The Academic Conference

Summary

I attended an academic conference and won a five-thousand-dollar award for my paper.

Adrian, the new junior in our lab, demanded I hand over the prize money, declaring, "Results obtained using lab resources mean the prize money belongs to the lab."

What was colder was that my girlfriend of two years, Evelyn, nodded in agreement. "Those are the rules."

Adrian smirked triumphantly.

To further undermine me, he had me removed from the core project and reassigned as an equipment maintenance technician.