Chapter 3

I thanked them for their offers, but I already had a plan. Arthur was the one losing out. Now that the clients knew what kind of boss he was, they wouldn't want to deal with him either.

Since the clients trusted me personally, I had nothing to worry about.

The next day, I consulted an employment attorney and officially filed for arbitration.

Two days after submitting the evidence, the arbitration representative called me. Arthur's legal team wanted to settle.

But they only offered $5,000.

I rejected it immediately and insisted on going through the full legal process. If the arbitration result wasn't satisfactory, I'd take them straight to court.

Seeing that I was playing hardball, Arthur spread rumors in the industry to blackball me.

The other two laid-off colleagues came to me, and I told them we stood a much better chance if we filed a joint suit.

They immediately handed over all their evidence, and we waited for the legal gears to turn.

In the meantime, I took a quick trip out of town. Two days later, I officially signed with Nexa Technologies, bringing the hundred-million-dollar contract with me. I was put in charge of Nexa's entire local division.

Meanwhile, Sterling Tech was falling into absolute chaos.

Even though I was gone, my old team members were still there.

Chris called me on FaceTime, looking panicked. "Liam, the company's systems are totally crashing. All our code is turning into a mess of errors, and nothing will run."

"Arthur brought in some external developers, but once they looked at the backend, they said the source code was entirely custom-written. They can't do anything without the original architect. That's you!"

"Arthur is throwing a massive fit in his office. He says he's going to find you!"

I chuckled. "Chris, I actually have an opening in my new team. Pack up your things. Once you get your final paycheck, come join me."

"You already found a new gig, Liam?"

"Yeah. Nexa Technologies. And I can offer you a 20% bump on your current salary."

Chris was ecstatic. He immediately sent me two videos of Arthur screaming and cursing like a madman in his office.

I tapped my fingers on the desk. This was only the beginning.

Arthur, your "blessings" are just starting to roll in.

Three days after Nexa Technologies publicly announced our new hundred-million-dollar deal, Arthur called me.

"Liam, listen, you designed the system architecture. You must have a way to fix this."

"How about I pay you to consult?"

I smiled. "Sure. Pay me my full severance first, and then we can talk."

"You're extorting me!"

"I'm just claiming what is legally mine, Arthur. If you don't want to pay, feel free to hire someone else to rebuild it from scratch. It'll only cost you a few million dollars in R&D."

He gasped for air over the phone. "In your dreams!"

He slammed the phone down. I didn't care.

I instructed my team to prepare for our product launch. Nexa Technologies' new product was a massive deal, and the industry was watching.

Arthur was watching too.

Nexa had set up a major marketing campaign for me, including a solo press conference.

I accepted it all.

Just a day later, word got out that Arthur had hired a cheap agency to patch up his system using a generic, off-the-shelf software.

Chris snapped me, saying the new system was absolute garbage and riddled with bugs. I told him to relax. Arthur had played his last card.

When Nexa's new system went live, it was flawless. It completely crushed Arthur's patched-up software.

In fact, Arthur quickly realized that Nexa's user interface looked incredibly familiar. It was an upgraded version of the very architecture I had designed at his company---but built entirely on my personal patents.

Our system was smoother, faster, and far more user-friendly.

When Nexa's launch trailer dropped, the entire industry was blown away.

Right on cue, Arthur called me again, his voice trembling with rage.

"Liam! You stole my company's intellectual property! I'm going to sue you to high heaven!"