AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The company is entering a golden age of security!” Mr. Evans proclaimed, rubbing his hands together. “We can’t wait for another second.” He closed the conference room door with a loudbangbefore nearly skipping to the head of the table. He clicked on the projector, and the white screen was suddenly filled with a long stream of code.
Elizabeth looked at it and shook her head, blinking in disbelief.
Her eyes had to be lying. There was no wayheralgorithm was up there for everyone to see.
Only one person in the whole world knew what she was working on, and Jordan would never betray her … not like this.
She looked across the room to spot Mr. Evans waving her boyfriend forward. She tried to catch Jordan’s eyes, but he was purposefully avoiding her. His cheeks were flushed, and he stared at a spot at the back of the room as Mr. Evans said, “Do you see? This algorithm is a revolutionary nugget of gold. It will not only help keep our own servers safer, but we can use it to save our clients …” Mr. Evans continued explaining what the algorithm did, but Elizabeth stopped listening.
Sheknewwhat it did.
She had created it.
“We have none other than Jordan Darling to thank for this company-saving, revolutionary algorithm,” Mr. Evans beamed, tapping Jordan’s back with pride.
It wasn’t until Mr. Evans started to clap that Elizabeth’s brain caught up.
While every other company employee began to give Jordan a standing ovation, Elizabeth remained glued to her seat. Her legs refused to work and stand, and her mind reeled.
There was no way in hell she would stand and cheer for this. She was too busy grappling with the truth that her boyfriend had stolen her hard work and passed it off as his own.
Her throat was too dry to form a word. She was frozen in anger and confusion, unable to move until everyone left the conference room.
Even Jordan walked by her, but he was too busy getting taps on the back and congratulations to stop and explain what had just happened.
It was only when the timer for the overhead lights shut them off that Elizabeth was shaken from her stupor.
It had to be a mistake.
She went to Jordan’s office, but he wasn’t there. She tried to call him, but it went straight to voicemail.
With each passing second, she started to fear that Jordan had done this on purpose. After all, he had been really strange that morning. Was this why? He knew what was coming? That was too terrible. It just couldn’t be …
There was only one way to know for sure.
Elizabeth took all of her confidence and courage and marched right into Mr. Evans’s office to tell him of the confusion. Thetheftof her work.
“Liz,” Mr. Evans drawled.
She didn’t even care that he called her by the wrong name. There were more important things to deal with right now. “Mr. Evans, I need to tell you something about this new algorithm.”
The boss smiled at her in a strange way. Was that pity on his face? Why? “Liz, don’t do this,” he sighed. “Keep your dignity.”
She shook her head, confused. “What?”
Mr. Evans sighed. “Breakups are hard. I understand that. Well,” he chuckled. “I don’t. No woman has ever been silly enough to leave me. I usually have to pry them off me, but I can sympathize. Jordan is a good man with a bright future ahead of him. Don’t ruin your reputation by going after him now that he’s moved on.”
Elizabeth blinked at him in shock. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”
Mr. Evans sighed again, this time with more exasperation than sympathy. “Jordan warned me that he left you. He was very gentle about all of it. He said that you were a bit fragile since the breakup and that you would claim he had stolen the algorithm from you. No one likes a crazy ex-girlfriend.”
Elizabeth opened her mouth and closed it again.
Jordan hadn’t left her. Had he? Was that a breakup this morning when he didn’t kiss her goodbye? Just what in the hell was going on in her life? Before she could formulate any sort of question, Mr. Evans went on.
“Jordan told me this would be your plan. Youdidwarn him you would do this.”
It was all news to her.
