Chapter 2

Soon, I'd be gone for good from the place that had been suffocating me.

Before I left, I went to the Moreland family lab.

I'd spent three years developing a core algorithm and pulled more all-nighters than I could count. With it, the company's profits would soar.

I planned to take it with me when I left. But when I opened the lab door, Alice was standing at the main computer, copying my algorithm.

"Alice, what are you doing?!" I rushed over to confront her.

Alice did not panic when she saw me. Instead, she met my gaze defiantly and pressed the alarm button.

"Nina, your family is mine now, and your algorithm will be too. You've lost."

Furious, I lunged at her and grabbed her wrist, trying to get the flash drive back.

Alice suddenly screamed and threw herself against the lab bench.

Bottles of chemicals smashed across the floor, and the broken glass cut her arm.

"Ow! Nina... I was only trying to clean your workbench for you! Why would you do this to me?" Alice sobbed, clutching her arm.

That was the scene my father and brothers found when they heard the alarm and burst in.

They rushed to Alice's side and shoved me away. "Nina! Have you lost your mind?!"

The corner of a workbench dug into my lower back, and the sharp pain nearly doubled me over.

My father gently took Alice's arm and examined the cut.

Luca looked at me with disappointment. "Nina, why do you always have to go after Alice like this? She was only trying to help you!"

Enzo stood off to the side, looking conflicted. "Nina, you just keep getting worse. You're so jealous of Alice you'd actually hurt her?!"

"That's not what happened. She was copying my algorithm, and she knocked everything over herself..." I tried to explain through the pain.

"So now you're falsely accusing her, too?" Enzo shouted with a frown. "Alice's dad gave his life to save us. This whole family owes him!

"And you hurt her without a second thought! I can't believe you're my own sister!"

Luca looked up at me coldly. His gaze held a disgust I'd never seen before. He said nothing. He and my father simply lifted Alice and walked out without another glance.

All I could do was smile bitterly as I watched them leave.

Why? Why couldn't they believe me, even once?

I went to the hospital alone to get my back treated, then dragged myself home through the pain, ready to pack and leave.

But when I reached the study, the sight inside made my blood run cold.

My father, Luca, and Enzo were gathered around the sofa.

Alice sat demurely between them. On the table lay paperwork to change the named inventor on my algorithm patent to Alice.

"Oh, Nina, you're back." Alice spotted me in the doorway and called out in a deliberately loud, taunting voice.

"Luca says that, to make up for my injury, they're going to put the algorithm in my name. You won't mind, will you?"

"No!" I cried out.

I was so upset that a sharp pain tore through my lower back, and I nearly fell.

I clung to the doorframe. "That algorithm is my life's work! I spent three years on it, pulled countless all-nighters, and ran thousands of tests! Why should she be listed as the inventor?!"

I turned from my father to the brothers I'd once looked up to and begged them. "Dad, Luca, Enzo, please. That's my only real achievement!

"I don't want any shares in the family business. I don't care about the pomp and ceremony of the charity gala. I can give up everything! Just let me keep this patent, okay? It really is the last thing I have..."

My eyes were red and burning. To hold on to my work, I'd swallowed every bit of my pride.

But my pleas earned me no pity.

"Nina, when did you become so greedy and selfish?" My father's eyes flashed with disgust. "What do you gain by insisting on being listed as the inventor?

"It's only one project. This family gave you the best of everything. Isn't contributing to the family the least you can do?"

"Exactly!" Enzo scoffed. "Would Alice have gotten hurt if you hadn't gone crazy with jealousy?! Think of the algorithm as compensation for what you did to her!"

"No! I told you, she set the whole thing up! Why can't you believe me, just once?" I screamed in despair.

"Enough!" Luca barked. "This isn't up for discussion. Go to your room and calm down!"

My father signed the filing that falsely named Alice as the inventor. With that one signature, they stole my patent from me.

The physical pain and the despair inside me became unbearable.

Whatever love I still had for them died in that moment.

I returned to my room, took out my phone, and called Professor Davis.

"Professor, send a car for me. I've made up my mind."

If they wanted to give Alice all their love, I was done with this family...