Chapter 4

I drove to a small cafe a few miles away. I took out my personal laptop, the one Mark had demanded. My fingers hovered over the keyboard. I could wipe it clean in minutes. I could delete every file, every line of code, every project plan. It would be a satisfying act of revenge.

I started the process, creating a script to securely erase the hard drive. I made sure the progress bar was visible on the screen. Then, I took a picture of it with my phone and sent it to Sarah.

The text was simple: "Following the new CTO's orders."

My phone rang less than a minute later. It was Sarah.

I let it ring three times before answering.

"What are you doing?" she shrieked, all pretense of the soft, confused amnesiac gone.

"What you and Mark told me to do," I replied calmly. "Removing company data from my personal property."

"Stop! Don't you dare!" she yelled. "Stop it right now!"

There was panic in her voice. Real panic. For all her planning, she was still just a marketing person. She didn't understand the technical side of the business. She didn't know what was valuable and what wasn't. She just knew that my laptop held the brains of the operation, and the thought of it being erased terrified her.

"Why should I?" I asked. "You put Mark in charge. He gave me a direct order. I'm just an employee following instructions."

"David, don't be childish!" she said, her voice shifting again, trying to sound reasonable. "Okay, okay, you can leave. Just... don't delete anything. You can go."

The other employees must have said something to her after I left. They must have warned her how reckless it was to push me out completely.

"Are you sure?" I asked, feigning surprise. "Mark seemed very insistent."

"He was just... emotional," she said, stumbling over the words. "Just leave the laptop alone. You don't need to come back to the office. Take a few days off. I'll... I'll transfer you some money. For your trouble."

A notification popped up on my phone. A wire transfer. Twenty thousand dollars. It was a pathetic attempt to buy my silence and compliance.

She still thought this was a game. She thought she could push me out, get what she wanted, and then smooth things over with a little money and a few sweet words in a week's time. She thought I was still the same man who would do anything for her.

"I'll see you in seven days, David," she said, her voice softening, trying to sound like the wife I used to know. "We'll sort everything out then. I'm sure I'll feel much better."

She had no idea. She had no idea that in seven days, there would be nothing left to sort out.