“When is the wedding?” I asked, keeping my voice utterly flat.
“April,” Chloe murmured, looking down. “I’m sorry, Evie. I tried to fight it.”
My father set his glass down. “Julian is just a better fit for Chloe, Evelyn. You’ve always cared more about your lab work than building a traditional family anyway. That’s not a criticism, just a fact.”
I slowly pulled off the engagement ring Julian had given me fourteen months ago and set it on the entryway table.
“Then none of you will have to worry about me anymore.”
“Don’t be dramatic,” Julian snapped. “We can talk about this like adults.”
“I’m just here for something I left behind.”
I walked upstairs, grabbed the USB drive from my old desk, and glanced at a framed family photo on the nightstand. Chloe was positioned right in the center. I was tucked into the back corner.
As always.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs, my mother tried to touch my arm. “Remember that this family gave you everything, Evelyn.”
“And I gave this family far more than you’ll ever realize.”
I walked out the door.
A rideshare was already waiting at the curb to take me to the airport. On Monday, my new position in Chicago would begin. Nobody in that house knew I had spent the last six months preparing my complete exit from Vance Biomedical, my father’s firm.
Nobody knew that eleven of the fourteen core technologies keeping Vance Biomedical solvent were documented under my sole name.
And nobody knew that I had never signed a single legal assignment of intellectual property over to the company.
As the car pulled away toward the highway, my phone began to vibrate violently.
I didn’t answer.
They couldn’t possibly fathom what they had just lost. And I had no idea what kind of disaster was about to unfold because of their greed.