Chapter 29:
“When did you…?” Arthur was stunned. He looked at his granddaughter, really seeing her for the first time since she’d returned. She wasn’t the broken girl Sterling had discarded. She was a shark.
“I have a plan, Grandpa. Trust me.”
Scene Shift: Pulse Interactive.
The office was buzzing. The energy was electric. For the first time in months, people were smiling. The coffee machine was working. The air conditioning was on.
But mostly, the server capacity had been tripled overnight.
Chloe Miller stood by the water cooler, holding a latte. She was the office gossip, a woman who thrived on others’ misery. She looked annoyed that everyone was happy.
“Victor must have sold his soul to a loan shark,” Chloe sneered to Liam, a junior developer. “There’s no way we got legitimate funding. We’re probably laundering money for the cartel.”
The glass doors opened.
Aurora walked in. Jones trailed a few steps behind her, looking like a menacing shadow in a dark suit.
She wasn’t wearing her usual oversized hoodie. She was wearing a sharp, tailored blazer—charcoal grey—over a crisp white shirt. Her jeans were dark and fitted. She wore boots that clicked with authority on the concrete floor.
Chloe blinked. She stepped into the aisle, blocking Aurora’s path. Old habits died hard.
“Delivery is at the back,” Chloe said, smirking. “And grab me a refill on your way out. Oat milk.”
Aurora didn’t stop. She didn’t slow down. She simply stepped around Chloe as if she were a traffic cone. She didn’t even make eye contact.
“Excuse me!” Chloe shouted, turning around. “I’m talking to you!”
Jones stepped in front of Chloe, blocking her path with his massive frame. He didn’t say a word. He just stared at her until she shrank back against the water cooler.
gⲁ𝗅𝗇𝗈ν𝖊𝗅𝘀.𝗰𝗈𝗺 – 𝗟𝗲𝗚𝗜𝗧 𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗧
Aurora kept walking straight toward the CEO’s office.
Chloe chased her with her eyes. “You can’t go in there! Victor is in a strategy meeting! You’ll get fired!”
Aurora reached the door. She didn’t knock. She opened it.
Victor King looked up from his desk. When he saw Aurora, he didn’t yell. He didn’t ask her to leave.
He stood up. He smiled broadly.
“Come in, Aurora,” Victor said warmly. “We were waiting for you.”
Chloe froze in the hallway. Her mouth dropped open. She looked at Liam, who shrugged.
“Aurora?” Chloe whispered. “Who is she? Why does she have a bodyguard?”
Inside the office, the door clicked shut, cutting off the noise.
Victor turned the monitor around. “Financials are green. We have runway for eighteen months.”
Aurora glanced at the charts. She nodded. “Good. Launch ‘Apex Ascendant’ beta next week.”
Victor hesitated. “Next week? That’s too soon. The QA isn’t finished. And Sterling is launching ‘Celestial Dominion’ in ten days. If we launch early, we might be buggy.”
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