No Second Chances: A Founder's Regret

No Second Chances: A Founder's Regret

Serena Light

5.0
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For a decade, I poured my soul into InnovateNext, transforming it from a garage startup into a Silicon Valley unicorn, building its core technology from scratch as CTO, all alongside the man I loved, Ethan Vance. Today, the eve of our massive IPO, was supposed to be our shared triumph. Instead, I walked into the boardroom to find a perfectly poised stranger, Chloe Hayes, sitting in my chair, the one next to Ethan. He introduced her as our new COO, the very position he had promised me for years, casually informing me she' d be taking my office, too. My blood ran cold as I heard him parrot corporate jargon about her "polish" and "background," realizing he chose his high school ex-girlfriend over me-the woman who had saved his company from bankruptcy and coded for 72 hours straight, collapsing in the process. The betrayal was absolute, reducing ten years of my life, my sacrifice, my very worth, to a mere "business decision." But what he didn't realize was that when he took everything, he also freed me. He was about to discover what happens when you discard the architect and expect the building to stand.

Introduction

For a decade, I poured my soul into InnovateNext, transforming it from a garage startup into a Silicon Valley unicorn, building its core technology from scratch as CTO, all alongside the man I loved, Ethan Vance.

Today, the eve of our massive IPO, was supposed to be our shared triumph.

Instead, I walked into the boardroom to find a perfectly poised stranger, Chloe Hayes, sitting in my chair, the one next to Ethan.

He introduced her as our new COO, the very position he had promised me for years, casually informing me she' d be taking my office, too.

My blood ran cold as I heard him parrot corporate jargon about her "polish" and "background," realizing he chose his high school ex-girlfriend over me-the woman who had saved his company from bankruptcy and coded for 72 hours straight, collapsing in the process.

The betrayal was absolute, reducing ten years of my life, my sacrifice, my very worth, to a mere "business decision."

But what he didn't realize was that when he took everything, he also freed me.

He was about to discover what happens when you discard the architect and expect the building to stand.

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The last thing I remembered was the splintering pain as I tumbled down the stairs. My mother-in-law, Martha, stood at the top, her face a mask of cold satisfaction. "You should have just stayed in your place, Sarah. None of this had to happen." Her words were crueler than the impact that shattered my bones. My vision blurred to a dark red. The last image in my mind wasn't of her, but of my daughter, Lily, her tiny body limp in my arms. Lily was dead because of Martha. And now, so was I. My husband, Mark, would believe his mother. He always did. My death would be just another inconvenience for them. Then, a sudden, blinding light. I shot up, drenched in sweat. My room was familiar. My hands were whole. No pain. My phone buzzed. October 12th. The day Lily died. Pure terror washed over me. This had to be a dream. But the room was real. My frantic heartbeat was real. I had come back. I was given a second chance. Not for forgiveness. Not for reconciliation. A chance for revenge. The submissive Sarah was gone, shattered at the bottom of those stairs. The woman who woke up was forged in betrayal and grief. Lily was downstairs with Martha. Martha, who in a few hours, would give my peanut-allergic daughter a "special" peanut cookie. The same Martha who dismissed Lily' s deadly allergy as "just a little sensitivity." They didn' t believe me. Or they didn' t care. The result was the same. My daughter died. Not this time. I ran. The smell of sweet, nutty death filled the air. I burst into the kitchen, just as Martha offered Lily the cookies. "No!" I ripped the plate from her hand, shattering it in the sink. "You will never, ever eat Grandma's cookies," I told Lily, holding her close. "They will make you very, very sick." Martha puffed out her chest. "Peanut isn't going to kill anyone. It builds up tolerance." The same words she'd used before. The same excuses that put my daughter in a casket. But I wasn't that woman anymore. "You are a stupid, stubborn old woman," I said, cold and clear. "Your 'wisdom' is going to get someone killed." I knew all their secrets now. The game had changed. And I was making the rules.

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I died on a Tuesday. It wasn't a quick death. It was slow, cold, and meticulously planned by the man who called himself my father. I was twenty years old. He needed my kidney to save my sister. The spare part for the golden child. I remember the blinding lights of the operating theater, the sterile smell of betrayal, and the phantom pain of a surgeon's scalpel carving into my flesh while my screams echoed unheard. I remember looking through the observation glass and seeing him-my father, Giovanni Vitiello, the Don of the Chicago Outfit-watching me die with the same detached expression he used when signing a death warrant. He chose her. He always chose her. And then, I woke up. Not in heaven. Not in hell. But in my own bed, a year before my scheduled execution. My body was whole, unscarred. The timeline had reset, a glitch in the cruel matrix of my existence, giving me a second chance I never asked for. This time, when my father handed me a one-way ticket to London-an exile disguised as a severance package-I didn't cry. I didn't beg. My heart, once a bleeding wound, was now a block of ice. He didn't know he was talking to a ghost. He didn't know I had already lived through his ultimate betrayal. He also didn't know that six months ago, during the city's brutal territory wars, I was the one who saved his most valuable asset. In a secret safe house, I stitched up the wounds of a blinded soldier, a man whose life hung by a thread. He never saw my face. He only knew my voice, the scent of vanilla, and the steady touch of my hands. He called me Sette. Seven. For the seven stitches I put in his shoulder. That man was Dante Moretti. The Ruthless Capo. The man my sister, Isabella, is now set to marry. She stole my story. She claimed my actions, my voice, my scent. And Dante, the man who could spot a lie from a mile away, believed the beautiful deception because he wanted it to be true. He wanted the golden girl to be his savior, not the invisible sister who was only ever good for her spare parts. So I took the ticket. In my past life, I fought them, and they silenced me on an operating table. This time, I will let them have their perfect, gilded lie. I will go to London. I will disappear. I will let Seraphina Vitiello die on that plane. But I will not be a victim. This time, I will not be the lamb led to slaughter. This time, from the shadows of my exile, I will be the one holding the match. And I will wait, with the patience of the dead, to watch their entire world burn. Because a ghost has nothing to lose, and a queen of ashes has an empire to gain.

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