"If you're here to talk me into partnering with him, I've already made it crystal clear to Jared. That's not happening."

The smile on Stephanie's face stalled out. Her voice went soft and high.

"Chloe, don't be so absolute about it — Jared and I really do want to work with you. He thinks so highly of you. How can you not trust him?"

I didn't give her anything gentle back.

"I've already been through his motivational-speaker routine."

"Besides. Say I did partner with him. What's it to you? Do you plan to knock out our competition during the review?"

Stephanie's small face went pale. Her eyes filled.

"Enough, Chloe."

Jared, of course, was right there — I hadn't seen him come up. He pulled the outraged-protective-boss face.

"Is partnering with me really this much to ask from you? Is my word worth that little?"

"Steph came over in good faith to help me bring you around. I thought a woman-to-woman conversation would be easier. I did not think you'd be this sharp with her."

Stephanie teared up at the praise and tugged delicately at Jared's sleeve.

"Jared, please don't speak to Chloe that way. She must have her reasons. I'm fine."

I could hear the whispers already starting up around us.

"Wait, she's not pairing with Jared? How come?"

"No idea. Those two are tight, aren't they?"

"Hey — maybe she's playing both sides. Announces publicly she's solo, pairs off-registry, ends up in the solo pool with a secret edge."

"Wouldn't surprise me. If they skip HR, I'm the first one filing a report the day after the deadline."

Jared clearly heard the same whispers. He leaned closer, voice low, confident now.

"Chloe, don't throw a tantrum. The entire floor already thinks we're pairing. If someone actually files, it hurts all of us."

"Is this about me bringing Steph along? Her family asked me to look out for her. Or is it about the terms? We can negotiate terms."

That greasy, "I-only-want-what's-best-for-you, don't-be-difficult" face was about to turn my stomach.

I spread my hands.

"Sorry, Jared. I said no. It's no."

He hadn't expected the flat refusal. He was starting to lose his composure.

"Fine. Be straight with me. Have you already lined up somebody else?"

Stephanie kept feeding him.

"It's okay, Chloe. If you have someone else in mind, just say it. We won't hold it against you."

I was done. I turned and walked back to my desk.

Jared stormed off with Stephanie in tow, face gray.

I knew him — petty, grudge-keeping — the retaliation was going to be quick.

I was right. That afternoon, at the department stand-up, he redistributed the Riverside Capital account I had been working for three straight months to Stephanie.

"Chloe, you're a senior presence here. Mentor the new talent. That's leadership."

The whole room went silent.

Riverside was about to sign. I'd been killing myself over that account. It was a commission bonanza, a week out from close.

Stephanie smiled at me across the table like a cherub. "Thank you for all your groundwork, Chloe. I'll definitely close this one for the team."

I stared them down. Then I rolled my eyes and went back to my notebook.

At end of day I went back to Summit Corporate Housing — the Hell's Kitchen complex Summit subsidized for junior employees.

Mrs. Wyndham, the building manager, was standing outside my apartment door.

My stomach dropped.

She handed me a printed notice without preamble.

"Ms. Ellsworth. Your manager, Mr. Harrington, and HR have jointly flagged you today. The memo cites serious attitude concerns. You're under review."

I lit Jared up under my breath a thousand times.

He knew. He knew I had just barely gotten a toehold in this city. He knew I couldn't afford to lose this job.

I tried. "Ma'am, this is malicious — "

"I don't get involved in office politics."

Mrs. Wyndham cut me off.

"Policy's policy. Corporate Housing is for employees in good standing. It is not a boarding house."

"If you can't hold on to the job, you need to find a new place by the end of the week."

Something hard and airless clamped down on my throat. My fists were locked.

"If I tell you I am not getting fired?"

Mrs. Wyndham wasn't expecting pushback. She laughed, short and dry.

"Then either you sort it out with your manager, or you start packing. Don't stand out here and give me attitude."

I had to laugh. Same playbook, different mouthpiece.

Any time I pushed back, Jared would turn another mechanism against me. He'd keep pressing until I folded.

A coworker on my floor came up the hall just then and tried to play peacemaker.

"Chloe, just leave it. You know — sometimes you've gotta eat a little humble pie. Jared's been fine, usually. Probably just a misunderstanding. Go apologize. Get it over with."

She wasn't going to believe a word about my previous life. Nobody would.

"Okay. I'll handle it tomorrow."

I turned and walked into my apartment without expression.

Behind me, Mrs. Wyndham sniffed. "Should've started there."

I deadbolted the door behind me.

The next day, I went to Jared.

"Running to building management, sabotaging a coworker's housing — when did you get this cheap, Jared?"

He didn't even flinch at being called out.

"Sorry, Chloe. You forced the issue. If you won't pair, I had to use what I had."

What a performer.

Yesterday he was icing me out for Stephanie. Today, the minute he thought I was cracking, he was back to concerned-manager mode.

"I can agree. But you meet me on a few conditions."

Stephanie swooped in.

"Really? Oh my god, that's great, Chloe. Name your terms. Jared and I will work with whatever you need."

I was supposedly the core of this whole partnership, and Stephanie had framed me as the person being granted a favor.

I ignored her.

"One. All core data and final deliverables live on my machine, under my custody, from here to the end."

"Two. We do not file with HR. This pairing stays off the registry. No one outside this room knows."

Jared visibly hesitated at "off the registry." Skipping HR was a violation. The downside was ugly.

I kept piling on.

"You've both told me, repeatedly, how sincere you are about this partnership. From a risk perspective, what I'm asking is minimal. Or is the problem that you're only comfortable when I'm the one holding the risk?"

"That is not what I meant." Jared shifted. "Custody is fine. The off-registry piece — that's significant exposure."

I looked at him like I was explaining to a child.

"High risk is where the upside is. With what the three of us can put on the board, we want to be in the solo pool. Mixed in with the free agents, we run away with it."

"You don't get many chances in a career to crush the field on easy mode."

Stephanie lit up.

"Jared. Chloe's right. If none of us says anything, who would ever find out?"

She was batting those bright, innocent eyes, caught up in the math of it.

Eventually, money won. Jared nodded.

For the next couple of months, the three of us ran a play-act of falling out. They thought they had me handled. I didn't care — I clocked in on time, memorized the core model line by line on my own, and locked the most important client data where only I had the key.

And then the final year-end evaluation arrived.

I walked into the System evaluation room alone. The countdown on the big screen ticked to zero. A clean chime. The System locked. No partnership status could be changed from that point forward.

A second later, the partnership chat inside my head lit up, chimes banging.

"Chloe. What are you doing? We present in two minutes. Send me the core data model. NOW."

Jared's voice, irritated. Entitled.

Stephanie right behind him: "Yeah, Chloe, don't play games. That model is Jared's blood-work. Don't try to take it all for yourself."

I stared at their gibbering in the chat. I calmly pulled up the System panel and clicked Terminate Partnership.

In my previous life, in this exact moment, they had stripped me of everything I'd built and kicked me out.

This time, we ended it differently.

I smiled, cold, and pressed Confirm.

"Right. Keep your own blood, sweat, and tears."