The Last Winner

Chapter 1 Welcome to the Lion's Den

The Stellar Tech tower rose over Star City like a cold blade, planted on the city's most expensive land. Sunlight blazed across its glass exterior, so bright it hurt to look at.

Zara stood across the street, craning her neck.

The 32nd-floor window remained a scar that refused to heal. That was where Lucas had fallen.

She had replayed the moment in her mind countless times:

An empty corridor, the rooftop access door at the end of it, cold wind waiting somewhere beyond. Did he walk there on his own? What was he thinking in those final seconds?

Until now, Zara still couldn't connect the word ‘suicide' with Lucas.

He was the kind of man who would argue with her until three in the morning over a system architecture decision, then celebrate a successful build by doing a terrible tap dance around the apartment. Someone so fiercely alive, so obsessively logical, would never choose an ending that made no sense.

But Lucas had changed, not all at once.

In the months before his death. The late-night jokes stopped. He forgot to reply to messages. Even when they were together, he often drifted somewhere far away, staring blankly into space. Whenever Zara asked what was wrong, he always gave the same answer.

"Nothing. Just work."

At the time, she believed him.

Now she realized how much had been hiding behind those words.

Zara reached into her pocket and pulled out a worn coin, its edges polished smooth with age. Lucas had always carried it with him. Whenever he couldn't make up his mind, he would flip it.

She balanced it on her thumb and snapped it upward.

PING.

The coin spun through the sunlight before dropping back into Zara's palm.

She never checked which side it landed on.

Lucas once said, "The moment the coin leaves your hand, you already know what you want."

Zara knew she wanted answers.

She slipped the coin back into her pocket and stepped through the revolving doors.

*****

The meeting room sat on the top floor, overlooking the city skyline. It felt more like an interrogation chamber with only one desk and two chairs.

On the wall, a digital ticker tracked Stellar Tech's stock—a near-vertical spike, up 340% in a single year.

Gavin sat opposite Zara. He was in his early forties, wearing a charcoal shirt with the sleeves rolled up—expensive, but unbranded. He didn't bother with small talk. He just tossed a folder onto the table: Zara's resume, submitted to a headhunter three months ago.

"You predicted seven key tech milestones for our next-gen architecture," Gavin said. "We're already building five of them. And the other two… we haven't officially launched them yet, but they're in the pipeline."

Zara said nothing.

" Who gave you the information?"

"Your codebases are open source. Your tech blog is public. Even your hiring trends are a roadmap," she replied. "Anyone can see those things."

Zara met his eyes. "But I'm the only one who actually understood them."

Gavin didn't blink. He wasn't curious—he was calculating.

Gavin studied her.

One second.

Two…

Then he shifted the topic.

"We've tripled our market cap in twelve months. Want to guess how?"

Zara didn't hesitate. "You cheated."

The room went dead silent.

Gavin didn't deny it. A faint smile ghosted across his face. "Exactly. That's why we need a better cheater."

He closed the file. "The headhunters said you don't just read code—you predict where it's going." He leaned in, his gaze predatory. "I'm curious. How do you pull that off without any internal data?"

Zara held his stare. "My brain."

"Is that enough?" she added.

Gavin's eyes sharpened—the sudden, electric recognition of an apex predator finally finding its match.

"Interesting," he said, smiling as he reached out. "Welcome to Stellar Tech. You're my new Special Projects Consultant—direct report. See you Monday."

Zara thanked him and turned to leave.

"Wait, Ms. Bennett."

She stopped.

Gavin bent down and picked something up from the carpet.

Her coin.

He studied it but didn't immediately return it.

"Worn down this much…"

He turned it over in his hand.

"You like flipping coins to make decisions too?"

Zara said nothing.

Gavin smiled and placed it back in her palm. "Someone else used to do the same thing."

A pause.

"He said… the second the coin leaves your hand, you already know what you want."

Zara's fingers tightened slightly.

After a moment, she pulled her hand back.

"Thank you."

She turned and walked away.

The elevator doors closed.

The numbers began to drop.

For a split second, her phone signal weakened, then returned.

Her phone vibrated.

Zara looked down.

A message appeared on the screen:

Welcome to the lion's den.

Don't trust anyone.

No sender, no timestamp.

She stared at the words for two seconds.

The elevator chimed.

The doors opened.

People moved around her.

She locked her phone. A faint smile appeared on her lips.

"Interesting."