Demoted to Security Guard The CTO's Billion-Dollar Revenge

I couldn't say no to my fiancée, Olympia Fox. She wanted to work at the company, so I gave her a position as my secretary.

Then she posted a string of photos on social media—photos of me "slacking off" at work.

The caption read:

"Honestly, I don't get it. Miles Gilbert pulls the highest salary in the company and he's constantly showing up late and ducking out early. When he IS at his desk, he's either binging shows or playing video games. I'm his secretary and all I can do is sit there and watch."

"Does nobody actually have to work here?"

"Back where I'm from, taking someone's money and not doing your job is the kind of thing that gets you talked about for years. He has zero shame—and he told me not to tell anyone!"

The post sat quietly for a while. Then the CEO, Thomas Delgado, left the first comment: "This needs a full investigation. We're dealing with this."

Olympia's stunt caught me completely off guard. But it was Thomas's words that set off alarm bells.

The company's IPO was right around the corner. Was he really trying to push me out now, of all times?

But he might have forgotten something. When we first built this company, we cut costs by running the entire business on systems I'd designed from scratch. Not only did I hold the copyright—I was the only person who maintained them.

...

The comment section exploded.

Right below Thomas's reply, Olympia posted a follow-up—a long one.

"Mr. Delgado is absolutely right! I ran the numbers. This past month, Miles didn't show up until 9:30 every single morning and left by 4 in the afternoon."

"His lunch break is two hours, like clockwork. Then he takes a half-hour afternoon coffee break."

"He even disappears to the bathroom for thirty minutes at a time. I'm starting to wonder if he falls asleep in there."

"And when he IS at his desk? It's movies or video games. His actual productive work time? Less than an hour a day!"

Beneath that, coworkers piled on.

"I've been sick of him for ages. Just because he's been here since day one, he thinks he can coast."

"Exactly. The rest of us are killing ourselves while he collects the biggest paycheck and does nothing."

"This guy has no business being our CTO!"

"I stand with Secretary Fox! I stand with Mr. Delgado! Get this parasite out of the company!"

I stared at the screen. Something cold settled in my chest.

Olympia and I were getting married next month. We'd been inseparable—she'd told me she couldn't stand being apart from me, not even for a few hours. That was why I'd brought her on as my secretary.

I never imagined she'd walk through the door and immediately start tearing me apart. It was like she'd become a completely different person.

And Thomas—Thomas was my oldest friend.

Ten years ago, we'd been crammed together in a studio apartment barely two hundred square feet.

He used to say that with his business instincts, he was destined for greatness. Bezos, Zuckerberg—they'd all have to watch their backs. The only thing holding him back was capital. Without money, none of it could get off the ground.

I believed him.

I quit my job without a second thought. Then I took every dollar I'd saved over years of working—a hundred thousand, everything I had—and handed it all to him.

He'd been so fired up that day. He made me a promise: give him ten years. If the company hadn't gone public in a decade, if he couldn't even pay back my initial investment, he'd walk away with nothing. The whole company would be mine.

We'd weathered countless storms over the years. Through all of it, I held onto one belief—as long as we stood together, there wasn't an obstacle we couldn't overcome.

Was he really going to cut me loose right before the IPO?

While my mind was still racing, my phone rang.

It was Thomas.

"Miles. My office. Now."

His voice was so cold he didn't even sound like the Thomas I knew.

I walked into the office.

Olympia was standing beside Thomas, adjusting his tie with an easy familiarity that made my stomach turn.

Thomas cleared his throat.

"Miles, you've seen what's going around on social media. It's not a good look."