Chapter 67 The mistletoe trap.

The night air was cool, a stark contrast to the tension that had settled in the lab. I could feel Mr. Smith’s eyes on me, though he made every effort to seem engrossed in his work. It had been this way for a while now—his subtle glances, the way he would pause just a second longer when I spoke, and the way his smile never quite reached his eyes anymore. I knew something was off, and deep down, I feared what that might mean. Tonight, though, something felt different. There was an edge to his movements, a barely concealed intensity that made me uneasy. I tried to focus on the task at hand, calibrating the spectrometer, but my mind kept drifting back to those stolen glances, the way he had begun to ask more probing questions about my time outside the lab. "Jessica," he finally said, his voice calm, almost too calm. "Could you come over here for a moment?" I put down the tools, my heart thudding in my chest. Forcing a smile, I walked over to where he was standing, his back turned to me