Chapter 3

Now that Dexter was officially on board and the handover was signed, I was completely free to leave.

Chloe glanced between Dexter and me, putting on a sweet, manipulative tone.

"You know, Lucas, you really don't have to go. With both you and Dexter by my side as my two pillars, our company would be unstoppable!"

Dexter's face instantly darkened at her words.

He clearly hated hearing that.

I chimed in immediately without missing a beat.

"How could I ever compare to Mr. Hayes? He's an elite talent who flew back from overseas just to rescue your company."

"Besides, my old methods are completely obsolete anyway."

Dexter was thrilled by my flattering remarks and beamed with arrogant pride.

"See? Exactly what I said! Your outdated methods were abandoned in Silicon Valley years ago!"

"You wouldn't be able to keep up with what we're building now anyway!"

He clapped a heavy hand onto my shoulder.

"Tell you what, since today is your last day, I'll take you out to a fancy steakhouse for a farewell dinner!"

"No thanks, I have urgent plans."

I had zero interest in sharing a table with those two clowns.

In the near future, they would not even be worthy of breathing the same air as me.

As I gathered my personal belongings, my teammates and colleagues came over to say their goodbyes, following me all the way down to the lobby.

"Lucas, where are you going next? I don't think I can stand working here much longer. I want to work under you."

"Yeah, boss, once your new firm is up and running, let us know! We'll rebuild from scratch with you!"

"I don't trust this Dexter guy for a second. He just wiped out two weeks of my clean data with his stupid script!"

I gave them a confident smile.

"Hang in there. Give me three months, and I promise I'll bring every single one of you over to my new firm."

My promise ignited a spark of pure excitement in their eyes.

I was not blowing smoke.

Knowing Chloe's ruthless habit of burning bridges, things were bound to implode fast.

After my rebirth, I chose to walk out immediately, leaving the testing unfinished.

She made the fatal mistake of letting me walk away without paying my severance or equity.

I was a founding pillar who built her empire from dust, yet she cheated me out of everything.

By doing that, Chloe had officially slit her own corporate throat.

As soon as I got back to my apartment, I started calling all my old business contacts.

Thanks to Chloe's arrogant oversight, she had never even made me sign a non-compete agreement!

That meant I was legally free to dive straight back into our niche.

Even fate was on my side.

The enterprise clients trusted me implicitly.

When they heard I had left Chloe's agency to launch my own firm, they congratulated me enthusiastically, with several offering early angel funding on the spot.

It was a dream start.

Perhaps my rapid moves made too much noise, because word quickly reached Chloe's ears.

When I returned home from a dinner meeting with investors, I found her waiting impatiently outside my apartment building.

Gone was her usual facade of gentle sweetness.

Instead, she looked utterly furious, her face contorted with rage.

"Lucas! You owe me an explanation! What the hell do you think you're doing behind my back?"

I shrugged casually.

"Whatever I'm doing has nothing to do with you, does it?"

"What did you just say?"

I chuckled at her outrage.

"Can't you hear properly? We're done. Who the hell do you think you are, trying to boss me around?"

Chloe clearly did not expect me, a man who used to bend over backward for her every whim, to treat her like absolute garbage now.

Humiliated and desperate, she blocked my path to the lobby door.

"Lucas, are you actively trying to destroy me? Those clients already called me! I don't care if you start a new company, but you cannot steal my clients!"

I looked down at her with pure disgust.

"Your clients? Chloe, do you really have the nerve to claim them as yours?"

"Get the hell out of my face."

Livid, Chloe grabbed my arm tightly.

"You're not walking away from me!"

When I shoved her away, she suddenly lunged forward and grabbed me in a tight embrace.

I threw her off with force.

Seeing that I refused to yield, her frantic expression shifted into a sinister sneer.

She abruptly ripped the collar of her own blouse wide open.

I stood there, completely stunned.

The next second, she screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Help! Somebody help me! He's attacking me!"