The Cost of His Clean Slate

u make every day. For ten ye

, the architect of his dark web empire. While he was the face, the charismatic entrepreneur, I was the one who made the code sing, wh

undered his reputation as cleanly as he' d laundered his money, and he was hosting a

nthouse, the one I had helped design. I was waiting for him to call me to his s

elicate and bright-eyed, clinging to his arm.

me in the dark, washed over the quiet murmurs of the room.

rt stopped. "She was okay with the risks, th

a soft, protective smil

n slate, Ava. A lif

ess he had never once afforded me. The room filled with knowing s

e was erasing me. He was framing our decade together as a dirty secr

my back on the scene, on him, on the life I had p

thing I never told hi

of legitimate tech, was waiting for me

My childhood friend, my tech rival, the one who

dea he was just sending me back to my real lif

ding. It was a de