On Monday morning, the announcement came: I was becoming CEO of Titan. That same day, twenty-three resignations arrived at Apex. Their stock price plummeted. The board panicked.
Victoria tried to get me to come back. Then to negotiate. Then to beg.
It was too late.
The following months were a succession of legal battles, attempts at intimidation, and veiled threats. All failed. The facts were on my side.
Titan launched the AI platform. Immediate success. Apex, weakened, lost customers, then its credibility. Ultimately, Titan acquired Apex, not out of revenge, but to stabilize the market and protect the remaining teams.
Victoria left the company. Without scandal. Without triumph.
One year later, Titan’s valuation exceeded one billion.
I feel neither boisterous pride nor excessive joy. Only relief.
Sometimes, the best revenge is not destruction.
It’s a quiet success. The kind that no one can take away from you.
If you have ever been excluded from a project you helped create, remember this:
Document. Stay calm. Build in silence. And when the time comes, don’t beg for a place at the table. Build your own.
I started documenting everything. Emails, decisions, meetings. Then one evening, while analyzing server logs, I discovered suspicious access to strategic files… from a luxury hotel. Not from an investor dinner, as Victoria’s agenda claimed.
I hired a private investigator.
Three weeks later, the truth was there, undeniable: Victoria was having an affair with Preston Blake, the star consultant. The very same man who recommended reducing my influence, cancelling my projects, and preparing for my removal.
They had planned everything. My dismissal was just the final step.
Strangely, I didn’t feel anger. I felt clarity.
I prepared my exit methodically. In silence. I reconnected with former colleagues, brilliant engineers, marginalized talents like myself. Then I met James Richardson, founder of Titan Tech Industries, ready to hand over the reins.
He offered me the CEO position. On one condition: that I bring my team with me.
Twenty-three engineers agreed to follow me.
And the cancelled AI project? I finished it on my own, using my personal equipment. It legally belonged to me.
When Apex terminated my contract, they thought they were getting rid of a problem.
They freed me.
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