Vanessa laughed, “Now we’re both unemployed,” after destroying my job offer—then the Meridian Dynamics CEO took the microphone and called my name. / Chapter 55 / 101

Chapter 55 - Vanessa's Fracture

The sea was merciless. Ten-foot swells crashed against the bow, sending sheets of freezing spray across the tinted polymer canopy. Inside the cramped cabin of the interceptor, the only light came from the green glow of the tactical tactical consoles and the rhythmic sweeping line of the marine radar.

Julian sat across from Vanessa, watching her hands. They weren't shaking anymore, but her knuckles were white as she clutched the edge of the aluminum seat frame.

"You should have left me on the dock," she said suddenly, not looking at him. Her voice was nearly drowned out by the roar of the turbines.

"You wouldn't have stayed," Julian said.

"I torn up your paper, Julian," she said, her voice raw, peeling back layers of defensive cruelty she had worn for years. "You worked four years, sixteen hours a day, eating dry ramen and studying in the car because Mom wouldn't let you use the heater in the winter. You walked across that stage, and I ripped it into pieces because I couldn't stand the thought that you were going to escape and leave me alone in that house with her."

"I know," Julian said quietly.

"You don't understand!" Vanessa snapped, her head whipping up, eyes blazing in the dim red cabin lights. "I hated you because you were real! Every time she screamed at you, you just took it, went back to your desk, and wrote more code. Every time she lied to the court, you found the discrepancy. I couldn't do that. I just broke. I became what she wanted me to be: small, angry, and useless. I thought if I made you fail, you’d have to stay with me."

"And look where we are," Julian said, his expression unchanged, steady as stone. "You're sitting in a combat interceptor forty miles out at sea, wearing Level IV body armor, heading toward an illegal sovereign fortress."

Vanessa blinked, thrown off by his lack of accusation.

"You aren't useless, Vanessa," Julian continued, leaning forward until his gaze locked onto hers. "Eleanor gave Marcus the credentials to bankrupt our father. But who was the one who broke into Marcus's personal safe and copied the transaction ledgers onto an encrypted flash drive three years ago?"

Vanessa’s lips parted. "I... I thought it was just financial papers. I thought maybe I could blackmail him into paying my credit cards."

"You found the only ledger that tied Eleanor’s shell corporation to the Geneva laboratory," Julian said. "You handed it to me in an envelope and told me it was garbage. You didn't know what it was, but your instincts knew Marcus was hiding something. You saved my life before this war even started."

Julian reached out, placing his gloved hand over her clenched fingers.

"She used you to keep me down. Now you're going to help me pull her down. We finish this together."

Vanessa looked at his hand, then up at his face—the calm, resolute brother she had tried so hard to destroy. A tight, fierce smile broke across her face.