The Divorce Papers Gave Him The Shell And Gave Me The Future Chapter 06

The Divorce Papers Gave Him The Shell And Gave Me The Future Chapter 06

I stood on stage, scanning the audience.

Samuel’s smile had frozen.

Grace’s lips were white. She clutched a water bottle.

Ethan stared straight at the screen, his expression unreadable.

“Live demo complete. Now let’s talk about commercialization.”

New information appeared on the screen.

A comparison chart.

On the left: industry standard performance metrics. On the right: our numbers.

Every category was at least thirty percent higher.

The biggest difference was cost.

Standard system: eighty-five thousand dollars per unit.

Ours: twenty-five thousand.

The audience stirred again.

“Technology isn’t about showing off. It’s about making it accessible.” I said. “Skyline’s mission is to put autonomous driving in every family car. Not just luxury vehicles. Not just toys for the rich.”

“We’ve already signed letters of intent with three major automakers.”

The screen showed three logos.

Ford, General Motors, and Toyota.

Audible gasps.

Those three brands alone made up more than half of the US auto market.

Samuel stood up.

His phone buzzed. He glanced down, and his face went pale.

I guessed Apex’s stock price was dropping.

“Finally.” I took a breath. “I have a question for Mr. Harrison.”

“At your press conference yesterday, you said some people hype up lab experiments for attention. You said real technology takes time to build. That it can’t just be copied outside a platform.”

“So let me ask. Who actually built Apex’s technology?”

A murmur spread through the room. Cameras swung toward Ethan.

His face turned red.

“Skylar—”

“This is Apex Dynamics’ autonomous driving version history from 2018 to 2023.”

The screen filled with a dense timeline.

Behind every version: a list of lead contributors.

Skylar Chase.

Skylar Chase.

Skylar Chase.

Page after page I clicked through.

With each page, the whispers grew louder.

“So tell me, who really left whom?”

Pandemonium broke out.

Ethan shot to his feet.

“Skylar, we can talk about this privately—”

“No.” I cut him off. “We’re doing this here. Now. In front of every reporter in the room.”

His mouth opened, but no words came out.

Suddenly Grace stood up.

“Enough! Skylar, that’s enough!” Her voice was shrill. “You’re just bitter. You’re bitter that Ethan didn’t want you anymore.”

Her eyes were red. She pointed at me.

“The divorce was personal. It had nothing to do with technology. Don’t you see everything Ethan did for Apex?”

“All those years he was out there selling. Getting drunk with clients. And you? You sat in a lab and wrote code. You think that makes you special? Without him, would Apex ever have gone public?”

I looked at her calmly.

“You’re right. Ethan has skills.”

“His skills are sales. PR. Networking. Not technology.”

“And when he stood in front of reporters yesterday and said what he said? He lied.”

“Why does a liar get to speak for an entire industry?”