The Unwanted Wife's Return (Ex-Husband Wants Me Back) novel Chapter 289

Two Kinds of Brilliance (2) 

ELIJAH’S POV: 

In the car on the way to the fair, Andrew was quiet for most of it, which I did not try to fill. He was looking out the window with the expression he had when he was running through things internally, not anxiously, just methodically, the way a pilot might run through a checklist not because they expect problems but because thoroughness is the habit that prevents them. 

About fifteen minutes in he said, “What if a judge asks me something I have not considered?” 

“Then you tell them you have not considered it yet and you say what you think the answer might be based on what you know,” I said. “And you tell them you would want to investigate further before committing to a conclusion” 

He thought about this. “That is what I told the judge this morning about the limitation of my dataset.” 

“I know,” I said. “And it was the right answer.” 

“It felt risky,” he said. “Acknowledging what I do not know.” 

“The judges know what you do not know,” I said. “Acknowledging it yourself is what tells them you are being honest.” 

He sat with this. Then he said, “Honesty about the limits of your knowledge is more credible than pretending you know more than you do.” 

“Yes,” I said. 

“That is a useful principle,” he said. “In general.” 

“It is,” I said. “In general.” 

“Good,” he said, to the table. 

I looked at the projects around him. They were strong. I was not going to lie to Andrew about this, he would see 

through it anyway, and the truth was that the standard in his category was high. The project to his left was about plant growth under different light spectrums and had clearly been conducted with real rigor. The one to his right was about water filtration and had impressive visual documentation. Andrew had looked at both of them briefly when we arrived and I had watched him register them with the calm of someone who had accounted for competition being real. 

“Those are good projects,” he said quietly to me, not pointing. 

“They are,” I said. “So is yours.” 

“I know,” he said. “I just like to be know about what I am working against.”