Chương 4
I opened it and found a plain bagel.
“You remembered.”
“You always forget breakfast when you’re stressed.”
I looked down.
It was such a small thing.
That was what almost broke me.
Not the jet.
Not Jasmine.
Not Aaron.
A bagel from someone who noticed.
“You know,” Daniel said, sitting across from me, “most people think betrayal is the moment someone does something terrible.”
I spread cream cheese onto the bagel.
“What do you think?”
“I think sometimes betrayal happens earlier.”
“When?”
“When someone watches you struggle and decides your struggle is convenient.”
I didn’t answer.
Because I knew exactly what he meant.
At eight fifteen, the first email went out.
Not to the public.
Not to the media.
To the people who actually mattered.
The Prescott Technologies board.
The legal department.
The financial officers.
The people responsible for knowing why the company existed.
The message was simple.
A review of historical funding agreements would begin immediately.
No accusations.
No dramatic language.
No threats.
Just facts.
That was the difference between anger and power.
Anger wanted to be heard.
Power wanted to be understood.
At nine twelve, my phone rang.
Aaron.
I let it ring.
At nine fifteen, another call.
Aaron.
At nine seventeen, a message.
Alyssa, call me now.
I stared at it.
Then another appeared.
This isn’t funny anymore.
I almost smiled.
Funny.
That was the word he chose.
As if this were some argument over dinner.
As if my entire life had not just shifted.
Daniel watched my face.
“You’re tempted.”
I put the phone down.
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
I sighed.
“I’m tempted to explain.”
“That’s the trap.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because explanations are for people who want to understand.”
He leaned back.
“Does Aaron want to understand?”
The answer came too quickly.
“No.”
The office door opened before I could say anything else.
My younger brother, Ethan, walked in carrying a stack of files.
He looked different from the last time I saw him.
Not older.
Just less careful.
He had always been the person in my family who said what everyone else avoided.
“Mom heard,” he said.
I closed my eyes briefly.
Of course she had.
My family knew about everything before anyone officially told them.
“What did she say?”
Ethan dropped the files onto the table.
“She said she’s proud of you.”
I looked at him.
“That’s it?”
He shrugged.
“Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“She also said she wants to know why you waited four years.”
I looked away.
Because I had asked myself the same question.
Why had I waited?
The answer was embarrassing.
I had not stayed because I was weak.
That would have been easier.
I stayed because I remembered the beginning.
I remembered a version of Aaron that almost nobody else knew.
The man who drove a ten-year-old car because he wanted every dollar to go into his company.
The man who celebrated his first employee more than his first million dollars.
The man who once spent an entire night fixing a bug because he was afraid customers would lose trust.
I loved that man.
I just didn’t know when he disappeared.
Or maybe I did.
Maybe I knew exactly when.
I just refused to admit it.
My phone buzzed again.
This time it was from Aaron’s assistant.
Not Jasmine.
His longtime executive assistant, Melissa.
Can you talk?
I hesitated.
Melissa had been with Aaron since before the company became famous.
She was one of the few people who knew the early years.
I answered.
“Melissa?”
Her voice was low.
“Are you alone?”
I looked at Daniel and Ethan.
“Yes.”
She took a breath.
“I need to tell you something before this gets worse.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“What happened?”
There was a pause.
Then I heard papers moving.
“Aaron doesn’t know I’m calling you.”
“That’s usually a bad sign.”
“It is.”
Her voice cracked slightly.
“Alyssa, Jasmine wasn’t hired because Aaron needed an assistant.”
I said nothing.
Melissa continued.
“She was hired because of the investor presentation last year.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“She was working for one of the investment groups that wanted access to Prescott Technologies.”
The room became still.
Daniel immediately looked up.
“Which group?”
I covered the phone.
“Daniel.”
He mouthed one word.
Speaker.
I turned it on.
“Melissa, can you hear us?”
“Yes.”
“Start from the beginning,” Daniel said.
She hesitated.
“Last year, when the company was preparing for expansion, there were concerns about Aaron’s leadership style.”
I almost laughed.
Leadership style.
A polite phrase.
“A board member suggested bringing in someone who could help organize him.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“Someone who could monitor him.”
“Yes.”
My stomach tightened.
“Are you saying Jasmine was spying on him?”
“No.”
Melissa paused.
“That’s the problem.”
The room waited.
“She was doing both.”
I leaned forward.
“What does that mean?”
“It means she actually helped him.”
That surprised me.
“She helped?”
“Yes.”
Melissa sounded uncomfortable.
“Jasmine is smart. She found problems in some of the company systems. She improved scheduling. She fixed mistakes nobody noticed.”
I looked at Daniel.
That was not what I expected.
“She wasn’t just pretending to work.”
“No.”
Melissa swallowed.
“But over time, things changed.”
“How?”
“She started making herself necessary.”
The words sat there.
“She became the person Aaron depended on.”
I looked down.
That was familiar.
Because that was exactly what I had once been.
Not an assistant.
Not an employee.
The person who knew what he needed before he asked.
“What does she want?” I asked.
Melissa was quiet.
“I don’t know.”
That answer bothered me more than a confession would have.
Because uncertainty meant the situation was still moving.
“But I know something else,” Melissa said.
“What?”
“She asked me about your marriage.”
My chest tightened.
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“What did she ask?”
Melissa hesitated.
“She asked if you still had access to company documents.”
Daniel immediately looked at me.
“And what did you say?”
“I told her yes.”
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“Why?”
“Because it was true.”
