Julian stood there, his world tilting on its axis.
"Impossible," he muttered. "How could Lily lie to me?"
His phone buzzed again. It was the subordinate.

"M-Mr. Vance! When is Ms. Lane coming? We're under a cyber attack! The whole network is down, and the users are rioting!"
"Get the tech team! Get outside contractors! Can you people not survive five minutes without Elena?"
Julian hung up, furious. He turned and sprinted toward the exit, but the elevator was taking forever. Impatient, he shoved open the door to the stairwell.
He had only gone down two flights when he heard noises coming from the landing below.
Gross noises.
Specifically, the shameless moans of a man and a woman going at it.

"Oh, Doctor…
"Come on, Reynolds, I've been giving you everything you want..." The woman's voice was wheedling, sickeningly sweet. "Can't you spice up my diagnosis a little? Just write that Elena drove me crazy. Say she pushed me to the brink of suicide."
A man's voice answered, heavy with panting and greed. "You little vixen... Why do you have to mess with Elena? If you're going to be a homewrecker, stay in your lane. Why bully the wife?"
"You don't get it," she hissed. "I need Julian to hate her guts. That's the only way I get access to the company. Do you have any idea how much his company is worth right now? I never thought that lapdog had it in him... Mmm, yeah, harder..."

The woman spewing this garbage was none other than Lily, Julian's so-called 'innocent' childhood sweetheart.
Standing just outside the door, Julian felt his world shatter.
The rage did not just hit him–it possessed him. He burst into the room and slapped Lily across the face so hard that it echoed.
"You witch!" he screamed. The humiliation of being played, of being treated like a clueless ATM, blinded him. He turned on Dr. Reynolds and went full Spartan-kick, sending the man tumbling down the stairs.
Lily froze, then dissolved into hysterics, begging for mercy, but Julian was not listening. He kept slapping her, over and over.
Her screams eventually summoned hospital security. They took one look at the scene and called the cops. Julian was hauled off to jail for assault before he could even process what had happened.
A few days later, Julian stumbled out of the police station, looking like a zombie who had not slept in a week. His subordinates were waiting for him at the gate, but they were not there for a happy reunion. They looked terrified.
"Mr. Vance! Mr. Vance, it's a disaster," one of them stammered. "Three of our biggest contracts just got voided. The clients all jumped ship to a firm in Harbor City. And the flagship software? It got flagged for violations and pulled from the market. We're looking at massive fines."
"Mr. Vance, please," another begged. "You have to get Ms. Lane back. She's the only one who can fix this. Without her, we're bankrupt."
Julian stood there, swaying slightly, trying to make sense of the noise.
"Impossible..." he muttered. "That's impossible. We're industry leaders. Everyone wants to work with us."
"Sir, don't you get it?" the employee snapped, losing patience. "They never cared about the company. They wanted Ms. Lane's designs. Now that she's gone, we're nothing!"
The words hit Julian like a physical blow. He slowly looked up, the fog finally clearing.
"Right... Elena," he whispered. Then he shouted, "I have to find Elena! She's the only one who can save me!"
He did not care about the ambulance investigation anymore. He did not care about justice. He just needed his golden goose back. He finally realized that without me, he was just a man in a fancy suit with nowhere to go.