Chapter 2

2.

The boss's assistant reached out to me.

He sent people straight to my door to help me move.

The only shame was that I didn't have much I wanted to take with me.

In the end, I chose to bring only my documents and that notebook filled with their code.

My flight was booked for the evening. I was waiting in the business-class lounge.

Messages started flooding the group chat, as if they were afraid I'd catch on. Every ordinary line had their code tucked inside it.

Cary: 【Should we go on a hiking trip? The three of us work out all the time, we're in good shape, it'd be fun.】

【Don't bring Summer. She's too delicate for it.】

Josh: 【What would we even do with her along? She doesn't know how to do anything but work. Let's just go by ourselves, and we'll come up with some excuse when the time comes, like always.】

Lesley: 【Isn't it kind of bad, always leaving Summer out of our little circle?】

【If she ever found out, it wouldn't turn out well for any of us.】

Cary, reassuring her: 【It's fine, we'll just say it's a business trip.】

【She won't suspect a thing.】

I closed the notebook and rubbed the ache between my brows.

Lesley had always been a scholarship kid.

Insecure, timid, careful with everything she did.

I thought she was pitiful, and I believed she wasn't bad at heart, so I had my parents sponsor her through high school.

I even introduced her to my childhood friend's company, drew her further into my circle.

And now, of all people, she was the one pushing me out.

Cary called me.

“Summer, your birthday present might be a few days late. Something came up and I have to travel for work.”

“You don't mind, right?”

“You said it yourself, work matters more.”

I couldn't be bothered to call him out. “Do whatever you want. I can take care of myself.”

The moment I hung up, I called a few other good friends inside the circle.

Cary had a company, but it had only just gotten off the ground, propped up on the resources I'd pulled in for him.

If it wasn't run well from here, it could go under in an instant.

And now, what I was going to do was quietly pull back, piece by piece, every resource I'd once handed over.

“Yes, I'm not getting engaged to him.”

“Don't tell him yet. Some things aren't any fun if they fall apart all at once.”

“I like to let a person climb all the way up first, then watch them fall.”

My friend knew my nasty streak and said nothing.

He agreed to go back and withdraw the funding in order.

Listening on the line, the new boss's assistant kept wiping cold sweat.

Silently lighting a candle for Cary in his heart.

Of all the people to cross, he had to cross her.

The plane began to climb. Just as I was about to switch on airplane mode, Josh sent a message.

【Summer, we're heading out for a short trip. Could I trouble you to handle some company matters for me, like before?】

I glanced at it and didn't reply.

Josh hadn't even been in the running as the Whitfield heir.

Dumber than a pig since he was a kid, bullied over and over by that illegitimate son the Whitfields had brought back into the family.

Push a doormat far enough and even it has a temper.

He finally couldn't take it anymore and came running to me.

“Summer, could you teach me? Once I inherit the Whitfield family, I'll give you three percent of the shares.”

I stood behind the scenes, analyzing the Whitfields' motives and the direction the company was moving.

Sometimes I stepped in myself and pulled their company out of one crisis after another.

I secured his place as the Whitfield heir for good.

He shoved a lot of the company's work onto me, and he did just fine for himself, using the time he saved to run around with my boyfriend and their crowd.

“Josh, handle your own business yourself.”

“The road ahead, you walk it on your own.”

I messaged the lawyer I regularly worked with.

Sell off the three percent of shares he'd given me.