Chloe smiled politely.
“We’re sure you’ll find a small apartment somewhere in the city,” she said sweetly.
Ryan spun his Porsche keys and smirked.
“Yeah, sis. Time for you to leave the nest.”
They had no idea I had spent five years secretly building a cybersecurity startup with a partner. And they definitely didn’t know the company had just been sold three hours earlier.
“Fine,” I said quietly. “I’ll get out of your way.”
An Uber pulled up. I got inside and checked my phone.
A message from my partner appeared:
The deal closed.
I opened my banking app.
Balance: $46,000,000.
For the first time in years, I felt calm.
“Where to?” the driver asked.
“The Four Seasons,” I said.
That night I checked into the presidential suite, took a long hot shower, turned my phone to silent, and slept better than I had in a decade.
When I woke up the next morning, my phone showed 83 missed calls.
Most were from my parents. The rest were from Ryan and Chloe.
Something had clearly changed.
I opened the news.
The top headline on the Wall Street Journal read:
Cybersecurity startup sold for $200 million. Co-founder Emma revealed.
Below the headline was my photo.
Now they understood.