Chapter 9

Theo came home on Friday afternoon.

When he walked in, I was sitting at the coffee table in the living room, sorting and printing files from a flash drive by timeline.

"What are you up to?" Theo shrugged off his coat and tossed it onto the couch.

"Just organizing some files," I replied.

He walked over and glanced at the desk. "Don't take company property home."

I said, "It's not company property. It's mine."

He stood there for a moment, then turned and headed to the bathroom.

After his shower, he sat at the other end of the couch, scrolling through his phone with a blank look on his face.

I slipped the last file into the folder and called out, "Theo."

He replied, "Yeah."

"You gave the Berringer Labs spot to Sunny?"

He looked up at me, his expression unchanged. "It was a company decision. Sunny has overseas experience, so she's a better fit."

"My name was on the application, and the acceptance notice went to my email."

"I know. But the company has the right to reassign the spot."

"So you're saying the company can take away everything I fight for, no questions asked?"

Theo set his phone on his knee and looked at me, his tone flat. "Sofia, you've been at the Ludwig Group for three years, and you're well paid. It's just a training spot. Don't make a big deal out of it."

Just a training spot. He made it sound so easy.

I spent a year and a half prepping materials, passing expert reviews, and making it through three rounds of review to earn that spot. Then he gave it away to someone who didn't know what finite element analysis was.

"If that's what the company decided, to put her name on all my work, then what am I doing here?"

Theo's gaze cooled. "You're in a mood today."

"My mood is perfectly stable. I asked you a straightforward question, yet you can't answer it."

Theo stood up and walked toward the bedroom.

He paused as he passed me. "Sofia, don't think too highly of yourself. The company keeps running no matter who leaves."

The door closed behind him.

I sat on the couch, my fingers pressing down on the edge of the folder on my knee, again and again.

Don't think too highly of myself? Good.

I pulled out my phone and double-checked the time and place for my meeting with Zack on Monday.

Then I messaged Nina: [Nina, you said you're pretty close with Brian, right? Could you reach out to him personally? I need to know what reason Sunny gave Legal to open an investigation into me. And exactly what do the written documents say?]

Nina replied almost instantly: [I'll see what I can do. But what are you planning to do?]

I replied: [I haven't decided yet. I'll figure it out after Monday.]

After that, I locked my phone.

The only sound in the living room was the soft hum of the air conditioner.

The bouquet of lilies on the coffee table had wilted, but I still hadn't thrown them away. The ink on the card, which read "To Sunny," had darkened to a deep red, like a scab.

I stood up and tossed the flowers and the card into the trash.

*****

At three o'clock on Monday afternoon, I arrived at Misty Mug. Zack was already there.

He was sitting in a private room by the window on the second floor, with a cup of untouched coffee in front of him.

When I walked in, Zack stood up. He was tall, with sharp, chiseled features, and his gaze was steady, locking right onto me.

"Sofia." Zack pulled out the chair across from him.

"Mr. Harrison." I sat down across from him.

He poured me a cup of coffee and slid it over. "I'll be honest with you. I've been trying to poach you for quite some time now."

I picked up the cup but didn't drink. "How long have you been watching me, Mr. Harrison?"

"Three years. When the Ludwig Group launched its first high-frequency chip, I had my tech team try to break down the thermal solution for three months, but they couldn't crack it.

"That's when I started wondering who designed it. Took me half a year to track it back to you."

He kept it short and direct. "At last year's industry conference, I had someone give you my card. You never got in touch."

"It wasn't the right time."

"And now it is?"

I looked at him. "Mr. Harrison, you've reached out to me twice, and you even waited outside the Ludwig Group yourself for a whole afternoon. So I'm pretty sure you already know what I'm dealing with."

"Yeah, I know. Your access got revoked, you got moved to the storage room, and Legal's investigating you for leaking secrets," he said, spinning his cup with two fingers. "But honestly, I don't care about any of that. There's only one thing I'm interested in."

"What is it?"

"If you come to the Harrison Group, I'll make you technical director. You can build your own R&D team, and the budget's unlimited. At the end of the year, there's a major federal contract up for bid.

"We're going all in, and I want you to lead it."

I'd heard about that federal contract. Only three companies nationwide are invited to bid, and only one wins. Whoever lands it basically gets a five-year ticket to dominate the chip industry.

"The Ludwig Group is in the running, too," I said.