Chapter 2

The next evening was a dinner party at our apartment. A small gathering of our shared social circle. People who had known me, Chloe, and Liam for years. It was supposed to be a celebration for my initial success with Harmony. It quickly became The Chloe Show.

She sat on the arm of Liam' s chair, a glass of wine in her hand, captivating everyone with stories of her travels. She wore a dress that was a little too low-cut, laughed a little too loudly, and touched Liam' s shoulder a little too often.

"Honestly, Ava is the genius, but she' s so in her head sometimes," Chloe said, gesturing towards me with her glass. I was sitting on the opposite couch, trying to merge with the cushions. "I have to practically drag the brilliant ideas out of her. She gets so stuck on the tiny details, she forgets the big picture."

A few people chuckled. It was framed as a loving jab between old friends, but it was a carefully aimed shot. It painted me as a socially inept technician and her as the visionary.

Mark, a friend from college, looked at me. "Is that true, Ava? You holding out on the good stuff?"

I forced a tight smile. "I just focus on making sure the code works."

"See?" Chloe laughed, a tinkling sound that grated on my nerves. "All about the code. Someone has to be the heart, the soul. That' s where a good partnership comes in." She winked at Liam.

My hands clenched in my lap. I could feel the gazes of everyone in the room, a mix of pity and amusement. I was losing them. She was rewriting our history in real-time, and they were buying it.

Liam finally seemed to notice my rigid posture. He cleared his throat.

"Well, Ava' s work speaks for itself. Harmony is revolutionary."

It was a defense, but it was weak. His tone was placating, as if he were trying to manage two squabbling children. He wasn' t correcting her, he was just trying to keep the peace. His body language was all wrong. He was leaning towards Chloe, his posture open and receptive to her, while I was an island on the other side of the room. He was trying to have it both ways, and it was excruciating to watch.

Chloe, sensing his weak defense was her opportunity, pressed her advantage. She stood up and walked over to the Harmony console.

"Let me show you guys what I mean," she said, her voice full of excitement. She picked up the user interface tablet. "Harmony is all about personalization, right, Ava? It learns you. Your moods, your needs."

She started tapping on the screen, her back to me.

"Chloe, don' t," I said, my voice sharper than I intended. "The guest profile has limited functions."

"Oh, don' t be silly," she said, waving a dismissive hand. "Liam, what' s the admin password? I want to show them the deep-dive features."

My blood ran cold.

"No," I said, standing up. "You can' t. That' s the core code access, Chloe. It' s not a toy."

She turned to me, her face a mask of wounded innocence. "Ava, I' m just trying to help. You' re always so hesitant to show off your best work. I' m trying to hype you up!"

She turned back to Liam, her eyes wide and pleading. "Liam, tell her it' s okay. We' re all friends here."

All eyes were on Liam. He looked from me to Chloe, a trapped expression on his face.

"Ava, it' s just for a second," he said, his voice low and strained. "What' s the harm?"

The harm? The harm was everything. It was my intellectual property. It was the security of my entire project. It was the boundary she was gleefully stomping all over.

While they were talking, I slipped my hand into my pocket, my fingers finding my phone. I navigated to the terminal app that connected to my home server. My a thumb hovered over the command line.

`EXECUTE: INFLUENCE_ALGORITHM_V.0.1.PY`

I hit enter.

The familiar text appeared on my phone' s screen.

`ANALYZING PREREQUISITES...`

`CURRENT EMOTIONAL TRAUMA: LEVEL 4.`

`THRESHOLD NOT MET. INITIATING PARTIAL BACKGROUND PROCESS. ESTIMATED TIME TO FULL ACTIVATION: 48:00:00.`

A forty-eight-hour delay. My heart hammered against my ribs. I was on my own. For now.

Just as Liam was about to cave and give Chloe the password, a small voice piped up from the hallway.

"The floor is lava!"

Leo came running into the living room, jumping from a rug to a pillow, his face serious.

"You can' t touch the blue carpet! It' s super hot lava!"

He scrambled onto the couch next to me, then pointed a dramatic finger at Chloe, who was standing right in the middle of the large blue area rug.

"You' re in the lava! You' re melting!" he yelled.

Chloe froze, the tablet in her hands. She looked down at the rug, then back at Leo, her perfect smile faltering.

"Leo, honey, the adults are talking," she said, her voice tight.

"You' re turning into a skeleton!" Leo continued, undeterred. He made a sizzling sound. "Pssssshhhhhh."

Mark and another friend stifled a laugh. The tension in the room broke, replaced by a slightly awkward amusement. Chloe' s performance was ruined. She was no longer the charismatic visionary, she was a woman being told she was melting into a skeleton by a five-year-old.

She put the tablet down on the coffee table with a sharp click, her face flushed with annoyance.

"Really, Ava," she hissed under her breath, just loud enough for me to hear. "Can' t you control your child?"

Liam, however, didn' t find it amusing. He stood up and walked over to Leo. His face was stern.

"Leo, that' s enough. Apologize to Chloe."

My protective instincts flared up. "Liam, he' s just playing."

"He' s being disruptive," Liam snapped. "This is an important night for you, and he' s making a scene."

The irony was staggering. He was blaming my son for disrupting a scene Chloe had created.

"I don' t want to apologize," Leo said, his lower lip trembling as he looked at Chloe. "She' s a mean witch."

That was it. The unfiltered truth, out in the open. The room went dead silent. Chloe' s face went from flushed pink to a blotchy, furious red. Liam looked horrified.

Before anyone could react, Leo did something else. He pointed at Chloe' s designer handbag, which was sitting on a chair.

"And she' s a liar," he said, his voice ringing with childish certainty. He scrambled off the couch, ran to the bag, and pulled out a small, familiar object. It was a silver USB drive with the logo of Liam' s company on it.

A USB drive I had given to Liam just that morning, containing the full Harmony presentation deck for the board meeting.

"She took this from Daddy' s desk," Leo announced, holding it up for everyone to see. "I saw her."

The air crackled. Every eye in the room swiveled from the USB drive in Leo' s hand to Chloe' s face. Her mask of charm shattered completely, revealing the ugly, panicked greed beneath. She had been planning to steal it all along.