Chapter 14

"That bitch!" Eunice hissed, pacing the living room with clenched fists. "How could she? I swear if I was there, I would have smashed her head against the wall."

Claire sat slumped at the kitchen table, her bag still on her shoulder. She'd just finished telling Eunice everything and she wasn't having it.

"Eunice, keep your voice down." She glanced toward the living room where Adrian was working on his tablet, she didn't want him to overhear and worry or worse, inform Howard when next they spoke.

"Don't tell me to keep my voice down." But Eunice lowered it anyway, her anger simmering just beneath the surface. "She stole from you twice and got away with it. The company chose to protect a fraud instead of you. And that bastard Brian threatened to blacklist you?" Her voice shook with rage. "They'll all get what's coming to them."

Claire let out a hollow laugh that had no humor in it. "It doesn't matter now. It's done and I can't change it….in a way, I don't blame them anyway, they didn't know since I had no evidence”. She said in a tired voice.

"Like hell it doesn't matter." Eunice stopped pacing and stared at her with fire in her eyes. "They are supposed to believe you…I mean, you are the real deal here”.

"Thanks for the compliment though but the IT found nothing on her laptop. I have no proof,” She replied dryly.

"Mama?" Adrian's voice came from the doorway and she could hear the concern in it.

Claire immediately straightened up and tried to compose her face into something that wouldn't worry him. "Yes, baby?"

"Are you sad?" He walked over and climbed into her lap without waiting for permission, wrapping his arms around her neck.

Her throat tightened and she had to swallow hard before she could answer. "Just tired, sweetheart."

"You lost your job because someone stole your work." He said it as a statement rather than a question, his grey eyes looking up at her with that unnerving intelligence that sometimes made her forget he was only five. "I am going to deal with whoever dared to mess with my mom”.

Claire managed a smile, “I am so happy to have someone like you protect me”. She said and tickled him a little.

His laughter rang out and Claire's heart swelled with love.

Her brilliant boy understood far more than any five-year-old should, who could follow conversations about things that would bore most adults to tears.

He paused laughing and stared at her face keenly, “what did the person do mom, I can help”.

"" She decided lying was pointless when he'd already figured it out. "Someone took credit for something I created."

"That's not fair." His face scrunched up the way it did when he was working through a complex problem. "But if they stole it, there has to be evidence somewhere. Like a digital fingerprint, something that proves they took what wasn't theirs."

"That's very smart thinking." She hugged him closer and breathed in the scent of his strawberry shampoo. "But the IT people already checked her computer and mine, and didn't find anything."

He wrinkled his nose, "Maybe they didn't look hard enough." He slid off her lap with sudden determination written across his face. "I will check too”.

Claire’s eyes widened and she felt her chest tighten at the earnest way he was looking at her, so certain he could solve a problem that had stumped professional IT technicians. He just wanted to help and she couldn't bring herself to crush that innocent faith he had in her abilities.

"That's very sweet of you baby”.

“I need to see your laptop?”.

She looked at his eager face and knew she couldn't say no to him, not when he was looking at her like she was the most important person in his world. "Okay, darling. You can try."

She retrieved it from her bag by the door and handed it over, trying not to think about how ridiculous this was. He was good with laptops anyways so why should she be afraid?

"Be careful with it, okay?" She warned.

"I'm always careful, Mama." He carried it to the couch with the seriousness of someone handling precious cargo and settled in to work.

Claire watched him go and shook her head slightly before turning back to Eunice, who was watching the whole exchange with an unreadable expression on her face.

Eunice sat down across from her and leaned forward with intensity burning in her eyes. "Look at me, Claire."

Claire met her gaze reluctantly.

"You are the best software developer I've ever known, and I've known plenty of them through my work over the years." Eunice's voice was firm and left no room for argument. "So I have to ask you something that's been bothering me for a while now. Why do you choose to work for a company instead of starting your own?"

Claire laughed bitterly and the sound was harsh in the quiet kitchen. "Starting a company requires capital I don't have, Eunice. I can't just pull money out of thin air."

"You have skills that companies pay millions of dollars for and you know it." Eunice shot back without missing a beat. "You could start with freelance consulting and build your client base from there. You don't need a huge investment to begin."

"It's too risky with Adrian to think about." Claire shook her head and felt the familiar fear creeping up her spine. "I need stability, a steady paycheck and benefits. I can't gamble with his future like that."

"And how stable was that job you just lost?" Eunice raised an eyebrow and her point hit home like a punch to the gut. "You lost it in one morning because someone decided to screw you over. Working for someone else is just as risky as working for yourself, maybe even more so because you have no control over what happens."

"I don't have the connections or the client base to start from scratch." Claire heard the desperation creeping into her own voice. "I'd be starting from nothing with no reputation and no network."

"So build them." Eunice wouldn't let up and her voice was relentless but kind. "You start small and take on a few clients. Word spreads fast in the tech world when you're as good as you are, and you're better than good, Claire. You're exceptional."

"What if it fails?" Claire's voice dropped to almost a whisper and she felt the weight of that question crushing down on her. "What if I can't make it work and I lose everything? I can't afford to fail, not when Adrian depends on me for everything."

"You've already failed by staying in a place that didn't value you or recognize your worth." Eunice reached across the table and grabbed her hand with surprising gentleness. "Listen to me and really hear what I'm saying. You created solutions today that an entire development team couldn't figure out after months of trying. Solutions that everyone in that room, even the ones who sided against you, admitted were absolutely brilliant. You could freelance, you could consult, you could build your own products and sell them. Stop limiting yourself to what feels safe when safe hasn't kept you protected."

"Eunice..." Claire started but didn't know how to finish the sentence.

"Stop letting fear keep you small." Eunice squeezed her hand hard enough that it almost hurt. "You're not that scared girl anymore who had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. You rebuilt yourself from absolutely nothing after losing everything. You learned to code while you were pregnant and completely alone. You got a competitive tech job with no formal degree and nothing but raw talent and determination. You've done impossible things before and you can do them again."

Claire felt tears pricking at her eyes again but these were different from the ones she'd cried in her car, less about defeat and more about the terrifying possibility that Eunice might be right.

"I don't know if I can do it alone." The admission felt like ripping something open inside her chest.

"You're not alone and you never have been." Eunice's voice softened but lost none of its conviction. "You have me and I'm not going anywhere. And you have that great kid sitting in there who thinks you hung the moon and the stars. And most importantly, you have yourself and everything you've already survived and conquered."

Claire opened her mouth to respond but the words died in her throat when Adrian's voice rang out from the living room.

"Mom, I've found the bug!"