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Stolen Code, Broken Heart, Fierce Comeback

Chapter 3 

Word Count: 810    |    Released on: 03/07/2025

his composure, forcing a smil

ring into his pocket as if it were a loose coin. "You' re right. A

needed my family' s name. The Hayes name still carried weight in the old-money circles of San Francisco, a world that the new-money tech bros like him

a small, trusting smile. "T

y gesture was just that-a gesture. He saw it as a sign of my conti

orially, "since we' re talking about fresh star

comes, I

t is

sual. "She' s been so supportive of us, of

d, my voice a perfec

g... as a sign of goodwill, a wedding gift in advance, you could

property for 'Prometheus' before he' d created EvolveAI and transferred everything over. My shares were

essing his advantage. "And it would show everyone t

me to hand over the last shred of my le

, had been silent up to this point. Now

Ethan," my father, Robert Hayes,

ad always been intim

d to Ethan. "They' re just shares in a defunct

y. "Exactly! It' s

aning back in my cha

at me in shock. Ethan' s shock

ng up a finger. "I wan

faltered

voice light and breezy. "The 1964 356C. The o

. "My car? Why do

buy it from you, of course. For fair market value. We can just deduct the price from the dowry

the Hayes family, it was just a thing. A replaceable thing. He didn' t know that years ago, in a moment of paranoia before he turned on me, I had hidden a small, encrypted hard drive inside a custom-bui

e car was just a car. My request seemed emotional, whimsical-the kind of thin

ding across his face. He thought he was winning, that

sold me the weapon I was

-

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Stolen Code, Broken Heart, Fierce Comeback
Stolen Code, Broken Heart, Fierce Comeback
“The flickering TV in my dingy motel room was the only light, illuminating the peeling wallpaper. On screen, Ethan Vance, my ex-fiancé, smiled his perfect, camera-ready smile, touting 'EvolveAI' and his "future-defining" Prometheus algorithm. Reporters swarmed him; he was the king of Silicon Valley, the brilliant mind behind the world' s most advanced AI. My world. My code. My future. He had stolen it all. Everything. I remembered the day he left, his eyes cold and empty, my three years of coding on a hard drive in his bag, a venomous "You were always just... holding me back." He didn't just take the code; he took my savings, my reputation, blacklisting me from an industry I helped build, all while Bethany Cole, my best friend, stood arm-in-arm with him, eyes gleaming with triumph. They left me with nothing but eviction notices, forcing me to sell everything I owned, living as a ghost under pseudonyms, cleaning up security flaws for companies that would never hire Scarlett Hayes. The pain of that betrayal was a constant, suffocating darkness, a deep pit I couldn' t climb out of, trapped by unseen enemies and their whispers of my failure. But watching him on that screen, basking in my stolen glory, a cold, sharp rage began to burn through the despair. In that cheap motel, I swore a vow: I would get justice, I would take back what was mine, and he would not build his empire on my ruins. My chance came weeks later: a vulnerability in his IPO network led me to a familiar digital signature-a back door I'd built into 'Prometheus,' a failsafe only I knew. He was arrogant, so certain he' d erased me he never looked for the ghost I' d left behind. He was on the verge of becoming a billionaire. And I had the key to his kingdom. A slow smile spread across my face. The game wasn't over. It had just begun. I wasn't going to be a victim. I was the storm he never saw coming. I would let him climb to the peak of his triumph. And then, I would burn it all to the ground.”
1 Introduction2 Chapter 13 Chapter 24 Chapter 35 Chapter 46 Chapter 57 Chapter 68 Chapter 79 Chapter 810 Chapter 911 Chapter 10