"You won't be mad at Yvette, right, Callum? If you are mad, I'll apologize on behalf of her."

Despite his offer of an apology, Henry came up to me and stepped hard on the back of my hand instead, grinding my fingers under his leather shoes.

The pain was intense, and I quickly pulled my hand away, and I fell back hard, leaning against the cold wall while still reeling from the pain. I stopped asking for help or calling out in pain. All I did was reach my bloody hand slowly into my pocket to pull out a phone.

Yvette's expression changed when she saw what I was doing. "What are you trying to do? Call the police? Or call an ambulance?" She rushed over to me, trying to grab my phone. "I'm warning you, Callum. I won't let you off if you dare blow this out of proportion!"

I leaned slightly to the side to dodge her reaching hand. My thumbs moved quickly to unlock my phone and click the button to the secret backup known only to me. It was a basic control system for Yvette's company's core funding.

Three years ago, Yvette's company was on the brink of bankruptcy. I was the one who sold my parents' old house and took out all of my savings, in addition to my independently researched core AI patent, to help rebuild her company.

To give Yvette a stronger sense of security, I let her become the CEO and legal representative of the company, but I did give myself a safety net. It was a command that could freeze her funding and patent rights, and something that I thought I would never use.

It felt like such a joke when I saw the fury on Yvette's face.

This was the woman I had loved for five years, the fiancée I had given everything to and placed on a pedestal.

I took a deep breath as I pressed hard on the red button to pull her funding with my bloodied finger, and my phone screen turned bright red. A huge pop-up window appeared with the words: [Funding has ceased. The core patent rights have been terminated.]

My eyes met Yvette's when I looked up, and I said to her slowly, "The wedding is off. You can start preparing for your company's bankruptcy."

There was silence in the corridor.

Yvette was taken aback but quickly snapped out of it as she noticed the screen of my phone. She burst out in shrill laughter when she saw the bright, red warning on it. "Bankruptcy?"

She was laughing so hard that she was crying. She pointed at my nose, acting as if she had just heard the biggest joke in the world. "Are you hallucinating from the pain, Callum? Do you think you can scare me with a fake app that triggers a red pop-up? Who do you think you are? My company is about to get an IPO on Nasdaq, and is estimated to be worth a billion!"

Yvette walked up to me, showing off her bright, red, polished nails by poking me on the shoulder. "You're just a man who is leeching off me by loitering in my company. How do you plan to bankrupt me?"

Henry leaned in close to me to point his phone's camera right into my face.

"Look at him, fam! This poor bastard even came up with a pointless app to pretend he's the big man! Did you see what that app said? 'Funding has ceased'? That's a pretty impressive effect. Did you buy the source code online for ten bucks?"

The comments section exploded once more.

[What a joke! That man must be delusional.]

[Well, I learned something new today. This must be the first person to get others bankrupt via cyberspace.]

[Yvette should send that basket case to the mental hospital and stop him from going crazy on everyone out here.]

I leaned against the wall as I looked coldly at the man and woman in front of me, acting like the clowns they were. The command to freeze the funding and patent rights had to go through an overseas server first, which would render a delay of about 24 hours. They might be on top of the world right now, but they were in for a quick descent the next day.

"Think what you want." I put my phone away and tried to stand, but the burning in my lower body was intense, and my legs shook like jelly.

When Yvette saw me about to leave, her face fell. "Stop! Who said you could leave? Our company's IPO is about to happen soon. Go to the washroom and clean the blood off your face. Change into something better and come with me to the hall!" she ordered without holding back.

"There will be many huge potential investors present today. Stay by my side like a good boy and play your part as my loving fiancé. If you dare show your temper at me, I'll stop your monthly allowance!"

I paused in my steps and turned to look at her. "Didn't you just hear what I said, Yvette? I said the wedding is off!"

Yvette looked at me in disbelief. She was used to having me wrapped around her little finger. No matter how much she hit me or yelled at me, I would go running to her like a good dog whenever she waved me over to her.

"Are you trying to be funny, Callum?" Yvette was enraged. She turned and shouted into the corridor. "Security! Where's security?!"

Four muscular men in security uniforms came running over right away. "Yes, Ms. James?"

Yvette pointed at me with a venomous look in her eye. "Throw this troublemaker out of here! I don't want him dirtying the company's carpet!"

The security guards looked at each other as they recognized me and knew I was Yvette's fiancé. "Ms. James, it looks like Mr. Lyon is hurt," the head of security said hesitantly.

"Just throw him out as I told you to! Whoever says another word will be fired!"

They no longer hesitated and lunged at me right away, grabbing me by each arm. The intense struggle tugged on my wound, and I almost passed out from the pain. They dragged me out of the building like a ragged doll and threw me onto the cold, cement ground outside the door.

It had started raining heavily, and I was drenched in the icy rain. The rainwater ran down my face, mixed with the blood from my forehead, and continued flowing down my body and into the drain. I lay in the rain, watching the bright lights of the building and listening to the cheering and champagne-popping inside.

Yvette was celebrating her 'success' while passersby were pointing and staring at me as I tried to stand with great difficulty and hail a cab. "Get me to First Hospital's emergency room."

When I arrived at the hospital, the emergency room doctor took a sharp breath when he saw the condition I was in. "How did you end up this way? Your lower body has suffered a horrible chemical burn, and most of your soft tissue is damaged!"

The doctor cleaned up my wound quickly while shaking his head in anger. "This is horrible. You would've been permanently damaged if you were just 30 minutes later."

The cleaning process hurt even worse than when I was injured. I bit hard on the gauze as my bedsheet got drenched in cold sweat. I was given an IV drip as I lay weakly on a hospital bed.

My phone suddenly rang. It was Yvette calling.

I put her on speaker phone, only to hear her high-pitched, frustrated voice coming through. "Where are you, Callum? The IPO event is about to end! Henry accidentally spilled champagne on his suit. You need to get back here right away and let Henry change into the bespoke suit you're wearing."

My hospital room was very quiet, with only a faint beeping audible. Yvette's screaming sounded particularly ridiculous in the empty room. "Did you hear what I said? Henry has an interview with the finance media later. He can't appear on screen in a dirty suit. I was the one who paid for your suit, and you need to bring it over right now!"

I stared at the bright light on the ceiling and replied in a hoarse voice, "I'm in the emergency room, Yvette. The doctor said my lower body is badly burnt, and was almost damaged permanently."

There was a second of silence, followed by Yvette clicking her tongue impatiently. "Are you done, Callum? Can you stop with your act? Why would you need to go to the emergency room when it's just some ointment? Are you trying to trick me into visiting you by acting all pitiful? I can tell you right now that it isn't working!"

Henry's voice could be heard in the background. "Forget about it, Yvette. If Callum isn't willing to loan me his suit, I'm fine with my dirty one. I just hope I won't end up embarrassing you…"

His little scheme of playing victim fueled Yvette's rage. "He won't refuse you his suit!" Yvette raised her voice. "Bring that suit over within 30 minutes, Callum! Otherwise, don't even dream of stepping through the office door again!"

I hung up right away and blocked her number. I closed my eyes to force myself to calm down. It still required some time for the funding to be stopped, and before that happened, I had to take back everything that belonged to me.

There was a copy of my core code and an emerald pendant that my mother left to me before she died. They were all kept in the safe at my office.

I tore off the IV tube from the back of my hand and forced myself to get out of bed despite the nurse trying her best to stop me. I hailed a cab and returned to the office.

The office was in a mess as the party for the IPO event had just ended. The employees gathered in different groups as they talked about the celebration. I avoided the crowd and headed straight to my personal office on the top floor. I was furious at what I saw when I pushed the door open. Someone had rummaged through my office table, leaving it in a mess.

Henry was seated in my office chair, acting like a boss with his feet on my redwood table. He was wearing the bespoke suit I had carefully put away because of its high value while playing carelessly with my emerald pendant.

"Well, look who it is. The man who declared our CEO's bankruptcy via cyberspace." Henry looked at me and laughed wildly instead of feeling guilty about what he did. "What are you doing here? Did you come back to the office to play with your simple app because the hospital has lousy Wifi?"

I stared at the emerald pendant in his hand, looking like my eyes could spout fire at any time. "Put it down." My tone was icy as I walked over to Henry.

Henry's lips curled as he waved the pendant under the lights. "What are you so mad about? Isn't this just an ordinary piece of stone?"