Chapter 4

She looked at me with open reproach, as if I were the one throwing an unreasonable temper tantrum.

Then my eyes caught the faint, poorly concealed hickey on the side of her neck, and a wave of nausea washed over me.

Always the same excuse.

Every single time, she used the word "family" to bind me, demanding that I surrender everything and happily play the role of her personal blood bag.

A crushing exhaustion weighed down my chest. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small velvet box.

"You say we're family. Then will you marry me?"

Chloe froze. Staring at the ring box in my palm, her eyes flickered with panic and hesitation.

"Isn't it a bit early to talk about marriage? I want to stabilize our company's valuation first."

A cold, mocking smirk touched my lips. I had known that would be her answer.

"Seems like I'm not quite 'family' enough for you after all."

Having her hypocrisy laid bare on the spot, Chloe's face drained of color, then flushed with embarrassment.

"Ethan Vance, don't push your luck!"

I raised my arm and tossed the velvet box straight into the trash can beside the desk.

"Ms. Miller, when I handed in my badge earlier, I forgot to mention the breakup. Let's make it official now."

Chloe’s jaw clenched, her voice dropping into a venomous register.

"You're serious? You're actually walking away from this company and breaking up with me?"

"Our studio is on the verge of becoming a top-tier industry titan! Don't you dare come crying to me when you regret this!"

I wanted to laugh. Regret?

The only thing I regretted was not seeing through her shallow manipulation years earlier.

I turned and walked out of the office, leaving her furious shouting behind me.

The moment I decided to walk out, I had already made up my mind to start my own venture.

Right outside the doorway, Lucas was standing with a bucket of dirty mop water.

"Oh, Ethan! I'm so sorry, I was just trying to mop up and I accidentally spilled dirty water all over your moving box!"

Looking at my soaked project notes and files, I stepped forward and landed a clean, brutal punch square against his nose.

"No problem. Just collecting what you owe me."

Leaving him howling on the floor clutching his bleeding face, I adjusted my collar and walked out the front doors.

After leaving the studio, I leased a modest office space and began reaching out to angel investors and former industry contacts.

Five years of building games had given me a network of trust that meant I didn't have to start from absolute zero.

Within a month, my new indie studio was up, running, and gathering serious momentum.

I was just checking my phone to confirm a meeting location with an investor when an Instagram notification popped up from Chloe’s account.

In the photo, her hand was intertwined with Lucas’s, identical diamond bands glistening on their fingers.

The caption read:

"Engaged! Walking down the aisle at the end of the month. Thank you all for the love and blessings!"

The woman who spent seven years preaching about how she was anti-marriage and needed to focus on her career had agreed to a shotgun wedding with an intern in less than four weeks.

I felt a pang of disgust for the seven years I had wasted on her, but mostly relief that I had woken up in time.

Opening my contact list, I calmly blocked and deleted Chloe Miller without a second thought.

Even though I had left, my bond with the original dev team remained rock-solid.

Over WhatsApp, they kept me updated on the train wreck unfolding at the old studio:

"Can you believe this clown as our Director? To cut costs, he fired our entire concept art team and replaced them with AI generators! The gaming community on Twitter and Reddit is tearing us apart!"

"He scrapped our fair, cosmetic-only monetization model! He said it 'wasn't profitable enough' and turned the game into a predatory, pay-to-win loot-box machine. Daily active users are cratering by the thousands every single day."

"He even installed his useless cousins into HR and accounting while laying off senior engineers! None of us can stand working here anymore!"

Reading their messages, I typed back:

"My new studio is almost ready to expand. Would you guys be interested in coming over?"