CHAPTER 51Levi #2
The guards exchanged wary looks but shifted obligingly. The Board members squirmed. Tyler’s eyes darted to the journalists, his confidence starting to fracture.
With a satisfied smile, Levi hit record.
The screech of Tyler’s chair echoed through the room as he shot to his feet. “Turn that off !” he barked, pointing furiously across the table. “You don’t have my consent—or anyone else’s—to record this meeting!”
Levi reclined back in his chair like he had all the time in the world, a smug smile that was pure provocation played on his lips. His voice was taunting and dripping with careless confidence.
“Actually,” he said, angling the phone to zoom in on the surveillance signs posted clearly on the walls, “you all waived that right the second you walked into this building. As you can see, this entire space is under constant video surveillance.”
He turned the camera back on Tyler, his smile sharpening into something dangerous. “And since you haven’t voted to fire me yet, I’m still an employee, and fully entitled to my legal workplace accommodations under the Citizens with Disabilities Act.”
He let that hang for a moment before dropping the bomb.
“And since we’re talking about accommodations,” Levi kicked the sarcasm up a degree, his voice cool and razor-sharp, “let’s not forget that I’m dyslexic.
Officially diagnosed. Permanently protected.
And I am fully entitled to record meetings for my personal reference.
It’s in my file, Tyler. Would you like me to read it aloud for you, or would that be too ironic? ”
Tyler’s face flushed an ugly shade of red. His mouth opened, but nothing came out.
Levi leaned forward, the humor vanishing like a switch had been flipped. His gaze turned lethal, and when he spoke, his voice was razor-sharp and impossible to ignore, slicing through the room like a drawn knife.
“And I’ll never forget that Board meeting two months ago,” he said, his glare pinning Tyler like a bug under glass.
“When I reminded you that your job didn’t give you the license to interfere in our operations.
How you lost your badge access after tailgating an employee into a restricted area, or how you tried to coerce my developers into altering the code to collect personal data. ”
He turned the phone deliberately toward the reporters.
“I have the official meeting minutes if you’re interested. Would you like to know what this man said to me that day?” Both journalists fidgeted, eyes bright with anticipation. Levi savored the moment, then delivered the fatal strike.
“I told him if he was that desperate to be a developer, he should apply for the job. His response?” Levi paused for effect, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous purr.
“I’d be happy to send you my resume, but…I wonder if you’d be able to read it efficiently without someone to help you. We all know how difficult it is for you to do something so simple.”
Gasps rippled through the room. The reporters’ pens flew across their notepads. Even the security guards exchanged a disgusted look.
Levi sat back slowly, eyes glittering with cold satisfaction. “And since we’re laying all our cards on the table…” Levi ticked his fingers off one by one.
“One—You’ve harassed and discriminated against me for my disability.”
Tick.
“Two—You conspired with a now-former employee to deliberately orchestrate a data breach that miraculously hit the media before I even learned of it.”
Tick.
“Three, and perhaps most damning of all, someone leaked explicit photos of my wife in the middle of a vicious assault that just so happened to break at the exact same time as this data breach. And wouldn’t you know…
it all conveniently coincides with this little coup d'état you’ve been planning for months. ”
Tick.
The room was deathly silent, the faint hum of cool air passing through the vents echoing loudly through the room.
“Now,” he said, his voice low and lethal, “we all know you’ve been choreographing this moment since the day you thought you could run this company better than me. So, if you’ll kindly proceed with this pitiful attempt at humiliation by firing me publicly…I have better things to do with my time.”
Levi relaxed in his seat, pulling his backpack onto his lap.
“Oh…and the other founders of Neuronix? Our COO, CTO, CSO, and CMO?” His eyes danced in amusement as he patted his bag dramatically. “They’re packed and ready to go.”
His smile faded, his final words carrying the weight of a storm on the horizon.
“Whatever consequences you think you’ve prepared for, Tyler…” His voice dropped into a promise. “…you’re not ready for me .”
After delivering that final promise, Levi sat in the wreckage of the empire they’d stolen, quietly waiting for Tyler to deliver the final blow.
A blow Levi didn’t think would even affect him…after what happened with Aurelia, he had already lost everything.
Everyone gathered at Isaac and Grace’s house after the Board meeting.
Levi had called it perfectly: every calculated move, every smug expression, every humiliating blow.
Tyler executed his hostile takeover like a poorly written script he had been rehearsing for years.
Despite knowing it was coming, nothing prepared them for the final, brutal reality of watching the company they built from nothing slip through their fingers.
One financial outlet called it “ the most dramatic executive shake-up in recent history .”
Financially, they’d all be fine. That was never the worry.
Thanks to their annually renewed 10b5-1 trading plans, the moment their termination status hit the HR system, all their Neuronix stock automatically sold at top dollar. The market didn’t even have time to react before the transactions cleared.
Levi strode out of that boardroom richer than ever before. But what did it matter? They lost the only thing that meant something to them: their control in the company they bled for. No amount of wealth could buy that back.
Outside, the media frenzy exploded. Footage of the firings dominated every major network. But Levi had his own narrative to share.
He delivered the video of the Board meeting directly to the two reporters that followed him outside—and posted the now-infamous photo of him and Ivy to his public social media feed with a caption that was pure Levi:
Me and my Executive Assistant packed up and about to get fired in an “emergency board meeting.” #hostiletakeover #newsknewbeforeus #neuronix #freetime #tylerfaulknersucks #foundersfired
His friends followed suit with similar pointed posts:
Ivy, lounging with her feet up, smirking like a queen. Owen sprawled across his desk, chin resting on his fists like a bored model. Isaac dramatically tossing files into a recycling bin. Grace doodling across her reports with neon markers like she was back in kindergarten.
And when it was over, they all walked out together, finding strength in each other, smiling for the cameras as if it were another sunny day and not the collapse of their careers.
But the smiles faded the moment they stepped out of the spotlight. Now, behind closed doors, the finality of what happened was inescapable.
Levi didn’t think the day could possibly get any worse. But the universe, never one to be outdone, decided otherwise.
The sheriff’s cruiser pulled up behind him once he parked outside Isaac’s house.
Before he could even open his mouth, the envelope was pressed into his hands.
He was terrified to pull out the contents, but he forced himself to face it, stomach dropping as he read the cover page, the paper as heavy as a brick.
Divorce papers.
The warmth in the air evaporated, the temperature dropped, and everything turned to ice.
In an instant, the thin thread of hope he had been clinging to snapped, unraveling everything inside him. Losing the company was survivable.
But this? This…he wouldn’t recover from.
It felt like something had carved him out from the inside, scooping out every last piece until there was nothing left but an empty husk. That sudden coldness began to seep into that fresh gaping hole.
Somewhere along the way, he had fallen hopelessly in love with his wife.
The first inklings hit Levi in the early hours of the Harvest Charity Ball, but he wasn’t ready to admit it. Not until she went missing and his world stopped spinning.
And then, when she opened that hotel room door…when he saw her standing there and his heart was ripped straight from his chest, he reacted the only way his damaged soul knew how. He destroyed the one thing he couldn’t bear to lose.
Now it was too late.
The moment that scalding envelope burned his hands, every dream of fixing things—of fighting for her—turned to ash.
Levi didn’t remember walking inside. Didn’t remember sitting on the couch. Someone spoke to him, but the words didn’t land.
A hand rested gently on his shoulder, trying to pull him back from wherever he had fallen…he couldn’t feel it.
Someone knelt in front of him, their voice breaking with urgency, but it barely registered. He stared through them, eyes dull and unfocused, as if sound, light, and meaning had all drained from the world.
He was just…
Gone.