Chapter 3

"That' s not true!" I cried, my voice hoarse, "Brittany' s design, if it' s what I saw in her early papers, it' s flawed, it' s dangerous, it could cause massive breaches!"

My warning was met with derision.

Ethan' s face flushed with anger.

"Jealousy doesn' t suit you, Ava, or perhaps it does," he spat.

He turned to a nervous-looking IT technician hovering nearby.

"Jenkins, delete all of Ava Chen' s research from the servers, every file, every line of code, and revoke her access, now!"

"But sir, the AI core..." Jenkins stammered.

"Now!" Ethan roared.

My life' s work, gone, with a command.

I lunged, a desperate attempt to stop them, to save something.

Ethan grabbed me, his fingers bruising my arm, he shoved me back.

"You' re finished here," he hissed.

He thrust a sheaf of papers at me, a pen.

"Sign these, divorce settlement, non-disclosure, resignation citing gross misconduct, all very generous, considering."

Misconduct, my reward for years of dedication.

He twisted my arm until I cried out.

Tears streamed down my face as I scrawled my name, my signature a mark of my utter defeat.

Brittany stepped on my hand as I dropped the pen, grinding her heel into my fingers.

"So clumsy, Ava," she purred.

As I knelt there, broken, surrounded by the smirking faces of my tormentors, my shattered phone, lying a few feet away, suddenly lit up.

It rang, a tinny, desperate sound in the sudden silence.

Everyone stared at the broken device.

The caller ID, miraculously visible on the cracked screen, read: MARCUS THORNE.