The head of legal, a sharp woman named Priya, picked up the tablet and raised an eyebrow at me. I nodded once. She tapped the screen and the wall monitor lit up with a timestamped folder: every line of code, every commit, every patent filing — all dated eighteen months before Brent had even met my sister. Then I opened my phone and played a voice memo. Brent’s own voice filled the room. ‘Look, I don’t know anything about coding, but once Megan signs the company over, you and me split forty-sixty, yeah? She’s too soft to fight it.’ The man on the other end of that call? Mr. Halverson, sitting three chairs down, one of our lead investors. He’d recorded the call himself the moment Brent approached him last week and forwarded it to me. The room went silent. Brent’s face drained of color. ‘That — that’s edited, that’s not—’ Mr. Halverson stood up slowly. ‘I have the original on my device, son. And a signed affidavit.’ The CEO turned to security, but I raised my hand. ‘Wait. One more thing.’ I looked at Brent. ‘Claire called me this morning. She found the second phone. The one with the messages to your assistant Bethany. She’s already at my attorney’s office.’ Brent’s knees actually buckled. He gripped the edge of the table. Priya slid a folder toward him. ‘Mr. Carter, this is a cease and desist, a defamation notice, and a restraining order barring you from any Lumen Health property. Sign at the tabs or we proceed criminally for attempted corporate fraud.’ Security walked him out past the same employees he’d tried to humiliate me in front of. As the elevator doors closed on his stunned face, the CEO turned to me and smiled. ‘Megan. About that VP of Engineering offer we discussed — I think it’s time we made it official.’ I picked up my tablet, straightened my blazer, and finally let myself smile. Claire texted me twenty minutes later: ‘Thank you. I’m free.’ That was the only win that mattered.
