The Master Keycard

Chapter 2 The Severed Ties

The next morning, Thorne Tech's HR sent me a ten-page non-compete agreement. It tried to bar me from nearly every technical role in the industry.

Most of its restrictions would never hold up in court, and Julian should have known that.

Julian had added a note at the bottom.

[Chloe, apologize to Serena and come back to finish the handover. If you don't, I will use every contact I have to make sure you never work in this industry again.]

He meant to blacklist the person who had financed his company and written its core product. He treated every contact as his personal influence, though my money and results had opened those doors.

I forwarded the email to my father's legal team. Before I could add a comment, my phone buzzed with a new post from Serena.

In the photo, she wore the designer gown and sat at my old desk. My potted fern stood behind her beside the custom coffee mug with a chip on its rim.

Her caption read: [Feeling so blessed to have the complete trust of the most important person in my life. Ready to take on the world! ❤️]

My stomach turned. She could keep the desk, the mug, and the damp apartment. She could not keep my work.

I blocked her account, then Julian's.

I set the phone down in my old room at the Vance estate.

After three years of damp walls and takeout boxes, the floor-to-ceiling windows and polished mahogany four-poster bed looked borrowed.

Sunlight lay across a room I had not called home since I chose Julian.

Someone knocked. “Chloe?”

Alexander Sterling stood at the door with a tray. His family had been allied with the Vances for years, though I had rarely seen him since leaving home.

He wore a plain cashmere sweater and carried herbal tea with a dish of my favorite macarons.

“Your father told me what happened.” He set the tray on the nightstand. “A top cardiac specialist is on the way. We'll get you taken care of.”

I wrapped both hands around the warm cup. Alexander had brought a specialist without asking what the delay would cost the company. Julian would have asked when I could get back to the code.

That afternoon, my father joined me in the library and placed a tablet on the table. “All financial ties to Thorne Tech have been severed. He's on his own.”

He swiped to an official confirmation.

[Special Guest Speaker Invitation: Global Tech Summit.]

My name appeared at the top. Julian had been trying to get into that summit.

With the credit lines gone and investors already nervous, he needed a major investor there to keep Thorne Tech alive.

The first name on the sponsor list shone in gold type: *Vance Conglomerate*.

I took a slow sip of tea.