Mommy，We Got a Husband
Chapter 281 You Guessed It All?

Cormac watched as Alaric left the office, exited the building, and drove away.

Cormac stayed at the office until very late, holding the flash drive in his hand, feeling extremely guilty and conflicted.

Ambrose: [Once you have the flash drive, Mr. Nash, you can place it in locker 102 at Euphoria Center. As soon as the results come out tomorrow, the promise will be fulfilled immediately.] Cormac walked out of Nexus Innovations with the flash drive. Having already made a mistake, he had no way back and could only follow Ambrose's instructions.

When he closed the locker door, Cormac knew that the wrong deed was done and there was no turning back.

Cormac couldn't sleep at all that night. He didn't dare to think about Alaric's reaction when he found out, nor the consequences this would bring to Nexus Innovations.

But one thing was certain: as long as Aurora was safe, he would turn himself in and report Ambrose's threats.

Although Cormac had no evidence and might even be counter-accused by Ambrose, he had to do it, or he would never have peace of mind.

The next day was the deadline for submitting the design drafts. When Silas received the flash drive and tried to send the electronic draft to the designated email, he found it empty. "Mr. Knight, something is off. The flash drive is empty; there's nothing on it."

"What?" Alaric quickly checked and found it empty as well. They tried to recover the data but confirmed that it had always been empty, with nothing deleted.

"The flash drive was switched," Alaric said.

How could the flash drive have been switched? It had always been in Alaric's possession.

Silas got anxious. "What do we do, Mr. Knight? The deadline is 10 AM, and it's almost here. There's no time for the designers to redo the draft."

The designers only had the hand-drawn drafts left. The electronic draft was the only one, created with more professional color adjustments based on the hand-drawn drafts.

Just as Silas finished speaking, his phone rang. It was the head of the jewelry company calling.

"Hello," Silas answered respectfully.

"The deadline is almost here, and Far East International has already submitted their draft," the head said.

"I know, but we have a small issue here. Could you give us a bit more time? We will soon..." Silas asked.

The head cut in on him, "Silas, since this is a competition, we must follow the rules. Far East International submitted on time, and if we give you an extension, they will surely object. We really can't do that." Silas wanted to say more, but Alaric signaled him to stop. "Alright, I understand. I apologize for the inconvenience," Silas said instead.

After hanging up, Silas asked Alaric, "What do we do now, Mr. Knight? Do we just give up?"

"What else can we do?" Alaric remained calm.

"But how could this happen? We were so cautious. How is this possible?" Silas uttered. "Enough. It's done. Just inform them that we are giving up the acquisition," Alaric said.

Silas was surprised by Alaric's decision, but it seemed they had no other choice.

The electronic draft was top secret, and they feared it might be leaked, so they only kept one copy, which was always with Alaric.

After Silas left, Alaric was alone in the office. He could almost figure out how things had gone on.

He had been too careless, but if things were as he suspected, it would be better to have been careless.

After thinking for a while, Alaric called Stellan and said, "Galatea, I have some work to finish tonight. I'll be home late. You go ahead and take the kids home." "Alright, but don't stay too late. You need to take care of yourself, okay?" Stellan reminded.

"I know. Don't worry. I won't be too late," Alaric assured her.

After the call, Alaric walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, lit a cigarette, and took a slow drag, exhaling the smoke gently.

He didn't know how much time had passed when the office door opened. Alaric, with his back to the door, knew it was Cormac who had entered.

Cormac had anticipated that Alaric would be waiting for him in the office tonight. After all, with such an incident, Alaric would easily figure out it was him. "Is Aurora safe?" Alaric turned to look at Cormac and asked.

Alaric's question surprised Cormac. He had expected Alaric's first question to be, "Why did you do it?"

"You figured it out?" Cormac asked.

"It wasn't hard," Alaric said.

"She's safe now," Cormac replied.

After Todd received the news that Alaric had voluntarily given up the acquisition, he was thrilled and fulfilled his promise to return Aurora home, ensuring her safety. "That's good," Alaric voiced.

"I'm very sorry for causing such a loss to your company. But rest assured. I will turn myself in and truthfully report the Vale family's threats. I can't guarantee I'll make it, but there's at least a glimmer of hope. If it succeeds, you might still have a chance to acquire the jewelry company," Cormac confided.

"You're going to turn yourself in?" Alaric wasn't surprised by Cormac's decision.

"Yes, I made the mistake, so I must face the consequences," Cormac said.

"And after facing the consequences?" Alaric asked, looking at Cormac. This question stumped Cormac. After facing the consequences, what else was there?

"Let those who don't know the truth celebrate, saying that the Nash family is full of bad people, that you deserve your punishment? Is that so? They'll all claim to be righteous, demanding you be severely punished, hoping you'll rot in prison like Griffon, never to harm anyone again, right?" Alaric questioned.

These were the foreseeable outcomes for Cormac after turning himself in, and he had already considered them.

Alaric continued, "Of course, those who make mistakes need to be punished. But you were never the one at fault from the beginning. You say the Vale family threatened you, but do you have any evidence? Given the recent scandal involving the Nash family, people still see you as the son of a criminal, a bad person in their eyes. If you accuse the Vale family of threatening you to steal Nexus Innovations' trade secrets without evidence, they will immediately counter-accuse you. Who do you think the public will side with? In the end, you'll be the one who suffers."

Alaric's words left Cormac confused about his intentions. Cormac directly asked, "What do you mean? Your company suffered such a huge loss. Are you willing to take it?"