Chapter 78
Chapter 78:
Sterling glanced at it. “Who cares about The Bronx p>
Lance looked closer. He saw the address of the main building. It was the building where Arthur Vance used to work.
Lance looked at Sterling. He realized, with a sudden clarity, that Sterling was playing checkers while Aurora was playing chess with a flamethrower.
Sterling sat in the back of his limo, scrolling through Twitter. The Lancelot rejection was trending. People were calling him the “Wall Street Blunderkind p>
Then he saw the other news. Pulse Interactive Partners with Professor Yinn.
The photo showed Yinn shaking hands with Victor King. In the background, blurred but unmistakable to anyone who knew her, was a silhouette in a beige trench coat.
Sterling zoomed in. The posture. The hair. The way she stood with the quiet confidence of someone who owned the room.
“It’s her,” he whispered. “She isn’t just working there. She’s running it p>
A cold wave of realization washed over him. Lance had told him about the Yinn deal, but seeing Aurora in the frame changed everything. This wasn’t just a business loss; it was a personal dismantling. She was not just surviving without him; she was thriving in the very arena he claimed to dominate.
Panic set in. Real, cold panic. If she was at Pulse, and Pulse had Yinn… and if she was the Phoenix, as the code suggested…
He yelled at the driver. “Pull over p>
He grabbed his phone. He needed her. He needed her to fix the code. He needed her to explain the Lancelot tech. He needed to beg.
He dialed her number.
Ring. Ring.
𝕃𝖆𝙩𝓮𝑠𝖙 с𝗁𝓪𝗉𝓉𝗲𝗋𝗌
Aurora sat in the back of her SUV, driving toward Lionel Long’s office. Her phone buzzed. Sterling Thorne.
She looked at the name. She didn’t feel anger. She felt nothing.
She pressed the red button. Decline.
Sterling stared at his phone. She… she sent me to voicemail?
He dialed again.
The subscriber you are trying to reach is not available.
“She blocked me,” Sterling whispered. The realization hit him harder than the rejection. She blocked me.
He threw the phone. It hit the partition glass and cracked.
He started hyperventilating. He didn’t know where she lived now. He didn’t know her email. He had erased her from his life, and now that he needed her, she was a ghost.
He called Isabella on the car’s intercom.
“Isabella! Where is she p>
“I don’t know!” Isabella snapped. “But hey, Zack did the thing. He said he really rattled the old man p>
Sterling didn’t care. “Shut up about the old man! I need Aurora p>