4.
“Ethan, the housekeeper said you haven’t
been home for days. Where have you been?”
Brittany’s voice sounded… almost soft.
It brought a lump to my throat.
“Brittany, we’re divorced. It’s none of your
business where I go.”
I heard Brittany’s breath catch on the other
end, and her voice sounded almost panicked.
“What? What are you talking about? Come
home right now. We can go on a trip.”
I frowned. Brittany always did this, never
caring about how I felt.
If I got mad, she’d offer to take me on a trip.
She knew I loved seeing new places.
But what she didn’t know was that I wanted
to see those places with her.
She’d never get it.
“Brittany, don’t say things like that. Please
just file the divorce papers.”
I didn’t understand. Why was she still
bothering me?
Was I just a toy to her?
Give me attention when she was bored, then
throw me away when she was done?
Brittany was silent for a moment.
“You really want a divorce?”
“I do.”
“Ethan, what is wrong with you? You messed
up. Chad and I worked so hard to protect you.
How can you pretend you’re the victim?”
く
“Fine. If you want a divorce, come to the
office tomorrow. Then I’ll sign the papers.”
I couldn’t sleep all night. In the morning, I
went to the office.
I wasn’t expecting it, but the company was
holding a press conference. The second I
walked in, the reporters swarmed me.
“Mr. Hayes, ColdTech was built on your work,
and you’re one of the best programmers in
the industry. Why would you make such a
rookie mistake?”
“Mr. Hayes, there are rumors you were
working with our competitors, selling our
source code. What’s your response?”
The repertoro
<
The reporters were all in my face.
I looked around and saw all my coworkers.
Their eyes were full of hate.
Someone shouted.
“That’s the scumbag who sold out our
company! Because of him, we all lost our
bonuses and half our pay!”
“Scumbag! How dare you come back here?”
The voices were getting louder, filling me with
bitterness.
I was the one who made them money, helped
them get better pay.
I’d worked side–by–side with them for years.
All it took was a few lies from Chad to wipe
all that away.
But I just wanted to get the divorce over with.
Finally, Brittany and Chad came out.
She acted like she didn’t even see me,
wrapping her arm around Chad as they
walked to the stage.
All the men in the room had to stop and look
at how perfect she was.
The reporter handed the microphone to
Brittany, but she passed it to Chad.
“I’ll take it from here,” he said.
“We wanted to be nice and give Mr. Hayes a
く
chance to get his life back on track.
“But Mr. Hayes has pushed us too far. We
have no choice but to tell the truth.”
“The truth is, Mr. Hayes abused his power
and sold our source code to the competition.
After he was caught, he destroyed the
company’s server in an attempt to hide his
tracks. If I hadn’t stepped in, the company
would have gone bankrupt.”
The coworkers couldn’t hold back.
“Lock him up!”
“If the law wasn’t protecting you, we’d kill you
right now!”
They charged at me. Just when I thought
they’d tear me apart, an old voice echoed
through the room.
“That’s not the truth. I have proof.”
That old voice…
Mr. Henderson.