The lobby of Stokes Global was a cathedral of capitalism. Vaulted ceilings, polished terrazzo floors, and a security desk that looked like the bridge of a starship.

Elodie sat in the waiting area, clutching a folder containing a resume that was entirely fabricated. It listed "Junior Assistant" and "Data Entry" as her peak achievements.

The revolving doors spun.

An old man walked in. He wore a tweed jacket with elbow patches, looking completely out of place among the sharp suits of Wall Street.

Elodie froze.

It was Professor Dalton. The Dean of Computer Science at MIT.

He stopped at the security desk, looking confused. Then he turned and scanned the room. His eyes landed on Elodie.

He squinted. He took a step toward her.

"Excuse me," he said, his voice raspy. "You look incredibly familiar. Are you... did you take my Cryptography 401 seminar? The student who wrote the Lugi kernel?"

Elodie's heart hammered against her ribs. She lowered her head, letting her hair fall forward.

"I think you have the wrong person, sir," she whispered. "I didn't go to MIT."

"Really?" Dalton frowned. "The bone structure... the eyes... I could have sworn..."

"Professor Dalton!"

Arlen Brewer's voice cut through the air like a whip. He was marching across the lobby, carrying a briefcase stamped with the Schneider logo.

Arlen stepped between Dalton and Elodie, physically blocking the professor.

"Don't waste your time with her, Professor," Arlen sneered. "She's a stalker."

Dalton blinked. "A stalker?"

"She's Keyon Schneider's ex-wife," Arlen announced loudly. "She follows us everywhere. She's mentally unstable. Desperate for a payout."

Elodie gripped her folder. Her knuckles turned white. She wanted to scream. She wanted to tell Dalton the truth-that she had aced his class under a pseudonym, that she was the one who fixed his algorithm in 2018.

But she couldn't. Not with Arlen there. She forced her shoulders to slump, adopting the posture of a defeated woman. She made her eyes wide and vacant, stripping away the intelligence that Dalton had recognized.

"She doesn't know a line of code from a grocery list," Arlen laughed. "She thinks Python is a snake."

Dalton looked at Elodie. He saw a woman in an ill-fitting suit, cowering, silent. He searched for the spark of genius he remembered, the defiant glint of Solaris. But Elodie had buried it deep.

The light in his eyes faded. "Ah. My mistake. The student I'm thinking of... she had a fire in her. You're right. It's not her."

The disappointment in his voice hurt more than Arlen's insults.

"Elodie Dickson?" The receptionist called out.

Elodie stood up. She kept her head down. "That's me."

"Don't let me catch you upstairs," Arlen hissed as she passed him. "I'll have security drag you out."

Elodie walked to the elevators. She didn't look back.

Upstairs, the HR manager was a stern woman named Ms. Vance.

"Can you use Excel?" Vance asked, bored.

"Yes," Elodie said. "I learn fast."

"We need someone to answer phones, make coffee, and file invoices. It's mindless work. Can you handle mindless?"

"Mindless is fine," Elodie said.

"Keyon Schneider called," Vance said suddenly. "He tried to block your hiring."

Elodie's stomach dropped.

"However," Vance continued, a small smile playing on her lips, "Mr. Derrick Stokes overheard the call. He instructed me to hire you immediately."

Elodie blinked. "Why?"

"Because Mr. Stokes hates being told what to do by Mr. Schneider. If Keyon doesn't want you here, Derrick wants you here."

"I'm hired?"

"You start tomorrow. 8:00 AM. Don't be late."

Down in the lobby, Professor Dalton was leaving. He paused at the door. He looked back at the elevators where Elodie had disappeared.

He pulled a photo from his wallet. It was a group shot from a hackathon. A girl with long hair was turned away from the camera, wearing a hoodie that said Solaris.

"The walk," Dalton muttered to himself. "It's the same walk."

Elodie walked out of the Stokes building. The adrenaline of the interview was fading, replaced by a dull throb in her left hand.

Arlen was standing by the curb, waiting for his Uber. He saw her and smirked.

"They kicked you out already?" he asked. "I told you."

Elodie ignored him. She tried to massage her ring finger. The swelling had gotten worse in the heat. The platinum band was cutting off circulation. Her finger was purple.

Arlen's eyes dropped to her hand. He laughed.

"Look at that," he said. "You talk a big game about divorce, but you're still wearing the ring. Three million dollars on your finger. Is that your safety net? Going to pawn it when you get hungry?"

Elodie looked at the ring. It wasn't a safety net. It was a shackle.

"It's stuck," she said.

"Sure it is," Arlen mocked. "You just can't let go of the lifestyle."

Elodie looked around. There was a hardware store across the street.

"Watch me," she said.

She crossed the street. Arlen, sensing a disaster he could report to Keyon, followed her, pulling out his phone to record.

Inside the hardware store, the smell of sawdust and metal filled the air.

"Can I help you, miss?" the clerk asked, eyeing her suit.

"I need bolt cutters," Elodie said. "The biggest ones you have."

She slapped her credit card-her new one, from the Swiss account-on the counter.

The clerk handed her a heavy pair of orange bolt cutters. They were meant for cutting padlocks.

Elodie walked back outside. She stood near a trash can.

Arlen was filming. "This is pathetic, Elodie. You're going to hurt yourself."

Elodie saw the camera lens reflecting the sunlight. She knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted to humiliate her. Good. Let him broadcast her liberation.

Elodie positioned the jaws of the cutter around the platinum band. The metal was cold against her inflamed skin.

She squeezed the handles.

It was hard. Platinum is dense. Her arms shook. Sweat beaded on her forehead.

Keyon's voice in her head: "It's a flawless diamond, Elodie. Don't lose it. It's worth more than you."

She gritted her teeth. She put her entire body weight into the handles.

CRACK.

The sound was sharp, like a gunshot.

The ring snapped. The tension released. The diamond fell onto the sidewalk with a tinkling sound.

Elodie dropped the cutters. She rubbed her finger. There was a deep indentation, raw and red, a scar of the marriage.

Arlen's jaw dropped. "You... you actually broke it."

Elodie bent down and picked up the two halves of the ring. The diamond was still intact, glittering in the gutter trash.

She walked past Arlen, toward the pawn shop next door.

"You're pawning it?" Arlen followed, still filming. "Keyon will love this. The desperation."

Inside the pawn shop, the broker looked at the pieces.

"It's a nice stone," he said. "But the setting is destroyed. And look at this... the cut is compromised. I can't give you retail for this. It's scrap metal and a loose stone."

"How much?" Elodie asked.

"Fifty thousand. Cash."

The ring was worth three million. Fifty thousand was an insult. It was robbery.

"Deal," Elodie said without hesitation.

"Are you insane?" Arlen shouted from the doorway. "That's a three million dollar ring! You're selling it for fifty grand?"

"It's not about the money," Elodie said to the broker. "Just get it out of my sight."

She took the stack of hundred-dollar bills. She walked out, stuffed the money into her pocket, and looked at Arlen's phone lens.

"Tell him I said keep the change."