My Great Escape Led Me to You (Emily Blair) novel Chapter 264

“No way, seriously? He apologized that fast?”

Larry Mitchell replied, “Yeah, it’s true. I’ve got nothing but respect for Emily Blair now.”

“Look, if he wants to apologize, let him. The Starlight Piano Competition has been running for years—this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Every year, there’s always someone who gets eliminated and claims they were blackballed by the sponsors or whatever. Honestly, most of the time, they’re just not good enough but can’t accept it. This time’s probably the same. From what I’ve seen, Emily Blair seems like a decent person. No need to blow things out of proportion.”

Larry Mitchell said, “Exactly, there’s no conspiracy here.”

“I don’t buy it. Are you sure you weren’t pressured by the sponsors or threatened by Emily Blair into saying this?”

Larry Mitchell replied, “Not at all. I did it of my own accord. Honestly, I’m rooting for Emily Blair to do well.”

There were dozens more comments below, but Emily Blair stopped reading.

A message popped up from Elizabeth Wilson: “Hey, are you okay? I just saw everything online. Is your round over?”

Emily replied one by one, “I’m totally fine. The semifinals are done, but the results aren’t out yet.”

Elizabeth answered almost instantly, “Did you see? Larry Mitchell apologized. Why would he do that? I thought he was going to cause a scene during your performance after how angry he seemed.”

Emily raised an eyebrow.

Elizabeth had guessed right.

She typed back, “Don’t worry. I was the one who told him to apologize. If he tries to go back on it, I’ve got more leverage over him.”

Elizabeth sent a shocked emoji, “Wow, look at you! So impressive!”

A smile flickered in Emily’s eyes. “Of course.”

Emily’s hand unconsciously tightened around her phone.

Xavier Gonzalez was a brilliant man. His academic record wasn’t stellar—he’d barely scraped his way through a second-tier university—but his talent for computer science was unmatched. The problem was, he was terrible at anything outside his field: failed classes left and right, only graduated by the skin of his teeth.

He was rigid, awkward, and had zero people skills.

Which was why Elizabeth had handled all the networking and fundraising, leaving Xavier to focus on code and research. The rest of the team followed her lead.

But Emily was sure—Elizabeth wasn’t supposed to meet Xavier for another few years. How had it happened so soon?

There was no time to untangle that mystery now, because another memory flashed through Emily’s mind: Xavier Gonzalez had a complicated history with Isabella Austin.

And it wasn’t a trivial connection, either.