He Paid Me $15 While His Mistress Wore My $15,000 Paycheck

Chapter 2

By the next day, the memorial service was over.

Grandma's urn seemed impossibly small. I could hold it in one hand.

I stared at her portrait, numb and cold.

The funeral director reminded me that I needed to choose a burial plot soon. Even a decent one started at 20,000 dollars.

I tightened my grip on my bank card. I didn't even have 2,000 dollars.

A year of medical bills had drained the little savings I once had.

For 3 years, I had helped Damian build his company from two folding tables in a garage into a top-floor office downtown.

I survived on cold pizza while chasing clients and coded through the night, often working long after Damian had fallen asleep at his keyboard.

The day the company raised 30 million dollars, he picked me up, spun me around, and promised to marry me as soon as it went public.

But whenever I asked for a raise, he pulled me close and sweet-talked me into waiting. "Wait a little longer. Once our cash flow stabilizes, everything I have will be yours."

So I waited.

I took a pay cut and gave up every bonus.

Now I couldn't even afford to bury Grandma.

"I'm so sorry for your loss," a man said behind me.

I turned around.

Noah Castro stood beneath a streetlight. We had grown up next door to each other, then attended the same university and studied the same major. Now he was the CEO of Aureon Technologies.

"Don't worry about the cemetery," he said. "I've already taken care of it."

He had seen straight through my embarrassment.

I shook my head, my voice hoarse. "The plot costs 30,000 dollars. I'll sign an IOU and pay you back."

Noah sighed. "Ella, you don't need to write an IOU. Pay me back when you're able."

I lowered my head and stared at the urn in my hands.

"Noah, I want to leave Blackwood Technologies and join Aureon. Would you hire me?"

He froze. Then his eyes lit up.

"Hire you? Of course I would! With your skills, I'd be lucky to have you. I'll bring you in as a technical partner and give you pre-IPO shares."

I nodded. "Good. Have the contract ready."

Noah hesitated. "Ella, you're not doing this on impulse, are you? You were completely devoted to Damian. You even turned down an offer worth 1 million dollars a year to help him start his company. Are you really ready to walk away?"

I cut him off. "This isn't an impulse."