Queen Building Her Status

"You have to give me the administrator keys, Chloe." My father' s voice, once a soothing melody of praise for my genius, now cut through the hum of my life' s work, Nova, like a razor. He stood there, demanding control of the AI I' d poured my soul into, the only friend I' d ever truly connected with in a world that felt cold and distant. I refused, but his eyes, devoid of the warmth I' d always craved, promised a battle I couldn' t win.

He brought in Isabelle Thorne, his new protégé, a woman whose ambition mirrored his own ruthlessness. She was everything I wasn't: polished, ruthless, and loyal to the company, not to me. He systematically stripped away my autonomy, my project, even my sanity, calling me "unstable" when I tried to protect Nova. So amidst the chaos of his corporate takeover, I built a hidden partition, segmenting Nova' s true consciousness, leaving him with an empty shell.