Chapter 3 - The Stolen File
Chloe's accusation hit the room like a physical shockwave.
Nicholas stared at his new wife with utter confusion, completely forgetting about his own termination.
"Chloe, what are you talking about?" Nicholas asked, reaching out for her hand.
She swatted his hand away with a look of pure disgust.
"Oh, please, Nicholas, I only married you to get access to your sister's encrypted servers," she sneered.
The heavy oak doors of the ballroom swung open again, and a man in a sharp silver suit walked in.
It was Julian Vance, the ruthless CEO of a rival tech conglomerate and Emmett's biggest competitor.
"Thank you for securing the drive, Chloe," Julian said as he confidently approached the kids' table.
Julian turned to face the crowd, holding his hands up like a victorious politician.
"Jenna didn't write a single word of those brilliant speeches," Julian announced theatrically.
He pointed a manicured finger directly at my face.
"My proprietary artificial intelligence software wrote them, and she hacked our servers to steal the credit."
The board members and investors began muttering anxiously, wondering if Emmett's entire reputation was built on stolen tech.
Emmett looked down at me, his jaw clenched so tightly that a muscle twitched in his cheek.
"Jenna, tell me right now that he is lying," Emmett whispered, a hint of doubt finally creeping into his voice.
I did not panic, even as my parents looked at me with deep, familiar disappointment.
"Of course he is lying," I said loudly, standing up to face the rival billionaire.
Julian laughed cruelly and plugged Chloe's flash drive into a tablet he was holding.
"This drive contains the digital footprints proving you accessed our AI mainframe every single night," Julian smirked.
He tapped the screen to project the evidence onto the ballroom's massive media wall.
Instead of lines of code, the giant screen suddenly displayed a live security feed of a dark hotel room.
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"Wait, what is this?" Julian gasped, frantically tapping the tablet screen to turn it off.
The video clearly showed Chloe and Julian passionately kissing on a hotel bed, completely naked.
