It's trending internationally and even topping Ophelia's search rankings. And get this – it was published by DataPulse's team!"

Niall's fingers froze over her phone screen. Slowly, she raised her eyes to look at Dario.

Everyone else in the room followed suit, attention swiveling toward him.

Penny and the other Mack family members frowned at this news. While Dario was certainly capable of producing groundbreaking research, the fact that he now aligned with Veronica—effectively positioning himself against their family interests—made this achievement difficult to celebrate. Even more galling was the realization that the very paper Niall's advisor had just praised came from Dario's team.

Silas, however, seemed genuinely delighted. He turned to Dario with warm admiration. "Mr. Reid, leading another team to such remarkable results! My sincere congratulations."

Dario responded with a modest smile. "You're too generous, Professor Hastings. I wasn't the first author. This breakthrough wasn't under my leadership. I merely helped refine some technical details."

"You only helped with details?" Silas's student was still scanning the author list on his phone. He leaned forward, squinting at the screen. "You're right—you're not listed as first author." He looked perplexed. "It's someone named Veronica Murray. And she's the corresponding author too."

The student continued reading. "Dario is second author. The rest seem to be DataPulse engineers as well, all with DataPulse affiliations."

Silas adjusted his glasses, examining the name more closely. "First author is Murray?" he repeated slowly, testing the name.

A heavy silence descended over the room. Niall, Maverick, Nate, and members of both the Crystal and Mack families froze in disbelief.

The paper had come from DataPulse—that much they knew. And Veronica was affiliated with DataPulse. Could it possibly be—

No, surely not.

It couldn't be her.

But then Dario spoke, his voice calm and matter-of-fact: "Yes, it's Veronica Murray."