Chapter 7: The Unraveling of Victor Thorne
The corporate offices of Thorne Logistics occupied the entire thirty-fifth floor of a gleaming glass tower on Sixth Avenue. Victor Thorne sat behind a massive slab of white marble that served as his desk, swirling amber scotch in a crystal tumbler. He looked across the room at Ethan, who was pacing near the floor-to-ceiling window like a caged animal.
"What do you mean, she locked you out?" Victor asked, his voice smooth, cold, and entirely devoid of sympathy.
"I mean the audit exposed everything," Ethan snapped, stopping his pacing to glare at the older man. "She knows about the code transfer, she knows about our arrangement, and her father’s lawyers are threatening criminal charges if I don't sign a non-disclosure and walk away with nothing."
Victor took a slow sip of his scotch, unbothered by the catastrophe unfolding for his pawn. "Then sign it, Ethan. You failed to deliver the functional product. The code you gave my engineers was a decoy—encrypted garbage that crashed our sandbox servers yesterday afternoon."
Ethan froze. "A decoy? No, that’s impossible. I downloaded it directly from the primary repository."
"Did you?" Victor raised an eyebrow, a cruel smile playing on his lips. "Or did Mary Sterling dangle a worm knowing full well a rat would bite? You underestimated her, Ethan. Now you're useless to me."
"Useless?" Ethan’s voice rose, cracking with desperation. "I risked everything for you! I lost my fiancée, my career, my home, my entire social standing!"
"That sounds like a personal management problem," Victor said coldly, standing up and buttoning his bespoke jacket. "Security will escort you out of the building. Don't call this office again."
Two security guards appeared from the shadows near the double doors, stepping toward Ethan with practiced efficiency. Ethan tried to protest, but the guards were already grabbing his arms, hauling him backward toward the elevators. As the heavy glass doors slid shut behind him, Ethan realized the full magnitude of his ruin. He had traded a secure, wealthy, and stable life with a brilliant woman for a hollow illusion of ambition, driven by a man who discarded him the moment he ceased to be profitable.
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Outside on the sidewalk, the cold autumn rain began to fall again, mixing with the sweat on Ethan’s forehead. He had no car, no credit cards that worked, and no place to sleep that wasn't a cheap motel room paid for with the last scraps of his personal savings.
***
