His Intern Kissed Him, So I Destroyed His Company Chapter 09

His Intern Kissed Him, So I Destroyed His Company Chapter 09

“I don’t owe you anything anymore.”

I tossed the tissue into the trash can beside me.

“You willingly gave up the company’s most important technology and its last chance for a fraud who knew how to stroke your ego.”

“Now that you’ve lost every asset you had, you’ve come back expecting me to carry the consequences for you all over again?”

I looked at his face, now completely drained of color.

“It’s too late.”

I did not raise my voice.

But those few words made him understand that I would never go back.

Ethan’s knees buckled, and he sank onto the steps outside the hotel.

Alexander raised a hand and called over hotel security.

“This man is harassing us. Please escort him away.”

I did not look at Ethan again. I turned and walked toward the car parked at the curb.

As the door closed, I saw through the rearview mirror that the security guards were helping him off the ground.

He did not resist. He stood motionless, staring after the car.

“Is it over?”

Alexander sat in the passenger seat, fastened his seat belt, and asked calmly.

“It’s over.”

I started the car and merged into the heavy evening traffic.

After that day, I never saw Ethan again.

I only heard occasional updates about him through industry circles.

Unable to repay his enormous debts, the court held him personally liable for them, and his credit was destroyed.

His parents sold the house they had planned to live in after retirement to help pay off part of what he owed.

The three of them eventually moved into a basement unit in an old apartment building on the outskirts of the city.

The CEO who had once ordered everyone around now worked on an electronics assembly line in the suburbs, paid by the piece and putting in more than ten hours a day just to survive.

As for Sophia, who had run off with the money, police arrested her as she prepared to flee to another state on suspicion of contract fraud and misappropriation of company funds.

She would face a lengthy criminal trial and possible imprisonment.

A year passed.

Nova Technologies’ new system had captured seventy percent of the North American market in its category.

The company successfully went public on Nasdaq.

As the holder of the core technology and a technical partner, the value of my shares increased several hundredfold overnight.

At the listing celebration gala, lights flooded the entire ballroom.

Wearing a custom gown with clean, understated lines, I stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows and looked out over Seattle’s glittering night skyline.

“Ms. Carter, the interview is about to begin.”

My assistant walked over and spoke quietly.

I nodded and turned toward the interview area that had already been set up.

A financial news reporter and camera crew were already waiting.

“Ms. Carter, we understand that you once spent five years working for a startup but never received the recognition you deserved.”

The reporter smiled before asking her question.

“What made you walk away, and what led to your success at Nova Technologies?”

I looked into the camera, my expression calm.

“Because I finally learned one thing.”

I paused for a moment.

“Never waste all your time and talent on people who don’t respect you.”

“You only find where you truly belong after walking away from people who treat your work as free labor.”

The interview was broadcast live online.

In a dim basement apartment on the edge of the city, Ethan sat at a plastic table covered with electronic parts, assembling the same small pieces over and over.

A secondhand phone with a cracked screen sat beside him, streaming the interview.

As he watched the calm, confident woman on the screen command the respect of everyone around her, his hand froze.

A sharp metal component sliced open his finger.

A bead of blood welled up and fell onto the cheap plastic board.

He seemed not to feel the pain at all. He only stared at me on the screen, unable to look away.

He remembered five years earlier, when we had lived in a tiny apartment and survived on microwave meals.

Back then, I had pointed to the newly written lines of code on my computer and told him:

“Ethan, one day, I’ll make you one of the most respected CEOs in the tech industry.”

I truly had given that company the chance to make that future real.

But now, my career and achievements had nothing to do with him.

At last, the weight of his regret crushed him.

He covered his face and sobbed in despair in that cramped, freezing basement.

If only he had never let Sophia touch the core code.

If only he had not stood by while his father tried to force me to drink that glass of liquor.

If only he had ever truly respected everything I had done.

The man standing beside the woman the entire industry now admired should have been him.

But he could no longer change the past.

He would never be given a second chance.