A Love Contract: Five Years

o, Sarah Mille

lliant, fiery business student who argued with the professor. I was captivated from the first mome

e dreamed of the future under the stars on the university green. She told me about her family, ho

hing of her own. And I wa

f, but when. Her family hated me. I was a scholarship kid with no

ak up with me, or they would cu

chos

ly fortune, everything. All she had was her b

. Our first employee was Alex Thorne, a business major from our class. He was slick, ambitious, and always seemed to be

something darker. He wanted what I had. Not just my

key piece of my code, setting a project back by weeks, hopin

, but the evidence was on his

office. I stood outside, heari

. He is my partner. If you ever try to sabotage him or undermi

d was heavy. Then, Alex'

e, I didn' t see remorse. I saw a deep, burning resentment. A hat

the seeds of our d

, maybe years, looking for a weapon, a secret h

om everyone, the source of a deep, lifelon

hina as a toddler. She had no papers, no social security number, no legal right to be in the country she considered her home. It was a secret she guarded wi

e waited for the perf

planned a grand, public proposal at the Griffith Observatory, overlooking the city where we had built our lif

dy to leave, my phon

pbell," he said, h

ou talking a

ot just going to call it off. You' re going to break her hea

"You' re

eadline. 'Tech Startup CEO an Illegal Alien.' Imagine the ICE raid on our office. Imagine he

from my face. I

ou want?"

hen, in front of the cameras, you tell her it' s over. You tell her she' s not good enough for you. You tell her she' s too poor, that

d weight in my pocket. He was threatening to d

"I' ll send the tip to every news outlet and governm

e. My future with the wom

t a choi