y. He started in the living room, gathering his books, his old vinyl records, his engineering journals. He packed them neatly into boxes, taping them shut with a finality that felt b

organized. He started clearing out his drawers when he knocked over a stack of her notebooks. They fell to the floor, spilling op

rd the exam was, how he was struggling to prepare. Olivia had created an entire study guide for him. There were hundreds of pages, meticulously organized, with color-coded tabs and h

e' s career advancement than she had ever shown in his own lifelong passion. He had begged her for years to take even a passing interest in what he did, the w

when his phone buzzed. It was a tex

ike it. I helped her pick it out. A man of

tisfied with having Olivia' s attention, he wanted to rub Ethan' s face in it. Before Etha

his main data file got corrupted. He needs the raw performance data from your Project Phoenix. I know

sponse. She wanted him to send proprietary, confidential company data-the results of a project he ha

' s voice was impatient. "Just se

id. The word was

u mean, no?"

Sharing it would be a violation of my employme

ll find out. You' re just being se

n stated, his voice now as cold as ice

ings, the quiet sounds of tape and cardboard filling the apartment. Less than twenty m

"Alex had to present with half his data missing! He was humiliated! All because y

accusing him of ruining the future of the man she had spent his birthday with. In that moment, he felt