Chapter1

"You two in the middle, step a little closer," the photographer called out.

Daniel's hand rested on my shoulder, but a second later, he shoved me hard to the side.

I froze.

He turned and pulled Sophia right into the center position.

"Daniel! That's my spot!"

"Emma, Sophia is an Ivy League grad. Wall Street eats up this elite facade. Investors will only open their wallets if she's standing there."

My mind went completely blank. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened.

When I held our core algorithm patent and wanted to add my name, he didn't even look up. "You don't have an overseas degree. If we put your name on it, investors will frown."

When Sophia crippled the financial system with bugs, he canceled an entire executive meeting to stay up all night with her.

When I said I wanted to attend an industry summit to broaden my professional horizons, he frowned. "You wouldn't understand a word anyway, don't waste your time."

Yet, when Sophia failed to hit her quarterly metrics, he pushed back a board meeting and spent an entire week with her, going through every single slide word by word.

The photographer laughed playfully. "Are you two a couple? This chemistry is incredible—the golden duo of Silicon Valley."

Daniel turned to look at Sophia. "We're the most perfectly in-tune soulmates."

Camera shutters fired in a frenzy. Sophia smiled, and someone blew a loud whistle.

I stood completely outside the frame, my hand tightly clutching the employee badge Daniel had handwritten for me. Back then, he had smiled and promised that once the company went public, he would hang it in the most prominent spot in his office.

But it turned out that the place beside him was never reserved for me.

And now, I didn't dare to wish for it anymore.

---

I stared down at the Employee 001 badge resting in my palm.

For this photoshoot, I had prepared a tailored suit three weeks in advance and sat through two makeup trials. I genuinely believed this was going to be our shared crowning moment.

I turned and walked over to the lobby trash can. I gripped the card until my knuckles turned white, standing there for a long time before my fingers finally gave way, letting it plummet into the darkness.

"Emma," Raj called out, hurrying after me with a hesitant expression.

"I've been here since day one. I know better than anyone how this company clawed its way up." He paused. "But over the past six months, I've watched you turn into nothing more than Sophia’s assistant. Daniel has changed, and deep down, you know it too."

"No, Raj. You're overthinking it. Daniel is just doing what's best for the company..."

Raj didn't say anything else. He just turned and walked away.

My eyes suddenly burned. I walked away quickly, terrified that someone might see the pathetic devastation in my eyes.

I knew he was telling the absolute truth. Ever since Sophia joined, Daniel's attention had shifted entirely. When I questioned him, he simply claimed that a newcomer needed guidance and that everything would return to normal once the funding round closed.

Foolishly clinging to that hope, I had endured until today.

Just as I rounded the corner, I bumped straight into Daniel and Sophia walking shoulder to shoulder.

Sophia quickened her pace and shoved a beverage into my hands. "Emma, perfect timing! I grabbed a drink for you, figured you hadn't eaten breakfast."

My gaze dropped to the cup in Daniel's hand. The rim of the straw bore a faint ring of lipstick.

And the milkshake I was currently holding was topped with a thick layer of crushed peanuts.

I was severely allergic to peanuts. In all these years, Daniel had never forgotten that fact.

At least, not until today.

I stared at that layer of crushed peanuts. Even breathing became a struggle, as if something sharp was tightly lodged in my throat.

I didn't say a single word. I walked over to a potted plant and poured the entire milkshake into the soil.

Sophia's face instantly twisted into panic as she looked at Daniel.

Daniel furrowed his brows. "Emma, what are you doing? Sophia is the key to our next round of funding. With an attitude like that, how do you think investors will see us?"

I stared dead into his eyes. "I am allergic to peanuts, did you forget?"

Daniel froze for a second. "If it had peanuts, you could have just said so! Did you really have to throw a fit in public just to humiliate her? When did you become so petty!"

"Whatever." His patience vanished. "You just wanted a picture, right? We'll take it now. Are you happy?"

Before I could even respond, he snatched my phone and shoved it into Sophia's hands. He stepped to my side without a shred of intimacy. Before I could even lift my head, the impromptu photoshoot was over, and the phone was tossed carelessly back into my palm.

"Done. I'm going to a meeting with Sophia. You can wait around here, and we'll head home together later."

With that, he took Sophia's hand and headed for the elevators.

I opened my photo gallery. The image was a violent blur, capturing nothing but the floor and a smeared corner of a coat caught in mid-stride.

I let out a broken laugh. Tears rolled down my cheeks, one drop after another, and I didn't even bother reaching up to wipe them away.

What was I still desperately clinging to? It turned out he wasn't even willing to put in the minimal effort to brush me off.

My five-year relationship with Daniel had truly come to a dead end.

Later that afternoon, the company's core system crashed abruptly. I furiously typed out lines of code while fighting a gnawing stomachache. Over the course of the crisis, I sent Daniel over a dozen messages and called him twice.

There were no replies.

By evening, I leaned weakly against my chair. My phone screen suddenly lit up—Sophia had posted a new update with the caption: Thanks to the boss for celebrating this massive deal with me, perfect night. In the corner of the photo, the lens had perfectly captured the side of Daniel’s face and his phone resting on the table.

I stared at that photo for a remarkably long time.

He was never like this before. No matter how messy my code used to be, he would merely smile and say, "A few tweaks and it'll work." Whenever I called him at three in the morning to discuss technical solutions, he never once failed to pick up.

Tears welled up without any warning.

I suddenly realized that the boy who used to love me more than life itself had vanished.

I opened the executives' Slack channel and permanently left the group chat.

Then, I clicked into my pinned five-year message thread with Daniel. My finger hovered over the delete button, trembling violently.

That thread held every trace of our five years of love.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

I blocked him.

I grabbed my bag, pushed open the main doors, and left.