Chapter 1

The cursor blinked on the screen, a steady, rhythmic pulse in the dimly lit room.

Lines of code scrolled past, a waterfall of logic and precision that only I, Ava Chen, could truly navigate.

This was my sanctuary, the place where I built worlds.

And I had built a giant.

Its name was Nexus, a social media platform so advanced it felt like magic to its millions of users.

For five years, I had poured my life into its architecture, its core algorithms, its soul.

The world knew Nexus through the charming smile of my live-in boyfriend, Mark Davis, the CEO of ConnectCorp.

But the world didn't know that every groundbreaking feature, every seamless interaction, was born here, in this quiet apartment, far from the gleaming new offices of ConnectCorp.

I preferred it this way, or so I told myself. The code was the only recognition I needed.

My phone buzzed. It was a system alert from the main server. Critical failure. Cascading errors.

On the eve of the IPO, this was a death sentence.

I cracked my knuckles, my fingers flying across the keyboard. Forty-five minutes later, the storm was calmed. I had single-handedly patched a bug that would have cost the company hundreds of millions.

I leaned back, a flicker of pride cutting through my exhaustion.

That's when the doorbell rang.

I wasn't expecting anyone. Mark was at the pre-IPO party, soaking in the glory that was rightfully mine.

I opened the door to see Chloe Miller.

Her smile was as sharp and polished as her designer suit. Chloe, my old college rival, the one who always prioritized schmoozing over studying, was now Mark' s ambitious new Head of Product.

"Ava," she said, her voice dripping with false sweetness. She stepped inside without an invitation, her eyes scanning my comfortable, cluttered workspace with disdain.

"What are you doing here, Chloe?"

"We need to talk about your role at the company," she began, crossing her arms. "Your unconventional work hours, your lack of team spirit... it' s just not a good fit for where ConnectCorp is heading."

I stared at her, confused. "What are you talking about? I just fixed the server crash."

Chloe waved a dismissive hand. "Yes, we saw the alerts. But the IPO is tomorrow. We need team players, people who are visible. Not someone hiding away in an apartment."

She paused, letting the silence hang in the air.

"Effective immediately, your contract is terminated."

The words didn't register at first. Fired? It was impossible. I was Nexus.

"You can' t fire me," I said, my voice quiet but firm. "Mark would never allow it."

Chloe let out a small, condescending laugh. "Oh, Ava. You' re so naive."

Enraged, I grabbed my phone, my thumb hovering over Mark' s contact. He would fix this. He had to.

I pressed the call button.

It rang once before it was answered. But it wasn' t Mark' s voice.

"Hello?" It was Chloe, her voice a little too loud, feigning distress. She was holding another phone to her ear, the one I was calling.

My blood ran cold.

"Mark is a little busy right now," she said into her own phone, her eyes locked on mine. "Ava is here, and she' s... well, she' s not taking the news well. She' s getting aggressive."

"What are you doing?" I whispered, horrified.

She ignored me, her voice rising in panic for her fake audience. "Please, Mark, hurry! I' m scared!"

She hung up and smirked at me. "He' s on his way."

"You' re his mistress." The realization hit me with the force of a physical blow. The late nights, the "business trips." It all clicked into place.

"Mistress is such an ugly word," Chloe purred, walking over to my desk and picking up a framed photo of me and Mark from happier times. "I prefer to think of myself as the future First Lady of Tech."

She set the photo down, face first. "And you? You' re just some gold-digger who got lucky. But your luck just ran out."

Through the window, I could see them. A crowd of ConnectCorp employees, drawn by the drama, were gathering on the sidewalk below, their phones out, their faces illuminated by the screens.

They were whispering, pointing.

My private humiliation was becoming a public spectacle.

I stood my ground, my voice shaking with fury. "I am not a gold-digger. I am the architect of Nexus. I am the reason this company even exists!"

Chloe just laughed, a cruel, sharp sound.

Just then, a young intern I vaguely recognized, someone Chloe had hired last month, pushed her way to the front of the crowd below and yelled up at my window.

"Get over yourself! You' re just a code monkey! Mark and Chloe are the real visionaries!"

The crowd cheered in agreement.

The word echoed in my head.

Code monkey.

After everything I had built.