“Solve This, and I’ll Marry You!” Professor Mocked a Single Dad — Then He Shocked Her!
Chapter 6
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Grant privately approached her and suggested that she remove Thomas from the review. He described him as an outsider whose involvement could damage the department's reputation. Evelyn listened, but this time she did not accept his explanation. She asked for a full independent audit. Grant became angry and warned her that the university board would hold her responsible if the grant failed.Meanwhile, Thomas received a call from Nora's school. She had been feeling unwell and was asking for him. He left the university immediately. When he arrived, he found her sitting in the nurse's office holding a small paper star she had made for him. She had overheard another child say that her father was only a university cleaner and could never be a real scientist. Nora had not cried at school, but her eyes filled when she saw him."Are you embarrassed that I fix things, Dad?"Thomas knelt in front of her. "Never. Fixing things is important. But what someone says about your father doesn't decide who you are."Nora looked at his hands, marked with small scratches from his work. "Then why don't you do the mathematics you like?"Thomas was quiet. He wanted to explain the bills, the long days, and the fear of losing the only stable life he had managed to build. Instead, he told her that he had not stopped loving mathematics; he had simply spent a long time doing something else that mattered.Nora gave him the paper star. On its back, she had written,"You can do both." He placed it in his wallet.The next morning, Thomas returned to the university and told Evelyn he would complete the review, but only if the team corrected the model honestly and documented every limitation. Evelyn agreed. The independent audit began, and the findings confirmed his concerns. The model required a more complex approach that accounted for road capacity, simultaneous failures, and the changing availability of emergency vehicles. It would take additional weeks to rebuild and test properly.Grant attempted to persuade several researchers to support his original version, but Peter and two other graduate students presented their own test results showing that the simplified model could produce unsafe delivery instructions. Faced with the evidence, the university suspended Grant from the project while an academic review was conducted.Evelyn informed the grant committee that the submission would be delayed. She did not blame the students, the software team, or Thomas; she accepted responsibility for approving a model she had not questioned deeply enough. The decision cost her a major funding opportunity that year, and some colleagues accused her of damaging her own career. But the revised research eventually became stronger because the team had corrected the problem before the system was used in hospitals.Thomas was offered a permanent research position, but he initially refused: the role required late meetings and travel that would interfere with Nora's routine. Evelyn listened carefully when he explained his concerns. Instead of asking him to sacrifice his family life, she proposed a part-time research appointment with flexible hours and an opportunity to teach one practical course each semester. Thomas accepted after arranging reliable after-school care with the help of his sister, who lived nearby.