The Ex's Ruthless Revenge

My company, Innovate, was my life' s work, built from the ground up with my boyfriend, Caleb, over ten years. We were college sweethearts, a golden couple, and our biggest deal, a $50 million contract with Apex Ventures, was finally closing.

Then, a sudden wave of nausea hit me, and I fainted, only to wake up in a hospital. When I returned to the office, my keycard was denied, my access revoked, and my photo, defaced with an "X," was in the trash.

Krystal Schroeder, a young intern Caleb had hired, was sitting at my desk, acting like the new Chief of Operations. She announced loudly that "non-essential personnel" were to stay clear, looking directly at me. Caleb, the man who had promised me the world, stood by, his face cold and indifferent. He dismissed my pregnancy, calling it a distraction, and put me on mandatory leave.

I saw a tube of Krystal' s bright red lipstick on Caleb' s desk, the same shade I' d seen on his collar. The pieces clicked: the late nights, the "business dinners," his sudden obsession with his phone-it was all a lie. They had been planning this for months.

The man I loved was gone, replaced by a stranger. But I wouldn' t let them take everything. I told Caleb I was leaving, but not without my full share of the company, valued at the post-Apex funding price. I also reminded him that the core algorithm, the one Apex was investing in, was patented in my name alone.

I walked out, pulling out my phone to call the one person I never thought I would: Easton Jensen, my fiercest rival.

Chapter 1

"Is this Easton Jensen?"

A moment of silence on the other end of the line, then a smooth, low voice answered. "This is. To whom am I speaking?"

"Brooke Myers."

The silence stretched longer this time, thick with unasked questions. I could picture him in his corner office, the one with the panoramic view of the city, probably frowning at his phone. We were rivals. His company, Nexus Dynamics, had been our fiercest competitor for the last three years. We didn' t make friendly phone calls.

"Brooke Myers," he repeated slowly, the sound of my name a question in itself. "I have to say, this is unexpected."

"I know," I said, my voice steady, betraying none of the chaos inside me. "I' m calling with a business proposal. I want to bring the Apex Ventures deal to you."

The sharp intake of breath on his end was my first small victory. "The Apex deal? I thought that was locked in with you and Caleb. With... your company."

"Things have changed," I stated flatly.

"Changed how?" he pressed, his CEO instincts kicking in. "Brooke, what' s going on? Is this about Caleb?"

His directness surprised me. "This is about business, Easton. It' s a fifty-million-dollar opportunity. I built the architecture, I have the relationship with Apex. They invested in me, not the company name. I can bring it to Nexus."

"Everyone in this valley knows you built that company from the ground up," he said, his tone shifting from suspicion to something softer. "I' ve seen you at conferences. You work twice as hard as anyone in the room, and you' re twice as smart."

He paused. "I remember hearing about the early days. You and Caleb living on instant noodles, coding in your garage. You put your inheritance into the server costs when he couldn' t make payroll."

I flinched. He knew too much.

"I also heard there was some trouble today," he continued, his voice careful. "That you were... let go."

A cold shock went through me. "How did you hear that?"

"Word travels fast when it involves the best software architect in the game getting kicked out of her own company on the eve of a major funding round," he replied, a hint of anger in his voice on my behalf.

I leaned my head against the cold glass of the window, looking down at the city lights that had once seemed so full of promise. My city. My company. My dream.

He was right. I had sacrificed everything. Ten years of my life, poured into Caleb Roy and our startup, Innovate. We were college sweethearts, the golden couple who were going to change the world together.

We met in a computer science lab, both fueled by caffeine and ambition. He was the charismatic frontman, the visionary. I was the workhorse, the one who turned his grand ideas into elegant, functional code.

We built Innovate with my savings and his charm. We worked eighteen-hour days. We shared cheap pizza on the floor of our tiny office, dreaming of the day our name would be on a skyscraper.

It all felt so real, so solid. Our future.

A few months ago, when the nausea started, I thought it was just burnout. But it wasn't. It was a tiny flutter of a new life. Our life.

I was pregnant.

When I told Caleb, he lifted me up and spun me around, his face alight with a joy I hadn' t seen in years. "A baby, Brooke! Our baby! This is it. This is everything."

We were in our apartment, the one we could finally afford after the seed round. I held his face in my hands. "Caleb, let' s get married. Let' s make it official. For us, for the baby."

The smile on his face didn' t vanish, but it tightened. The light in his eyes flickered. He set me down gently, his hands on my shoulders. A long, calculating silence followed.

"Brooke, baby, of course," he said finally, his voice like silk. "But think about it. The Apex deal is next week. This is the culmination of everything we' ve worked for. Fifty million dollars. It will make us."

He gestured around the apartment, his eyes gleaming with that familiar fire. "This is just the beginning. After the deal closes, we' ll be on top of the world. We can have the wedding of your dreams, buy a real house, give this baby everything."

He leaned in, his forehead against mine. "Let' s just wait. Let' s not distract from this one final push. After we sign those papers, I' m all yours. We' re all yours. I promise."

And like a fool, blinded by a decade of love and shared history, I believed him.

"Okay, Caleb," I had whispered. "After the deal."