We fell into a routine without discussing it. Late evenings bent over patent filings spread across the dining table. Early mornings reviewing depositions while the city woke up forty-two floors below. Dominic would arrive with coffee—black for him, cream and sugar for me, though I'd never told him how I took it. He just knew.
He disagreed with me openly. That was new.
"You're being too conservative," he said one night, tapping a paragraph in Sandra's proposed filing. "This language gives them an out. You need to close the door completely."
I read the section again. He was right. I crossed out three lines and rewrote them. He watched without comment, then nodded once and moved to the next page.
When I proved him wrong—which happened often enough that I started keeping count—he conceded without ego. No defensiveness. No backtracking. Just: "You're right. I missed that."
I wasn't used to that.
He brought food when I forgot to eat. Sandwiches. Soup. Things that didn't require me to stop working. He'd set the plate beside my notebook and leave without asking if I was hungry. I always was.
I noticed things about him. Small things. He read physical books in waiting rooms—never his phone, never a tablet. His office was immaculate. No personal photographs. No mementos. Just clean surfaces and organized files. Except for one drawer in his desk. The bottom left. It stayed closed. I didn't ask about it.
Three weeks into our work together, Sandra called an emergency meeting.
We gathered in Dominic's office. Sandra set her laptop on the conference table and turned the screen toward us.
"The Bell family's accelerating," she said. "They're hosting a gala. The Plaza. Two weeks from tonight. Black-tie. They're billing it as a 'tech innovation showcase,' but the guest list tells the real story—venture capital, media, patent attorneys. They're introducing Lennon as the inventor of the Synapse Interface in front of Manhattan's entire tech elite."
I stared at the screen. The promotional copy was elegant. Aspirational. It described Lennon as a "visionary emerging inventor" who'd spent "years in solitary, private research" developing breakthrough neural interface technology.
I felt my jaw tighten.
"It's a fait accompli strategy," Sandra continued. "Establish social consensus before the courts can rule. Once she's presented to that audience, once the photos are published and the investor conversations begin, the narrative solidifies. Challenging it becomes exponentially harder."
"Can we stop it?" Dominic asked.
"We can file an emergency injunction. Argue irreparable harm, intellectual property theft. It'll slow them down. But injunctions take time, and judges are conservative about restricting speech and public events. We might not get a ruling before the gala happens."
I pressed my fingertips against the table's edge. Counted. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi.
"There's another option," I said.
Sandra looked at me. Dominic went very still.
"I attend," I said. "I wait until Lennon takes the stage. I wait until someone asks her a technical question she can't answer. And then I walk up there and demonstrate the technology myself. In front of every person they invited to legitimize the theft."
Silence.
Sandra closed her laptop slowly. "That's not a legal strategy. That's a public execution."
"Yes," I said.
"They'll have security. They'll try to remove you."
"Dominic will be with me. They won't remove him."
Dominic's gaze hadn't left my face. "Are you sure?"
"I built the Synapse Interface in the dark," I said. "I can operate it blindfolded. Lennon memorized a script. The difference will be obvious."
Sandra was quiet for a long moment. Then she opened a new document on her laptop.
"Tell me what you need to wear," she said.
---
The next two weeks moved fast. Sandra's team prepared documentation—every patent filing, every dated notebook entry, every piece of evidence that proved sole authorship. Dominic's intelligence network tracked Lennon's preparation. She'd hired a technical consultant. She was spending six hours a day memorizing talking points about neural mapping and bioelectric calibration. She practiced her delivery in front of mirrors.
I didn't practice. I didn't need to.
I spent the time testing the Synapse Interface prototype. Running diagnostics. Making sure every component was flawless. I hadn't touched it in months—not since Chase had locked it in our penthouse safe, claiming he wanted to "protect" it. Dominic's team had retrieved it the same day I moved into the suite.
I held it now in my hands. The device was small. Elegant. Two neural sensors connected by a slim processing unit. I'd built it by hand in the dark, soldering circuits by touch, testing conductivity with my fingertips.
It was the most honest thing I'd ever made.
The night before the gala, I stood at the window. The city lights stretched out below. I could see The Plaza from here—a bright block of gold and white on the edge of Central Park.
Dominic appeared beside me. He didn't say anything. Just stood there, looking at the same view.
"I'm not nervous," I said.
"I know."
"I'm angry."
"I know that too."
I glanced at him. His profile was sharp against the window's reflection. "What happens after?"
"After you take back what's yours?"
"Yes."
He was quiet for a moment. Then: "Whatever you want to happen."
I pressed my fingertips against the glass. The city glittered. Indifferent. Beautiful.
"I want them to know they lost," I said.
He nodded once. "They will."
I believed him.
