Chapter1

For my fiancée’s career, I was willing to be the ghost designer behind her for five years.

Until the day of the key bid, she stole the blueprint I had spent two sleepless years perfecting and signed it with the name of her useless first love.

The drawings are gone You can draw them again He needs this project to survive Be sensible she said, impatient when I confronted her

I did not argue My heart went cold I calmly left my engagement ring and my resignation letter and went to Europe

In just three months, without me, she became disgraced and buried in debt While I won Europe’s highest architectural gold award

I watched the once proud her soak in icy water for five hours just to earn a trace of my sympathy

I handed her a basic junior interview form with indifference Want to start over Report to the front desk Start with errands and work your way up

——

Autumn rain in Seattle struck the windshield, making the city neon look slightly warped

I gripped the steering wheel In the passenger seat lay a black waterproof briefcase Inside was an encrypted backup drive holding the core bid drawings for the Emerald City Museum of Modern Art a set I had poured two full years of work into

Before this I had spent five years at Elena architectural studio As the chief ghost designer I dragged her upward with countless all nighters of revisions until she stood on the stage of the Seattle Rising Design Awards The world only knew Elena as a brilliant beautiful industry star No one knew that in the lower right corner of those breathtaking plans the name that should have been there was mine

But today was different

This was my independent bid day the day I would step into the industry under my own name Even though I discovered this morning that the studio computers had been maliciously locked down Even though today was my birthday and Elena had vanished without a word I still arrived at the downtown joint bidding venue on time relying on this physical backup

I pushed open the heavy doors of the hall The spotlights were as sharp as blades

I did not head to my preparation area because the moment I saw the holographic screen my steps stopped

On the huge display was a floating double helix dome structure The load parameters precise to the millimeter the asymmetric framework adjusted to balance daylight and seismic resistance were as familiar as fingerprints burned into my retina

It was my design

But the man at the podium was not me

It was Luke Elena first love the man she had brought back from Paris a month ago

As everyone can see the soul of this scheme lies in Luke wore a tailored bespoke suit and held a laser pointer Yet when he reached the mechanical transfer logic of the core structure he stalled He clearly did not understand the load path of those diagonal braces and could only paper it over with vague artistic phrases

Down in the seats the review committee members frowned slightly

At that moment Elena in the front row led the applause She stood and looked at Luke with the same admiration and encouragement I had seen countless times Then she smoothly covered for him and redirected the reviewers attention to the visual impact of the exterior

I stood in the shadow at the back watching the man and woman cooperate under the lights The leather handle of my briefcase was squeezed deep by my knuckles

I finally understood why the firewall on the studio computer had been physically tampered with this morning The only person who could bypass the alarms quietly use admin rights and extract the full set of project files was my fiancée who knew every one of my passwords

The presentation ended Intermission began

Elena walked toward the VIP passage ready to go backstage to find Luke I stopped her at the entrance

The instant she saw me her smile froze Then she quickly put on a look of pure entitlement and pulled me into a corridor of the lounge away from the media

You did not run the structural calculations Luke just reported the shear strength threshold of titanium alloy wrong I looked into her eyes My voice was unusually steady If you submit construction specs like this that dome will suffer irreversible deformation in a level six wind

Elena paused for a second as if she did not expect my first line to be this She lowered her voice Her tone carried a condescending impatience

Victor the point is not the numbers The point is Luke passed the preliminary review Since you were here why did you not tell me earlier that you had a backup Do you have any idea you almost ruined the whole plan

Ruin whose plan I looked at the woman I had lived beside for five years and suddenly her face felt unfamiliar The plan to cover Luke mistake on the Dubai project last month and help him avoid that enormous penalty

Elena eyes flickered but she straightened her back again and met my gaze head on Since you already know I will not explain more The client in Dubai is suing Luke His reputation is wrecked He urgently needs a blockbuster landmark project to restore his value and he needs this bid prize money to pay compensation

So you stole my core drawings I stated the fact

Stole What do you mean stole We are engaged What is yours is mine what difference does it make She frowned as if I were an unreasonable saboteur Victor you have talent If the drawings are gone you can draw another set But Luke needs this project to save his life right now He cannot take the blow of total disgrace Can you be a little sensible and think of the bigger picture

Draw another set and you will have it

Be sensible

Those two lines were like two dull knives They did not draw blood yet they sawed through the last strand holding something between us

I spent five years hidden in a basement fixing her drafts full of basic errors and lifting her onto a pedestal And now the work I had redone countless times for two years work that even gave me severe tenosynovitis was in her eyes nothing more than a cheap consumable she could use to do favors for another man and fill his hole

She did know how valuable those drawings were She simply believed my sacrifice was a given

Luke needs saving I repeated her words My gaze slid over the Van Cleef necklace on her neck the one I had given her last month then returned to her eyes

I once thought I would be furious that I would feel wronged that I would smash the backup drive to the floor and shout about how worthless the past five years had been

But in this second I found myself utterly calm A calm built on seeing straight through someones core nature Arguing is for seeking emotional return When you face a parasite trying to drain your last bit of value any display of feeling is a waste of time

Yes he does Elena thought I had yielded Her tone softened a little Victor once this is over I will have Luke list you as a deputy on the execution team Your talent will not be buried I promise

I looked at her patronizing posture and said nothing

I slowly unzipped the briefcase and took out the encrypted backup drive

Elena eyes lit up She reached for it You brought the full data Great Luke was worrying backstage about how to fabricate the follow up structural report

I did not hand it to her

My thumbs pressed along the drive central seam My wrists snapped with force With a crisp click the hard shell and the magnetic storage inside were broken into two pieces of scrap

Elena hand froze in mid air She stared at me in disbelief Are you insane

I casually dropped the two broken halves into the nearby trash bin Two dull thuds followed

There will be no structural report I looked at her stunned face My tone was as calm as discussing todays rain in Seattle Since he passed the preliminary review let him draft the subsequent construction drawings himself I hope his talent can hold up that dome that is going to collapse

Victor Elena voice rose in anger Are you really going to throw a tantrum now You destroyed the data What do you gain from that

Nothing to gain

I adjusted my suit collar I did not look at her again and turned toward the exit of the passage

Stop If you walk out that door today our engagement ceremony will be postponed indefinitely Elena tried to control me with her usual chip

Postponed

I let out a silent sigh

I pushed open the venue doors Cold autumn rain mixed with Seattles dampness hit my face I raised a hand and flagged down a taxi with the vacant light on and slid into the back seat

Where to sir the driver asked glancing at the rearview mirror

I took out my phone and looked at the flight schedule to Europe

That ghostlike life and the woman named Elena had been permanently removed from my future plans in the moment just now

To my house I gave the villa address Give me five minutes to grab my luggage then take me to the airport