His Intern Kissed Him, So I Destroyed His Company Chapter 02

His Intern Kissed Him, So I Destroyed His Company Chapter 02

She made no attempt to hide the challenge in her eyes.

I stood there and took a deep breath before turning around and returning to my office.

Half an hour later, Ethan’s secretary knocked and came in.

“Ms. Carter, Mr. Walker wants the master encryption key for the core system.”

I looked up at her.

“Why?”

She awkwardly avoided my gaze.

“Mr. Walker said Sophia thinks the current encryption process is too complicated and is getting in the way of cross-department collaboration.”

“She plans to replace it with something simpler.”

An intern who could not even read code wanted to redesign the core system I was responsible for.

I stood and headed straight for the CEO’s office.

When I pushed open the door, Sophia was sitting in Ethan’s chair, holding the mug he always used.

Ethan leaned over behind her, his palm covering her hand on the mouse as he pressed close and showed her how to access the backend data.

Their bodies were nearly pressed together.

When he heard the door open, Ethan did not even look up.

“Do you know how to knock?”

“Did you bring the key?”

I walked over to the desk and stared at them without expression.

“The core database contains all our users’ private data and all of the company’s patent-protected technology.”

“You expect me to hand full access to an intern who just started here?”

Ethan straightened up, his impatience obvious.

“Sophia is more innovative than you are.”

“That outdated encryption system of yours should have been replaced ages ago.”

“Erin, stop acting as if this company would collapse without you.”

Sophia set down the mug and sighed, deliberately acting as though I had hurt her.

“Erin, I know you don’t trust me.”

“I’m honestly just trying to make the company more efficient. You can’t drag your personal feelings into work just because Ethan values my ideas.”

“Personal feelings?”

I looked at her manufactured innocence and laughed.

“You can’t even put together a basic spreadsheet. Do you know what RSA is?”

“Do you understand layered data isolation or access-control auditing?”

“What does keeping you away from the core code have to do with my personal feelings?”

Sophia flushed bright red.

She bit her lip, tears quickly filling her eyes as she turned to Ethan.

“Ethan, I was only trying to help.”

“Oh my God, am I really that useless? Maybe I don’t deserve to be here at all.”

Ethan slammed his hand on the desk and glared at me.

“Erin, is throwing technical terms at a new hire the only thing you’re good at?”

“Sophia stayed late three nights in a row to finish her proposal.”

“What about you?”

“You walk out the second the workday ends. Do you even care about this company?”

Worked late three nights in a row?

I did not even bother answering.

The security footage from those three nights clearly showed Sophia playing video games on the company’s high-end computer the entire time.

Ethan had sat beside her the entire time, eating pizza while the two of them laughed together.

Meanwhile, my ulcer had flared up. I spent those same three nights in my apartment, swallowing medication and working through the pain to patch the system’s security vulnerabilities.

Ethan had not sent me a single message asking how I was feeling.

As I looked at the anger on his face, the last shred of hope I had left in him died.

“Ethan, I’m not handing over the master key.”

“Under our partnership agreement, I have sole authority over engineering and R&D.”

“You have no right to go around me and demand access to the core system.”

Ethan gave me a contemptuous smile, clearly not taking my words seriously.

He came around the desk, stopped in front of me, and jabbed a finger into my shoulder.

“The partnership agreement?”

“Erin, have you spent so much time in front of a computer that you’ve forgotten your place here?”

“How much did you contribute when we incorporated the company?”

“Eighty thousand dollars.”

“Even that money came from a loan my parents arranged for you.”

“If I hadn’t spent the past five years bringing in clients and investors, do you think those few lines of code would have earned a single cent?”

He said it as if my five years of work had never existed.