Chapter 3

Ethan quickly tried to recover his composure, forcing a smile that didn' t reach his eyes.

"Alright, Scarlett. If that' s what you want," he said, tucking the ring into his pocket as if it were a loose coin. "You' re right. A fresh start. After the IPO, we' ll have the wedding of the century."

His mind was already spinning, I could tell. He was re-calibrating, trying to fit this new development into his grand plan. He needed me. Or rather, he needed my family' s name. The Hayes name still carried weight in the old-money circles of San Francisco, a world that the new-money tech bros like him desperately wanted to conquer. A marriage to me wasn't just about love; it was an acquisition. It gave him a legitimacy that his billions couldn't buy.

"Yes," I said, giving him a small, trusting smile. "The wedding of the century."

He seemed to relax, believing he had dodged a bullet. He thought my gesture was just that-a gesture. He saw it as a sign of my continued devotion, my willingness to put his ambitions first. The fool.

"You know," he said, leaning forward conspiratorially, "since we' re talking about fresh starts... there is something you could do. For us."

Here it comes, I thought.

"What is it?"

"You know Bethany," he began, his tone casual. "She' s been so supportive of us, of the company. She' s been working so hard."

"She has," I agreed, my voice a perfect mask of sincerity.

"Well, she feels a little insecure about her role. I was thinking... as a sign of goodwill, a wedding gift in advance, you could sign over your remaining founder' s shares in the old LLC to her."

The old LLC was the shell company we had started together, the one that officially held the intellectual property for 'Prometheus' before he' d created EvolveAI and transferred everything over. My shares were legally worthless now, but they were a symbolic tie to my creation. It was a loose end he wanted to snip.

"It would mean the world to her," he continued, pressing his advantage. "And it would show everyone that we' re all one big, happy team moving forward."

The audacity was breathtaking. He wanted me to hand over the last shred of my legacy to the woman he cheated on me with.

My father, who had joined us for coffee, had been silent up to this point. Now, he set his cup down with a sharp click.

"That is an outrageous request, Ethan," my father, Robert Hayes, said, his voice low and dangerous.

Ethan flinched. He had always been intimidated by my father.

But I just smiled. "Dad, it' s okay." I turned to Ethan. "They' re just shares in a defunct company, right? They don' t mean anything now."

Ethan nodded eagerly. "Exactly! It' s purely symbolic."

"Okay," I said, leaning back in my chair. "I' ll do it."

Both Ethan and my father stared at me in shock. Ethan' s shock quickly turned to smug delight.

"But," I added, holding up a finger. "I want something in return."

His smile faltered. "What?"

"That vintage Porsche of yours," I said, my voice light and breezy. "The 1964 356C. The one with the custom 'EVOLVE' license plate."

He looked confused. "My car? Why do you want my car?"

"I' ve always loved it," I said with a shrug. "It' s a beautiful piece of machinery. I' ll buy it from you, of course. For fair market value. We can just deduct the price from the dowry my family was planning." I gave him a wink. "Think of it as an exchange of symbolic assets."

He frowned, his mind racing. He loved that car. It was his first big purchase, a trophy. But compared to tidying up the legal loose ends of his multi-billion-dollar company and securing his future with the Hayes family, it was just a thing. A replaceable thing. He didn' t know that years ago, in a moment of paranoia before he turned on me, I had hidden a small, encrypted hard drive inside a custom-built compartment in the dashboard. That drive contained the original, time-stamped source code for 'Prometheus' , with my developer notes all over it. It was the one piece of irrefutable proof I had left.

He hesitated, weighing his options. The shares were a potential liability. The car was just a car. My request seemed emotional, whimsical-the kind of thing a sentimental woman would ask for. He saw it as a weakness he could exploit.

"Alright," he said finally, a triumphant grin spreading across his face. He thought he was winning, that he was getting everything he wanted. "It' s a deal."

He had no idea he had just sold me the weapon I was going to use to destroy him.

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