ing long shadows across walls covered in whiteboards. Lines of code,

me is Ava Chen, and I wa

n the main screen, real-time data streamed in, millions of users logging on, connecting, sharing. Every green up

ers was my only companion. My live-in boyfriend, Mark Davis, the CEO of ConnectCorp, called it my "

d open with a soft hiss,

the hallway. She wore a sharp, ridiculously expensive power suit, a

l from college. She always had a way of looking at

ripping with fake sweetness.

ce her, my fingers still

IPO is tomorrow. I'm ru

ve of her hand, a smug s

t. We need

inkling her nose at the stacks of te

ad a discussion. We've

ite registering. It felt li

ring me? The day

frankly, your attitude is not conducive to a positive team environment. These hours you

was short

y line of code, every algorithm, it came from

ned. It was a pred

ood coder, I'll admit. But Nexus needs a public face

k, her voice dropping to

pports him in public, not some recluse who just types all day. You were just a go

rough me. I grabbed my phone f

k. He would neve

ist. It rang once before Chloe

t to bother him ri

g it on speaker. Her face cru

"It's Ava... she's going crazy. S

ess. The sheer audacity

m, the marketers, even some of the new interns, were all there. Their curious and judgmental eyes felt like a physical weight. They saw Chloe

ice low and shaking with fury, wanting them all to hear.

intern Chloe had hired last w

h his bare hands. We've never even seen you in a strategy

m all of them, people who used my work every single day without a second thought.

s was a coup. And I had been too