Chapter 2
That afternoon, Vivian called me into her office.
"Lucas, what's up with your attitude? Evan came to you with a tech question, and you brushed him off," she said.
I sat down across from her.
"He's the one in charge of the project, not me," I replied.
"You're one of our top tech guys. Helping out the newbies is part of your job."
"I'm fine with helping him, but I'm not here to do his job for him."
Vivian frowned.
"What's going on with you lately? Why are you so on edge?" she asked.
"It's nothing," I replied.
I stood up.
"If there's nothing else, I'll get going," I said.
"Stop right there," Vivian said.
Her voice went icy.
"Lucas, let me say this one more time. At work, I'm your boss, not your wife. So, get your attitude straight," she said.
I looked at her.
"Got it, Ms. Lane," I replied.
Then I turned and walked out.
Back at my desk, I saw a new message on my phone.
Peter: [So, have you thought it over?]
I replied: [Can we sign the contract tomorrow?]
[Anytime. I'll have the legal team ready at 10 AM tomorrow.]
[Sounds good.]
After putting my phone down, I started clearing out my personal files from my computer.
Three years' worth of files, but honestly, there really wasn't much.
When I got home that night, Vivian still wasn't back.
She didn't come through the door until eleven.
She had that boozy smell on her.
"Client dinner?" I asked.
"Yeah, Evan gave me a ride back," she said.
I didn't say anything.
She kicked off her heels and flopped onto the couch.
"I'm exhausted. Oh, by the way, for the company party next month, don't bother signing up for any performances. Budget's tight, so the tech team only needs one person this year. I'll have Evan do it," she said.
"Alright," I replied.
"Why are you being so easygoing lately?"
"I'm tired. I don't want to argue."
Vivian shot me a look, didn't say anything else, and went to take a shower.
I sat in the living room, staring at her bag, which she'd tossed onto the coffee table.
The bag wasn't zipped up, and a receipt was peeking out.
It was from some upscale restaurant. And it was a dinner for two that came to 1,200 dollars.
The date was today.
Client dinner? The two of them?
I slipped the receipt back into the bag, keeping my expression neutral.
The next morning at ten, I was sitting in Pinnacle Enterprise's conference room.
The contract was sitting right in front of me.
Chief Architect with an annual salary of 1.6 million dollars. Its sign-on bonus was 170 thousand dollars, and three-year stock options valued at around 4 million dollars.
Peter was sitting across the table from me.
"Finished reading? If you've got any questions, you can ask," he said.
I grabbed the pen.
"That's okay," I said.
As I signed my name, it felt like three years' worth of stress melted away.
Peter reached across and shook my hand.
"Welcome aboard to Pinnacle. Take your time starting; we're not in a hurry," he said.
"I'll start in a month. I need to wrap things up at my current job," I said.
"No problem."
After leaving Pinnacle, I stopped by the bank.
The 170 thousand dollars sign-on bonus was already in my account.
I stared at the balance, and suddenly remembered how Vivian had gotten into a fight with me last month because I wanted to buy a new phone.
"With all the bills we have, can't you try to save a little?" she'd said.
I hadn't said anything back then.
And now, I still didn't feel like saying anything.
Back at BrightCore, everything was busy as usual.
No one had a clue I'd already signed with Pinnacle.
At the afternoon meeting, Vivian was up on stage, laying out the plans for the next quarter.
"For the tech team, Lucas will handle routine maintenance, and Evan will take charge of the new project development," she announced.
Routine maintenance?
Three years as the guy behind the core architecture, and now I was assigned to routine maintenance.
Mr. Jackson leaned over and whispered, "Lucas, that's serious?"
I patted his shoulder.
"Don't worry about it," I said.
It really was fine.
A month from now, I wouldn't even be here.
After the meeting, Evan came over to me again.
"Lucas, the second phase demo for the client is next week, but the system keeps crashing. Can you help out—" Evan asked
"No," I cut him off flatly.
"But Ms. Lane said—"
"Have Ms. Lane email me and follow the official process."
Evan's face turned bright red.
"Lucas, are you seriously making things difficult for me on purpose?" he said.
I looked up at him.
"Evan, you took on a 27-million-dollar project and can't even handle the tech problems? That's not me giving you a hard time. That's you not being up to it," I said.
He stood there, his lips trembling, then turned and walked away.
Ten minutes later, Vivian called me.
"Lucas, come to my office," she said.
I walked into her office.
Evan was there too.
She looked pissed.
"Lucas, I'm asking you one last time. Are you going to take care of the tech support for phase two or not?" she demanded.
"No," I said.
"Why?"
"I'm supposed to do routine maintenance, remember? You literally said that this morning."
She was stunned, totally lost for words.