Bones Learn To Listen When Silence Speaks by Ryn Miles 79

Chapter 79 

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As soon as Tessa stepped off the stage, Jasper greeted her with a grin. “You are my goddess, Tessa. Seriously, you have no clue how mesmerizing you were up there. 

“You are truly a PhD from a top school. Your confidence–standing there like you belonged–made everyone trust you. Man, I should’ve gotten you some flowers!” 

Tessa laughed and teased, “Aren’t you laying it on thick? Cassian didn’t say a word.” 

“Cassian didn’t say anything, but he literally filmed the whole speech on his phone!” Jasper blurted out. 

Upon hearing that, Tessa turned eagerly to Cassian. “Let me see! How did it turn out? Please tell me you didn’t make me look awful.” 

Cassian said with a soft laugh, “You’re flawless from every angle. There’s no way I could’ve filmed you looking awful.” 

Tessa wasn’t backing down. She insisted on seeing the video for herself. 

Just as Cassian was about to reply, a familiar voice echoed through the speakers. 

Aurelia was stepping onto the stage. 

She’d braced herself for it, heart pounding. But she was determined to push through. 

Aurelia wasn’t glammed up at all. In fact, after helping move things around backstage, her makeup was messy and smudged. 

So most people thought she was one of the on–site staff members when she walked up. 

It wasn’t until Aurelia grabbed the mic that everyone realized that she was actually the sixth speaker. 

Jasper scoffed, “Wow, she dares to get up there!” 

Tessa was genuinely surprised to see Aurelia step onto the stage. 

‘Wait, did her project actually make the featured list?‘ Tessa couldn’t help but wonder, her surprise deepening. 

That realization made Tessa frown slightly. 

Upon seeing that, Jasper chimed in, “Relax. She can’t hold a candle to you. After what you just pulled off, she’s setting herself up to be the laughingstock today.” 

“Why do you say that?” Tessa asked, not quite getting what Jasper meant 

Jasper grinned and winked, his tone playful as he said, “Trust me. Just sit back and enjoy the show!” 

He was so sure because he’d heard something interesting himself. 

The original speaker was Tyson, who even wrote the whole speech himself. 

Aurelia might have read it, but that didn’t mean she could memorize any of it. 

Jumping on stage at the last minute like that, Aurelia was bound to make a fool of herself. 

Jasper even whipped out his phone, planning to film Aurelia’s humiliation and blast it on Instagram so everyone could have a good laugh. 

‘Good luck ever showing your face in Ashmont after this,‘ Jasper thought, snickering to himself. 

14:15 Mon, Dec 22 OM 

Chapter 79 

After stepping onto the stage, Aurelia took a steadying breath before finally speaking up. 

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“First off, I owe everyone an apology. I’m not a pro and probably won’t do our product full justice. Honestly, I wasn’t even supposed to be up here. I wasn’t the speaker ten minutes ago, so I don’t have a speech in hand, and I didn’t even get a chance to prep a proper presentation deck.” 

As soon as Aurelia finished her words, a murmur of sighs rose from the audience below the stage. 

The audience was filled with industry elites and heavyweight entrepreneurs. 

Everyone was there for serious business, and then there was Aurelia, winging it like it was all for laughs. 

Jasper snickered and nudged Cassian with his elbow. “Man, it’s gotta be humiliating, isn’t it?” 

Cassian’s expression was unreadable. No one could tell what he was thinking. 

Tessa also noticed it, but she didn’t dwell on it. 

Right now, her attention was all on Aurelia. 

Aurelia paused, letting her words hang in the air. 

She knew how people would react, but facts were facts. 

If she pretended to know it all and still botched the intro, folks would think she was totally clueless. 

So, Aurelia decided to come clean and lay it all out there. 

That way, even if she didn’t show off the product perfectly, people would blame it on her lack of prep–not think she was in over her head or couldn’t show the product in its best light. 

So, everyone would start paying attention to the product itself. 

Since Aurelia was sure the product would speak for itself, she wasn’t worried about people tuning out in the slightest. 

After a moment of commotion from the crowd, Aurelia spoke up again. “If possible, could we run Ms. Rowe’s presentation deck one more time?” 

Jasper didn’t bother holding back his mockery anymore. “Is she seriously not embarrassed? If I were her, I’d want to crawl into a hole and never come out!” 

Even Cassian chuckled this time. 

Upon seeing that, Tessa’s lips curled into a faint smile. 

She thought, ‘Really? I used to see Aurelia as my competition. How ridiculous, 

‘Honestly, all that did was drag me down and make her look way better than she deserves. 

Jasper is right. Aurelia isn’t even in the same league as me.’ 

So Tessa snarked at Cassian, “Didn’t people at Honoria Capital hype her up as super capable? This is her big moment? Cassian, maybe you need a refresher on spotting real talent.” 

Cassian didn’t bother answering. He just gave a small, scoffing laugh. 

“Hey, has Cassian’s taste improved lately?” Jasper jumped in. 

Tessa caught his meaning and lifted her chin with a proud little smirk. 

14:15 Mon, Dec 22 OM 

Chapter 79 

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Jasper posted the video he’d just shot straight on Instagram, then tagged everyone so nobody would miss out on the juicy drama. 

[Wait, isn’t Aurelia supposed to be way more on top of things? What happened?] Someone in the chat chimed in, sounding baffled. 

Some folks in the chat had worked with Aurelia before. They knew she had real skills. 

Jasper: [Come on, it’s not her. Cassian is the one making things happen! She’s got nothing to do with it, trust me.] 

Some people in the chat didn’t even care about the project. They were just there for gossip. 

[Wait, did Aurelia and Cassian break up? If they did, I’m definitely going to shoot my shot!] Someone jumped in, obviously more interested in Aurelia than the presentation. 

Of course, some people were paying attention to what was happening. 

[Wow, Aurelia came all the way out here to make a fool of herself? Good thing she’s no longer with Honoria Capital. Otherwise, she’d humiliate Cassian!] Someone commented. 

That was exactly the outcome Jasper had been aiming for. 

Jasper posted. [Everyone, get ready for the drama!] 

To make sure a person saw it, Jasper tagged him specifically. 

The person was Gideon Quinn. 

After all, Gideon was also in their 

group. 

Jasper wanted Gideon to see Aurelia’s real abilities, so he wouldn’t get taken in by her looks or the reputation she’d built up at Honoria Capital. 

However, Gideon didn’t respond. 

‘He is probably busy with something else. That is fine. He’ll see it sooner or later, thought Jasper. 

Either way, Jasper was saving every awkward moment from Aurelia’s performance, so whenever he felt like it, he could toss it in the group chat and let everyone have a good laugh at her expense. 

The staff quickly swapped in the slides from Tessa’s earlier presentation. Aurelia tapped through a couple of pages and then finally jumped in. 

Aurelia said, “During our internal beta, users loved our product, especially its ‘data deep dive‘ feature. For example, the PPT Ms. Rowe just demonstrated contains the rich content provided by our product. But here’s the twist: unlike AeroMind’s model, ours isn’t command–driven. It’s a true reasoning engine. 

“We call it a fully loaded, modern–day Sherlock Holmes. Its analytical and deductive skills are on a whole other level, across every field you can think of. 

“And that’s what we’re all about: democratizing computing power. 

“Democratizing computing power means any company and any person can spin up their personal AI engine. And, better yet, they won’t have to stress about privacy issues the old way anymore. 

“Our product is called InquireMind.” 

The audience burst into applause before the time ran out. 

 

Some distinguished guests even stood up to give Aurelia a standing ovation. 

The wave of applause shut Jasper down. He was left dumbfounded, his earlier smugness nowhere to be seen. 

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Meanwhile, Jasper’s Instagram was blowing up with pings. Everyone was spamming him, demanding the next part of the video and refusing to be left hanging. 

Next to him, Tessa’s smile faltered. Her expression was awkward as the reality of the moment sank in.