Revenge Wears a Soft Smile

d. He became my keeper, my tormentor, all under the guise of caring for the "fragile" woman he had so graciously chosen not to abandon. He isolated me, convi

describe the meetings, the deals, the praise he was receiving for my technology, which he now called his own. He

'd say, pouring himself a glass of my best whisk

d atrophied. He would delete my work, claiming it was for my own good, to prevent me from embarrassing myself further. He broke me do

nnounced the official merger of my old company, now rebranded as "Liam Technologies,

ent. It contained the original, time-stamped chat logs from the night before the Innovatech Grant. The logs where he begged me

ming, I was sitting in the dark, the laptop open on t

he asked, his s

ce shaking. "I found it, Li

ic crossed his face. Then, it was gone, replaced by a cold, lazy amusem

still don't get it, do you? Nobody cares about proof

void of the love and affection he had faked for

eans to an end. A brilliant, naive, insecure little coder with a goldmine of a company. Yo

moment, every whispered promise, every sacrifice I had made-it was all

ve me a product. And your little 'cheating' scandal? That was the masterstroke. It made me a sympathe

dead weight in my chest. "Al

people, Ava. Power is the only thing that's rea

ing, of emotional abuse, of watching him steal my life, it all boi

ly, his grip like iron. He twisted my arm

oul. "This is what I'm talking ab

odes." The next day, two men in white coats came to the penthouse. Liam was there, his face a mask of sorrow. He told them I had atta

ook me

erdose, easily explained by my "unstable" mental state. My last coherent thought as the darkness closed in was not of sorrow, but of rage. A burning, all-con

ime, there would be no confrontation. No begging for the truth. Just cold, quiet, met