Bryon Carter POV:
The phone lay on the rug, its screen dark, but Mark's panicked words echoed in my ears, a chilling, impossible chorus. Half the engineering team... Project Chimera... gone. My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic, desperate bird trapped in a cage. My breath caught in my throat. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing the words away, willing the nightmare to disappear.
"Bryon? What was that noise?" Dorian asked, her voice laced with annoyance. She was still on the couch, flipping through a magazine, oblivious to the impending earthquake. "Can you tell your assistant to be quieter? My head is still pounding."
"Shut up, Dorian," I barked, my voice a raw, jagged sound I barely recognized as my own. "Just shut up!" The sudden venom in my tone startled her. She dropped the magazine, her eyes widening in surprise.
I lunged for the phone, my fingers fumbling. "Mark? Mark, repeat that. Slowly. What did you say? What is gone?"
Mark's voice, though still panicked, was now muted, as if he was trying to keep his voice down. "Bryon, it's true. Almost everyone in product development, the core engineering team, they just walked out. They all submitted their resignations at the same time. And they took all the Project Chimera code, the algorithms, the data. Everything is gone. Our access has been revoked. It's like they vanished into thin air, taking the entire heart of AuraTech with them."
My blood ran cold. My head swam. "No," I whispered, the word a desperate plea. "No, that's impossible. They wouldn't. Hazel... she wouldn't do this. She can't. She's pregnant. She's... she's my wife."
"Bryon, I'm looking at the official resignation letters right now," Mark insisted, his voice heavy with dread. "Signed by everyone. And Hazel Horton's resignation was processed this morning, with a clause that allows her to retain all intellectual property developed under her leadership, including Project Chimera. She's leaving, Bryon. And she's taking her entire team, and their work, with her." He paused for a moment. "She even sent us a picture of the signed documents from her lawyer. It's all legal, Bryon. She planned this."
A gasp tore from my throat. My vision blurred. She planned this. She planned this. The calm, detached look in her eyes at the party. The casual offer of her shares. The chilling mention of "termination." It wasn't a tantrum. It was a perfectly executed, brutal strategic maneuver.
My fingers, trembling, tried to dial Hazel's number again. It rang, once, twice. Then a click. She answered.
"Hazel?" My voice was desperate, pleading, stripped bare of all pride. "Hazel, what are you doing? What is this? My team... the code... Project Chimera! What have you done?"
"Do I need to consult you on my career choices, Bryon?" Her voice was flat, emotionless, like a drone reading a script. It was the voice of a stranger.
"But... but the team! They all left! They said they followed you! And Project Chimera is dead without their code! Without your code! You can't just take everything! This is our company, Hazel! Our company!"
"Our company?" I could almost hear the ghost of a cold smile in her voice. "Bryon, you haven't written a line of code for AuraTech in years. You haven't done any actual product development since we started. You were too busy charming investors and playing CEO. Who do you think was actually building the products? Who do you think was leading the team, mentoring the engineers, solving the complex problems? It was me, Bryon. Always me. They followed me because I earned their loyalty, not because I bought it."
"No! No, you can't do this! AuraTech will collapse without Project Chimera! Without you! Please, Hazel, come back! I'll change! I swear! I'll fire Dorian! I'll do anything! Just come back! Think about us! Think about our future! Think about..." My voice cracked, desperate. I was begging. I was groveling.
"Think about what, Bryon?" Her voice was still icy, but there was a hint of something else now, a chilling curiosity. "My health? My wellbeing? My baby?" There was a pause, a moment of pregnant silence that stretched taut, suffocating the air out of the room. "Is that what you're thinking about, Bryon? My baby?"
"Yes! Yes, of course! Our baby! I'm worried about you, about our child! Where are you, Hazel? Just tell me where you are, and I'll come to you. We can talk this out. I'll make everything right!" I was lying, of course. I didn't care about the baby. I hadn't cared enough to stop cheating. But I needed her back. I needed her to save AuraTech.
"You really want to know where I am, Bryon?" Her voice was a soft whisper now, but it held the weight of a thousand sharpened blades. "I' m at my father's private clinic. I just had the procedure. The termination. The one I mentioned in the documents I sent you."
My mind reeled. "What? What procedure? When?" My brain struggled to process her words, to connect them to the morning. The clinic. The paper. The argument on the street corner.
"This morning, Bryon. Just a few hours ago, actually. Right before I saw you and Dorian, still nursing your hangovers, making out on the street corner like a pair of horny teenagers. And yes, my lawyers have already filed all the necessary paperwork, just to make sure everything is completely above board. No loose ends, Bryon. Just a clean break."
My memories flashed, a horrifying, crystal-clear montage. The crumpled paper, flying from her hand. The confirmation of the procedure. The casual dismissal of her pain. My instant abandonment of her, lying on the ground, for Dorian's fake dizziness. The absolute, unadulterated horror of my actions slammed into me with the force of a physical blow. I had left her, after she had terminated our child, to comfort my mistress. I was a monster.
"You... you killed our baby?" I roared, the horror turning into a savage, desperate rage. "How could you, Hazel? How could you be so cruel? So heartless? That was our child!"
"Our child?" She laughed then, a cold, brittle sound that cut through me. "You didn't care about 'our child' when you were screwing Dorian. You didn't care about 'our child' when you left me bleeding on the street this morning. Don't you dare pretend to care now, Bryon. You lost the right to that the moment you decided Dorian's pleasure was more important than my pain, or our future."
"No! Hazel, please! Don't do this! Please!" I begged, my voice raw, tears streaming down my face.
Click.
The line went dead. She had hung up on me. My hands shook so violently I thought I might drop the phone. My stomach roiled, a wave of nausea hitting me unlike anything I had ever experienced. The reality of what I had lost, what I had destroyed, hit me with crushing force. AuraTech. My team. My future. My wife. My child. All gone. And it was all my fault.
I looked at the phone, then at Dorian, who was staring at me, her face pale, a flicker of fear in her eyes. I hated her. I hated her more than I had ever hated anyone or anything. She had destroyed my life. She had destroyed us.
"Mark," I choked out, my voice still trembling, "I need you to find Dorian Gay. Every single detail. Every transaction, every expense, every email. Dig deep. Find everything. I want her utterly, completely ruined." My voice was a low growl now, a promise of vengeance. "And then, I want you to prepare the papers to have her removed from AuraTech, effective immediately. I'm going to make sure she pays for this."
