Chapter 4

I looked Dean straight in the eyes.

"And if I don't sign?"

His brow furrowed, genuinely confused.

"It doesn't affect your return to headquarters."

"For you, the project is a nice bonus. For her, it's a lifeline."

"Leaving your name on it is already giving you a way out."

A way out.

I suddenly remembered the first year, when a project I'd led fell through,

and I couldn't sleep for nights on end.

He had comforted me the same way back then.

"Don't be scared. You still have me. I'm your way out."

Now he'd convinced himself he had the means to catch me when I fell.

He'd helped himself to my project to give his precious girl a foothold,

then handed me the slot to return to headquarters as his plus-one, like a favor.

He was certain I couldn't leave him, that I'd follow him like before,

and whatever he demanded,

I would swallow every grievance in silence.

I gave him a calm, level look.

"Dean, if I sign, my competitiveness for the return to headquarters gets cut down."

"So why are you still so certain I'll definitely make it back?"

He hinted at it.

"I have my own arrangements. We can discuss personal matters privately."

"Are we the kind of people who chat privately?"

His face shifted slightly. He pressed his lips together and said nothing.

The conference room broke into whispers at once.

"If they really are a couple, then why would he steal his girlfriend's project and hand it to Amanda?"

He clenched his back teeth, and when he spoke again his tone came down hard.

"It's nothing more than a working relationship."

"Talking privately was to spare you some dignity."

Amanda cut in quickly.

"Mr. Gilbert is considering the company's bigger picture and fairness. There's nothing personal involved."

He turned his face away, his voice stiff.

"Amanda took your early contributions into account and offered a compensation plan on her own."

"Sign it, and you can still keep the credit as co-designer."

"Don't sign, and you and your team walk away with nothing."

"Supervisor Gill, don't get too hung up on personal gain and loss."

I almost couldn't help laughing.

First he and Amanda seized everything I'd poured myself into, all dressed up as high principle,

then pinned on me the reputation of a woman greedy for credit who cared nothing for others.

And finally they played the good guys to win people over.

Quite the psychological game.

A pity that for all their calculations, the one thing they never accounted for was who I really am.

Meeting his eyes, so full of certainty, I curved my lips into a mocking smile.

"Since you're willing to stake your whole future on her,

then I hope that when the product launch comes, neither of you will regret it."

His pupils shrank.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I couldn't be bothered to waste more words. I pulled the licensing agreement away and walked straight out.

They wanted to climb to the top on my shoulders.

So I would wait until they were one step away from success,

and let them fall from that height, hard.

The day of the product launch.

The moment I arrived at the company, I was told I'd been barred from entering.

Dean's assistant slipped me a dress and a card on the sly.

The card read:

"The promotion notice goes out in an hour. Wait for me at the hotel."

"Everything you wanted, I've already prepared."

I dropped the card into the trash,

and pushed open the doors of the venue with my brother at my side.

Amanda had just finished the product overview,

and Dean was presenting her with a bouquet of red roses in congratulation,

the room erupting in thunderous applause.

Then it cut off dead the instant they saw us.

Dean's pupils tightened, almost imperceptibly.

He rose in a hurry to greet my brother.

My brother spared him one cold glance,

then went straight to the head seat and sat down.

Dean froze where he stood, his expression awkward.

My brother tapped the proposal with his fingertip and put a question to Amanda at the podium.

"How did you arrive at this seven-minute upper limit?"

Her face changed slightly. She set down the bouquet

and stepped back up to the podium.

"We ran multiple rounds of live drowning-simulation tests and locked in the extreme value after repeated verification."

She accidentally pressed the clicker,

and the screen instantly popped up a parameter analysis chart, backed by a video link.

She scrambled to close it,

but my brother, the CEO, ordered her to open it.

The next second, the pool surveillance footage began to play, and in an instant it stunned the entire room.