Chapter 3

Back home, without even taking a bite of food, I immediately plugged in the flash drive to send the drafts to my client.

The moment I opened the folder, I froze.

The source files were completely gone.

In their place were a few corrupted temp files and Amber's saved PowerPoint presentation.

Panicking, I tried using data recovery software, messing with it for three agonizing hours.

In the end, all I recovered was a mess of broken layers and unreadable pixels.

Amber hadn't just "borrowed" my work.

She had directly edited over my source files, saving over them and corrupting them in the process.

Two weeks of hard work, sleepless nights, and physical pain—all destroyed in an instant.

At 10 PM, the beep of the smart lock sounded at the door.

Ethan walked in carrying a beautifully packaged cake.

He set it on the coffee table, speaking to me as if coaxing a spoiled child.

"Alright, stop being mad. I was a bit harsh earlier today."

"This is your favorite cake. I stood in line for half an hour to get it. Consider it my apology."

I looked down at the cake.

Inside the clear box was a green matcha crepe cake.

I have a severe matcha allergy. Just one bite would cause my neck to break out in hives.

We had been together for three whole years, and he couldn't even remember my dietary restrictions.

Yet, I clearly remembered that Amber's desk was always stocked with matcha-flavored snacks.

"I can't eat this," I said, looking up at him coldly.

"Also, Amber ruined my source files."

Ethan stopped taking off his coat, turned around, and knitted his brows tightly.

"Chloe, are you serious right now?"