Chapter 5 - The Golden Son’s Great Corporate Lie Unravels
Leo stood in the freezing kitchen, shivering in his sweatpants as his mother’s hysterics filled the room.
"What do you mean, Harlow was paying for everything?!" Leo shouted, his voice cracking with indignant fury. "That’s impossible! Harlow is a nobody! She sits in her bedroom all day typing on a laptop! I am the one with the high-profile career at Nexus Global Tech! I am the executive consultant!"
Before Evelyn could answer, Leo’s phone began buzzing violently with an incoming call from his direct supervisor at Nexus Global Tech, Vice President Gregory Vance (no relation, but a notorious corporate hardliner).
Leo swallowed hard, clearing his throat and trying to summon his usual arrogant swagger. "Excuse me, I have to take this. It's the executive suite."
He answered the call, putting it on speakerphone to prove his importance to his parents. "Good morning, Mr. Vance! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas—"
"Cut the garbage, Leo," Gregory Vance’s harsh, grating voice boomed through the speaker. "Why the hell did our enterprise developer sandbox lock down thirty minutes ago?!"
Leo blinked in confusion. "Sir? What do you mean?"
"Our primary algorithmic security module for the Q1 enterprise deployment was linked directly to an authorized developer seat under Aegis Core Architecture!" Gregory barked. "At 8:00 AM sharp, Aegis Core revoked our corporate sub-license, citing breach of contract and unauthorized third-party utilization! The entire platform is dead in the water! Our investors are calling emergency board meetings!"
Leo’s face drained of all color. "Aegis... Aegis Core?"
"Yes, Aegis Core! The firm owned by Harlow Vance!" Gregory shouted, slamming a fist onto his desk over the line. "You told this department you had a direct, exclusive consulting partnership with their principal founder! You signed the vendor onboarding affidavits assuring us that the architecture was secured through your family connection! Did you lie to us, Leo?!"
Leo’s knees buckled. He clutched the kitchen counter, gasping for air.
He hadn't secured a partnership. For the past eighteen months, Leo had secretly taken proprietary code snippets and encryption certificates from Harlow’s open testing repositories while she worked at home, passing them off to his managers as his own 'groundbreaking independent consulting work.' His entire six-figure salary, his promotion, and his reputation at Nexus Global were built entirely on stolen intellectual property created by the sister he mocked at dinner.
"If that license isn't reinstated by 5:00 PM today, Leo," Gregory snarled, "not only are you fired, but our corporate legal team will file criminal charges for corporate fraud and industrial espionage! Fix this immediately!"
Click.
The line went dead.
Richard stared at his golden son, his eyes wide with horrified revelation. "Leo... what did he just say? You stole her work?"
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Leo dropped his phone onto the quartz counter. He buried his face in his trembling hands, letting out a pitiful, terrified wail. "She ruined me... she destroyed my life!"
"No, Leo," Richard whispered in sickening realization, slumping onto a barstool in the freezing kitchen. "She didn't ruin you. She just stopped carrying you."
