His Toxic Legacy

fair buzzed with nervo

ere, résumés in han

I saw h

ruiter from a prestigious tech

, looking bored but expe

himself to her, likely through sheer

saying, gesturing wildly, "will change the way we

eeds of the startup we had built in the first ti

ing it yet in this timelin

A predatory gli

rah, this is Mr. Henderson. Sarah worked closely with me on th

s charade, to lend my credi

flustered, would have probably

rah smiled

g my hand. "A pleasure. Mark has

afraid I don't recall the specifics of my involvement in those e

red. Tiffany shot m

ed from Mark to me

wn, a refined version of a project I'd actually developed, back

listened int

ller. Very impressive. My card. Call my office

Mr. Peterson, are certainly ambitious. Perhap

mask of fury as Mr.

th his vague, incoherent pitches. Word spread quickly.

nered me near the

ice low and threatening. "He's mine. His

"Or is he just a means to

wed, but she d

ed me privately, his charm

said, his voice tight. "Yo

eborn. That

, Mark?" I fei

startup! The code, the business pl

uld I d

her. That favor my dad did for him? I can make it look like something else entire

e fabricated heroi

, but I kept my e

, "the genius who was going to get everything in your will, you sh

speechless f

egret thi

oubt

hloe, ever pragmatic and tech-

y, and her phone

ering, and, later that day, a bonus: a screaming matc

d desperate, blamed

thin, mocked his incompetence, his ina

shrieked. "You said you had it all f

n, edited the highlights into

a popular anonymous

gul or Future F

al on campu

stocks. Their public personas, s

ation was