I'm The One Who Didn't Submit That Group Project Report

So there I was, three days into a four-day deadline for our group project report. My team had split up the work with clear instructions on when each part should be completed and sent to me for consolidation before the final submission. The project involved analyzing data from local businesses to predict future trends, pretty straightforward in theory but complex in execution thanks to all the variables we needed to juggle. I got my analysis done early and had it sitting nicely with everything else I would add later. By day three, only one teammate hadn't sent their part, and everyone was stressing about getting it finished on time. But you know what? This other person's part wasn't crucial for the final submission; they were working on a supplementary document that could be added afterward without major hassle. Then I started thinking: why am I shouldering all this stress when we have a day left and no real deadline from our professor for specific sections? We hadn't even been penalized or docked points in previous group assignments for small delays. So, I told myself that we could just focus on completing the core project parts together, without rushing around over something non-essential. The night before submission, I assembled what everyone had given me and submitted it. No one from my team questioned it because they were too busy or stressed out to think of asking. When this other person came to me for feedback a week later, I just told them their part could be added as an appendix if the professor didn't mind. I felt pretty good about myself at first, avoiding pointless stress and focusing on what mattered most. But now that everyone's grades are out, it feels less like being clever and more like dodging responsibility. Still, even knowing how it all turned out, I wouldn't change my approach. If the project had needed their contribution for completeness or grade, we would've done things differently then. As it was, though, I'm sticking to what I did because I believed in myself and not letting unnecessary pressure get the better of me.