Revenge Wears a Soft Smile

n in years. My mind went back to the beginning of the end. It was an event called the "Innovatech Grant," a prestigious competition that offered a massive

is charm, his ability to make people believe in a vision. He practiced his presentation for weeks, his ambition a bur

ations were weak. He kept stumbling over the core concepts of Project Titan. He

onfidence, aggression, a vision of market dominance. He was practically preening for her, his eyes finding hers in the crowd during his pitch. I saw it from

s pacing the apartment, convinced he was going to fail. He sai

, his voice tight with panic. "I don't know the system li

uch distress. I wanted him to succeed more than anything. So, I made

d him. "I can give

h the room's smart sensors-subtle shifts in heart rate, pupil dilation, micro-expressions. The script would feed him live, color-coded cues on a small, hidden scree

ostly to myself. "It's just... data-driven

d by a greedy excitement. He saw it not as a

charm amplified by the data I was feeding him. He played the judges like a violin. He looked directly at Marcus Thompson an

ng unease. This felt wrong. It wasn't his v

ttee. The tip pointed them to the exact script I had written. An investigation was launched immediately. They found the

room. The air was thick with accusation

ned on me. He feigne

was just helping me with the slides. I thought... I thought she was supporting

my work. He claimed I did it to make him look like a fraud if he won. The judges, especially Marcus, s

t. But Liam... Liam was portrayed as a victim. A brilliant mind who had overcome a personal betrayal. Marcus Thompson

his ambition. The memory was so vivid, so painful, that I had to clench my fists to stop from screaming right there on the bus. It wasn't just a betrayal. It was the care