- 2.
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No one in my major believed her, but all her
simps did, including my boyfriend.
My boyfriend, Brian, wouldn’t stop going on
about Jessica. How beautiful, how graceful.
I broke up with him to set him free, and he
says he sees her as celebrity and I was the
one he truly loved.
I was naive then. Brian was my family’s help’s
son, we grew up together. He always tried to
make me happy, and I thought he truly
cherished our relationship.
And I wasn’t perfect. I spent most of my time
in the lab. Brian always joked that
programming was my boyfriend, he was just
the side piece.
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But now, looking at Jessica’s profile, I spotted
a picture of a fancy hotel room. The window
reflected two guys. One was my cousin, clear
as day. The other only showed an arm, with a
scar on the thumb. I recognized it. Brian.
The way the shot was framed, Jessica had
obviously put my cousin in the shot and cut
Brian out. She must not have been into him,
just keeping him on the hook.
My gut was telling me these weird
coincidences had to do with Brian and my
cousin.
My cousin was from my uncle’s side. His
parents died young, and he grew up with us.
But I couldn’t figure out why they’d do this.
<
Why screw me over for some random girl?
And how were they pulling it off? How was
Jessica always getting her hands on my
code?
Were they messing with my computer?
I went straight to checking for spyware, but I
found nothing.
Was this just a freak accident?
The goal of the competition was to beef up
our defenses and stop foreign hackers from
stealing money from people’s accounts.
But the payment systems already on the
market could handle that. On that note, I
deleted all my old code.
Г
I coded the most common solutions and
uploaded it to my computer to see if Jessica
copies them.
With that done, I finally headed home. As I
pulled in, my cousin did too.
He started in with the snide remarks the
second he saw me. “Well, well, if it isn’t our
coding genius! Having a little trouble with
your program?”
My parents always preferred the smart kid,
and that was usually me. My cousin had
always been jealous.
Before, I would’ve ignored him. But now, I was
on high alert. How did he know I was
struggling with my program?
“It’s going great, actually. If nothing goes
wrong, I’ll win first place.”
My cousin shot back, “Don’t count on it!
You’re not winning anything this time.”
Hearing the commotion, my dad came out. He
ran a small finance company.
Last time, I was his golden child. Top grades,
always winning competitions. He was so
proud of me, said I got my smarts from him.
I even helped him optimize some of his
company’s programs. But the second I was
accused of plagiarism, he did a complete 180.
He was ashamed of me, asked why I was still
alive.
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He and my cousin kicked me out, and I died
alone in a hospital.
Thinking about it, I clenched my fists.
Now, Dad was all smiles. “I believe in my
daughter. She’s like me, always comes out on
top.
Once your system is good, I’ll change my
company’s system and use yours!”
I forced down my anxiety and did my best to
play along.
My cousin scoffed and went to bed. My dad
told me to get some rest.
I agreed, but as soon as I was in my room, I
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started searching for hidden cameras. I
turned the place upside down, but found
nothing.
Then I booted up the family computer and
checked Jessica’s profile.
Nothing new. Was I just being paranoid?
If so, great. I already had ideas on how to optimize the system. I’d get to work at the lab
first thing in the morning.
