"Please, everyone, make some room."

Jacobs rushed in and draped a jacket over Sophia Shaw.

The engineers knew the pain Sophia Shaw had just endured, sympathy etched on their faces.

Sophia Shaw took a deep breath, yet she still forced a smile for everyone. "Congratulations, everyone! We did it!"

"Having colleagues as outstanding as you all is the greatest honor of my life!"

"Boss..."

’No, the honor was all theirs.’

’How lucky were they to be born in this era, to work at this company, and to have a boss like her!’

"The boss has other matters to attend to. Let’s save what you have to say for tomorrow," Jacobs suggested.

Reluctantly, the engineers began to disperse.

Only when her back was to everyone did the tears finally stream from Sophia Shaw’s eyes.

Her voice was a low whisper:

"Where’s Old Master Sloan?"

"And Seraphina?"

Sophia Shaw skipped the celebration, rushing straight to the hospital.

Old Master Sloan was still in surgery.

Three hours passed. The glaring red light above the operating room door remained lit, a piercing pain in Sophia Shaw’s chest that made it hard to breathe.

When she came down from the launch tower, she had made a point to look. A large pool of blood stained the spot where Old Master Sloan had fallen.

Thankfully, Samuel Goldman brought news of Seraphina Vaughn.

She had only suffered some minor cuts and bruises and was shaken up, but she was already on her way back.

Sophia Shaw curled up in a chair, her elbows on her knees as she buried her face deep in her palms.

Even with the thick jacket draped over her, she couldn’t stop shivering from the cold.

"Boss, are you okay?" Jacobs was extremely worried.

’Today was supposed to be the boss’s greatest triumph, yet this is what happened.’

Sophia Shaw shook her head. "Jacobs, call the police."

Jacobs froze.

He understood at once. "Are you saying Old Master Sloan’s injury wasn’t...?"

He couldn’t finish the sentence, his eyes widening in absolute shock.

’If that’s true, it’s horrifying!’

Jacobs didn’t dare hesitate and immediately called the police.

Before long, Samuel Goldman brought Seraphina Vaughn in. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Her hair was a mess, a handprint was visible on her cheek, and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. She looked utterly wretched.

The moment she saw Sophia Shaw, a flash of shame crossed her face.

But she trembled when she saw Old Master Sloan’s name on the digital screen outside the operating room.

"What happened to my dad?"

Samuel Goldman answered hesitantly, "He fell from the launch tower."

He hadn’t dared to tell her on the way back, afraid she wouldn’t be able to handle it.

"The launch tower?" Seraphina Vaughn’s vision went black. "H-How could this happen?"

She lunged toward Sophia Shaw. "Tell me! How could my dad just fall from the launch tower when he was fine? Why didn’t you protect him? Why!"

Seraphina Vaughn grabbed and shook Sophia Shaw frantically, tears streaming down her face as her emotions spiraled.

"He was so good to you, and you never appreciated it! Do you even have a conscience?!"

Samuel Goldman and Jacobs pulled her away.

Jacobs couldn’t stand it anymore and snapped, "This isn’t the boss’s fault! Old Master Sloan got hurt because of you!"

"You got kidnapped, the call came to the launch site, and Old Master Sloan was so worried that he rushed down the stairs, and that’s why...!"

"Jacobs!" Sophia Shaw’s voice was low. "That’s enough!"

’Seraphina Vaughn didn’t ask to be kidnapped. She’s a victim in this, too.’

’Sophia couldn’t bring herself to blame her.’

Hearing that Old Master Sloan had fallen down the stairs because of her, Seraphina Vaughn looked as though she had been struck by lightning and collapsed onto a chair.

The next moment, she started slapping her own face, hard. "How can I be so useless? Why am I always so useless! I deserve to die! I deserve to die!"

Seraphina Vaughn didn’t hold back; each slap landed with her full strength.

The sharp slapping sounds echoed through the hallway outside the operating room.

Her face was already swollen, and the repeated blows made it look even worse.

Sophia Shaw seized her wrist and roared, "Seraphina Vaughn, snap out of it!"

Sophia Shaw had never spoken to her so harshly before, and for a moment, Seraphina Vaughn was too stunned to react.

Taking one deep breath after another, Sophia Shaw gathered enough strength to speak again. "He went to save you, not so you could come back here and hurt yourself! If you truly care about him, then go home, rest, and get treatment. Wait for him to wake up, and face him in the best state you can be in!"

Seraphina Vaughn’s gaze went vacant for a moment, but she slowly came to her senses. "Okay," she mumbled, haphazardly wiping away her tears.

Sophia Shaw gave her a tight hug. "He’ll be all right. I’m sure of it!"

After the hug, she pushed Seraphina toward Samuel Goldman. "Please, take her to get treatment. Take care of her."

Samuel Goldman nodded, but he was still worried about Sophia Shaw. "Boss, what about you?"

"I’m fine."

Sophia looked anything but fine, but he knew she wouldn’t leave Old Master Sloan’s side for a second. He could only lead Seraphina Vaughn away.

Seraphina Vaughn kept looking back over her shoulder, but in the end, she left.

While Sophia Shaw waited for the surgery to end, Joanna Sherman was suffering just as much on Zenith’s pitch-black launch tower.

Her beautiful dreams, her stubbornness, her conceit, her pride—all of it had been viciously torn to shreds by reality just an hour ago.

The rocket launch: a failure.

The satellites: destroyed.

Tonight, there was no bigger joke than her.

Nothing she had meticulously designed had come to fruition. The comparison she had hoped to use to humiliate Sophia Shaw had ended up humiliating only herself.

"Why did I lose?"

"Why me?"

Joanna Sherman was like a crazed animal, trapped in a tiny space and unable to breathe. Her only release was to slam her hands against the railing in a mad fury.

Vincent Grant had been standing in the shadows all this time.

His own mood tonight was utterly foul.

Still, he walked over and took Joanna Sherman’s hands. "What’s done is done. Don’t dwell on it."

"Vincent!"

Joanna Sherman collapsed into his arms, breaking down.

"My mentor doesn’t want me anymore, everyone else has abandoned me! All I have left is you!"

Vincent Grant stood rigidly in the wind, and only after a long moment did he slowly begin to pat her back.

Because of tonight’s failure, Holt was utterly disgraced. The other consultants had only come out of respect for him, and they had been dragged down as well.

’The days ahead were not going to be easy for any of them.’

"Joanna, this time... you were too reckless."

Vincent Grant never imagined that the same words he once used to warn Sophia Shaw would come back to haunt him.

Joanna Sherman had hidden a crucial detail from everyone, ignoring a vital parameter to force the rocket launch to be moved up to today.

Originally, even if the launch failed, the rocket should have been able to return to its point of origin, saving the two satellites at a minimum.

But because that parameter was missing, the rocket was unable to return when it malfunctioned. It was blown to smithereens!

It was a colossal failure—a catastrophe that should never have been this devastating.

"I’m sorry, I’m sorry."

Joanna Sherman cried hysterically. "I just wanted to succeed so badly!"

"Because you ’wanted to succeed so badly,’ everyone’s hard work was turned to dust? Elder Hawthorne and the others had their reputations dragged through the mud? Tens of billions were flushed down the drain?"

Elias Underwood slowly approached, questioning her with every word.

The flames from the sky seemed to have burned their way into his heart, leaving a searing pain in his chest.

His eyes were filled with disgust for Joanna Sherman. "You didn’t want to succeed at all. You were just out for profit, and you didn’t care about the lives at stake!"

"Elias Underwood, that’s enough!" Vincent Grant snapped. "That wasn’t her intention!"

"Yes, it was!"

Elias Underwood was not a patient man to begin with. Now that such a disaster had occurred, how could he possibly let it go?

"The most fundamental rule of a rocket launch is to minimize loss! She knew perfectly well that without clearing that parameter, the rocket couldn’t launch, but she still went ahead and falsified the data to trick everyone!"

"I’ve never met someone so stupid!"

"You’re dumber than a pig!"