Chapter 2

The notes on top bore a shoe print, a faint gray mark pressed into the cover.

I bent down, picked them up, and arranged the scattered pages in numerical order.

A door opened somewhere upstairs.

Katherine was back.

She came down to the basement with Gabriel. Nera had already taken Milo back to her place.

"Perfect timing. Clear out the cabinet too." Katherine pointed at the filing cabinet against the wall. "Gabby is launching a new product next month. He needs a quiet workspace. There's too much foot traffic at the office. It's hard for him to find inspiration there."

I set the notes back on the desk. "This is my workroom."

"Isn't this just where you doodle around anyway?" She picked up a lab record, glanced at it, and tossed it back down. "This stuff has been sitting here for years, and I haven't seen you produce anything from it."

Gabriel's gaze swept over the equipment on the desk. "Don't get the wrong idea. I'm only borrowing the space for a month. Once the launch event is over, I'll move out right away."

As he spoke, he opened my temperature-controlled storage cabinet. Inside were three sets of samples I had not yet made public.

I shut the cabinet door. "Don't touch anything in there."

Gabriel pulled his hand back. "They're just a few bottles of reagent. Is that really necessary?"

Katherine stepped in front of him. "Gabby earned his doctorate overseas. What kind of experiment hasn't he seen? Stop acting like an expert over some amateur hobby."

In the past, if she had said something like that, I would have explained the value of every set of data to her. I would have pulled out the test reports and shown her exactly what made the company's products so stable.

Eventually, I understood. She had always understood my explanations. She was simply in the habit of dismissing my work as worthless. That way, whenever she took something from me, she never had to feel as though she owed me anything.

I gathered up the notes and headed for the stairs.

Katherine seemed pleased by my cooperation. "There's still space in the attic. If you want to keep doing this stuff, you can use that from now on. We need to make room for Gabby's launch."

I stopped at the foot of the stairs. "What's being launched this time?"

"A new generation of low-temperature energy-storage materials. I came up with the core concept while studying abroad," Gabriel answered before she could.

I nodded.

I had written the first line of that formula late one night, three years earlier.

Katherine had stood at the basement door that night with a plate of pasta that had already gone cold. She had told me the company couldn't hold on much longer. She had also promised that if we made it through, she would ensure everyone knew who had actually developed the product.

Six months ago, I went to the patent service center to check the renewal records. The staff pulled up the file and asked if I had given them the wrong patent number.

The applicant was neither me nor Katherine's company. The patent had already been transferred to a shell company under Gabriel's name.

My signature appeared on the transfer documents.

Among the scanned files from the same batch was a property and custody agreement. It stated that I had voluntarily relinquished all my property and would no longer participate in raising Milo.

Every page bore the signature "Micah."

The handwriting was a convincing imitation, but three small quirks in the way I formed my letters gave the forgery away.

I didn't go home to confront her that day. Instead, I copied the lab equipment's operation logs and saved the timestamps of every code revision. Then I visited a forensic document examination service, provided handwriting samples, and submitted the agreement for analysis.

When my mentor, August Dyke, answered my call, he asked only one question. "Have you thought this through?"

I told him I had.

He contacted a research institute back home on my behalf and arranged for Milo to transfer to a new school.

For the past six months, I had continued buying groceries, cooking meals, and taking our son to and from school, just as I always had.

Katherine was under the impression I had accepted my fate. She had no idea I had stayed only to reclaim what rightfully belonged to me.

…

Katherine's voice rang out from upstairs. "Micah, Gabby is staying here tonight. Go change the sheets in the guest room."

I carried the notes upstairs.

As I passed through the entryway, I noticed that Gabriel's suitcase wasn't fully zipped. Inside, I spotted a schedule for the product launch event. His name appeared under "Lead Researcher."

I took a photo of the page and sent it to my lawyer.

Almost immediately, my phone buzzed with a reply from my mentor.

August: [Your appointment has been approved. You can report early.]