Chapter 2

Shards scattered everywhere.

Austin's face paled. He immediately checked my elbow, his voice a mix of frustration and lingering anger. "Why are you being so reckless? Did you cut yourself?"

I brushed his hand off. "I'm fine," I said coldly.

He stared at the broken ceramic on the floor. We had picked it out together, believing it would bring good luck to our new home.

"It’s better this way," I murmured, turning back to pack my things.

Austin stood frozen amidst the mess, his expression dark and unreadable.

The next day, we were supposed to meet a potential investor.

But I had already emailed the client, rescheduling the meeting due to personal reasons. Then, I emailed our landlord about breaking our lease early.

Around noon, Austin came back. Seeing me packing books into cardboard boxes, he tried to soften his tone.

"Chloe, I rescheduled the meeting with the client. Look..."

"Don't bother," I interrupted him. "The project is dead. You can handle the follow-ups yourself."

He choked on his words, his voice dropping low. "Is this because of Bella? Because of the money? I told you I would fix it!"

"Austin, it was never just about Bella. And it was never just about the money."

I stopped what I was doing and looked him dead in the eye. "It's because you constantly let her, and your so-called brotherhood, override our plans and our trust."

His mouth opened, but no words came out.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

Austin answered it. Bella and two of her friends were standing in the hallway, holding grocery bags.

"Austin! Chloe!" Bella beamed, her smile radiant. "We came over to cook a celebratory dinner for the launch! Let’s..."

Her voice trailed off as her eyes landed on the packing boxes.

Austin cleared his throat awkwardly and let them in.

As soon as Bella stepped inside, her eyes locked onto the business proposal on my desk.

It was the final version of AuraHome AI—the project I had pulled consecutive all-nighters to perfect.

"Oh my gosh, Chloe, this pitch deck is brilliant!" She picked it up naturally, flipping through the pages. "This core architecture is genius. Let me borrow it for a bit to study, okay?"

Austin frowned slightly. "Bella, that’s Chloe’s work. Put it down."

Bella pouted, her voice dripping with sweet innocence. "Come on, I just want to learn! Chloe is so smart, she won't mind, right? It's all for the team!"

One of her friends chimed in. "Yeah, Bella just wants to improve herself for the project."

The other one was even more direct. "Chloe, just let Bella look at it. Who knows, maybe she can even give you some good feedback."

"Proprietary information," I said without looking up from my packing. "It's highly inappropriate to look at a core pitch deck without authorization."

The room went dead silent.

Bella looked as if I had physically slapped her. She slammed the deck back onto the table.

"Chloe, how could you think of me like that? I was just admiring your work! What kind of person do you think I am?"

Her friends didn't see anything wrong with her behavior. Instead, they glared at me. "We're all on the same team here. What's the big deal?"

The other scoffed. "Chloe, we came here in good faith to help smooth things over. You're being incredibly petty."

Austin sighed, his voice heavy with fatigue. "Chloe, Bella meant well. She was just..."

"She was just trying to steal someone else's hard work, just like she stole our project funds over and over again," I cut him off, my voice calm but freezing cold.

Bella’s face flushed bright red. "Chloe Miller! What are you implying? Those were loans! It was for project emergencies! Austin approved all of them!"

"Oh, really?" I walked over to my laptop and pulled up the financial spreadsheet. "Over the past year, you 'borrowed' a total of $65,000. $35,000 of that was taken during critical development phases when we desperately needed cash.

Your repayment record is a big fat zero. Is that what you call 'for the project'?"

I spun the screen around. The black-and-white numbers were indisputable.

Bella froze. Her two friends shut their mouths, looking incredibly awkward.

But Bella quickly found a new angle to attack. "Chloe, why are you bringing up old dirt now? Austin agreed to all of it! You're just jealous because Austin trusts me more than you!"

I didn't want to waste another second arguing. I reached for my phone.

Seeing this, Austin snatched my phone away. "Chloe! Do you have to do this? What's the point of digging up the past?!"

He yelled so loudly that I could hear footsteps in the hallway outside.

He grabbed Bella’s arm and turned to her friends. "Let's go!"

I stood my ground, completely unfazed.

One of Bella's friends looked at my icy expression and tried to pull Austin back, sensing things were getting out of hand.

But Austin was too angry. "Forget it! Let her calm down by herself!"

Once they slammed the door, I took a deep breath. I logged onto Nextdoor and posted a listing: "Selling brand-new studio office equipment. Half price."

My phone immediately started buzzing with inquiries.

Within a few hours, almost everything was sold.