Chapter 3

The next time I saw them, it was in the company cafeteria. They were with Alex. Sarah was laughing, her head tilted toward him, while Emily carefully placed a piece of grilled chicken on his plate, an act of overt devotion. They were putting on a show for the entire tech department, a public declaration of their new allegiance. Alex soaked it up, a charismatic smile playing on his lips as he held court.

I felt a strange sense of detachment as I watched them. The hurt from their betrayal had cooled into something hard and impassive. It was like watching a movie where I already knew the ending. Their fawning and Alex' s preening act seemed pathetic, not painful. My focus was no longer on them, but on my own path. I had my own competition to prepare for, my own future at MIT to secure.

That evening, I was working late in my family' s home office, a sprawling space connected to our main residence. I was deep in concentration, mapping out a new neural network architecture, when the door opened.

It was Sarah, Emily, and Alex. They walked in as if they owned the place.

"Ethan, we need to talk," Sarah announced, her tone leaving no room for argument.

Alex wandered around the office, picking up a prototype model from my desk, examining it with a look of casual ownership. "Nice place you got here, Miller. A little over the top, but nice."

"What are you doing in my house?" I asked, my voice low and dangerous.

"We live here, or have you forgotten?" Emily said with a saccharine smile. As part of their sponsorship, they had been given rooms in a guest wing of our estate. A privilege I was about to revoke. "And Alex is our guest."

She gestured for Alex to sit in the plush leather armchair opposite my desk, a chair usually reserved for my father. He sank into it, putting his feet up on my antique mahogany desk, right next to my blueprints.

"Actually, we were thinking," Emily continued, her eyes sweeping across the spacious room, "this office has great light. It would be a perfect workspace for Alex. You wouldn't mind sharing, would you?"

The sheer audacity of it was breathtaking. They weren't just asking for resources anymore, they were trying to physically displace me from my own space, to install their new idol in my place.

As if on cue, the faint, shimmering blue text materialized in the air again, just over Alex's head.

The male lead, Alex, having captured the hearts of the female leads, requires a base of operations befitting his status. The Miller estate is the logical choice.

Another line appeared, dripping with the same narrative certainty.

The female leads, driven by their devotion, will naturally seek to provide him with the best, even if it means displacing the secondary character, Ethan Miller. Any resistance from the secondary character is a plot obstacle.

I was a secondary character in my own home. An obstacle to be removed. The chilling, impersonal logic of the text made the hair on my arms stand up. This wasn't just about arrogance or entitlement anymore. It felt like I was fighting against a pre-written script, a force that was actively trying to erase me from the picture and elevate this... this usurper.

I looked from the smug look on Alex's face to the expectant smiles on Sarah's and Emily's. They genuinely believed this was their right. They saw me not as their benefactor, but as a roadblock to their happiness with their chosen "male lead."

The cold detachment I had felt earlier was gone, replaced by a surge of raw, protective anger. This was my home. This was my future. And I would not be written out of it.