1 On our fifth anniversary, Laurie flaked at the last minute, claiming a sudden emergency at the office. Seeing how crushed I was, my best friend, Jasper, and my younger brother, Sam, offered to take me to the amusement park. All day long, they went out of their way to pamper me, buying cotton candy and waiting in line for roller coasters. I genuinely thought they just couldn’t stand seeing me down. That was until I went to grab drinks and overheard them whispering behind the vending machines. Jasper lowered his voice. “Laurie blew off their fifth anniversary just to chase the Northern Lights in Iceland with Simon.” Sam shrugged it off. “She’s just helping her first love cross an item off his bucket list. So what? At the end of the day, she’s still marrying my brother.” Jasper let out a quiet chuckle. “We just need to keep Sean distracted until tonight so he doesn’t catch on.” Standing behind the vending machine, a wave of bitter irony washed over me. What I mistook for sympathy was nothing more than an elaborate cover story orchestrated by the people I trusted most. I tossed the drinks into the trash, turned on my heel, and walked out of the park. I pulled out my phone and sent Laurie one final text: You can watch the Northern Lights with him. You can give him the rest of your life, too. Then, I blocked her. I left every group chat with Jasper and my brother. I was done playing my part in a circus where everyone knew the script except me. I hadn’t been walking for ten minutes before Sam caught up to me. He grabbed my wrist, showing no guilt whatsoever, only annoyance. “Sean, why are you running off like that? Jasper waited in line for an hour to get fireworks tickets.” Jasper rushed over too, shoving his phone back into his pocket. “We were just chatting casually. Why do you always take things out of context?” I looked at them. “What was the context I missed?” Sam choked on his words for a second, then scowled. “Simon has had severe trauma since he survived that avalanche two years ago. The doctor said going back to an aurora observation site helps with recovery. What’s wrong with Laurie keeping him company?” “So there was no emergency at the office.” “Laurie was just worried you’d overthink things,” Jasper said, softening his tone. “Sean, she’s planning to propose to you as soon as she gets back. Why ruin a five-year relationship over something so small?” I suddenly laughed out loud. They had mapped out my entire day, calculating when I should eat and when I should watch the fireworks. The only thing they hadn’t calculated was that I would overhear the truth. My phone vibrated in my palm. Laurie was calling from an unknown number. The moment I picked up, her voice came through. “Unblock me.” In the background, I could hear the howling arctic wind. And Simon’s voice. “Laurie, come quick. The sky is lighting up.” Laurie covered the receiver, her voice turning distant for a second before returning, calm as ever. “The safety emergency was real. After I resolved it, I just happened to join him on the trip.” “A detour from Boston all the way to Iceland?” Silence hung on the other end for two full seconds. “Sean, stop twisting my words.” “I’m not twisting anything. I’ve let it go.” “I saw your text,” her tone turned cold. “It’s fine if you’re disappointed or angry, but don’t test me with breakups.” Jasper immediately chimed in. “Sean, just let her stay with Simon until his treatment session is over. We can talk when she gets back.” Sam added from the side, “If Laurie actually still liked Simon, would you even have had a chance with her for the past five years?” That sentence pierced my eardrums like a needle. Laurie must have heard it too, because her voice softened slightly. “I’ll be back in three days. The launch for the Boreal System is that same day. Make sure you finalize the presentation slides.” The Boreal System was an early warning risk control software I had spent four years building. During the hardest stretch, I slept in the office for three straight months. Laurie had once placed an aurora snow globe on my desk, promising that when the system officially launched, she would take me to see the real Northern Lights. Now, as the system was about to be released, she had gone to see them with someone else first. “Laurie, we’re broken up.” She let out a soft sigh. “You’re just speaking out of anger. Sean, don’t make me deal with your emotions when I get back.” The line went dead. Sam rubbed his nose and reached out to pull me. “Alright, Laurie explained everything. Let’s go, the fireworks are starting.” I dodged his hand and took a cab home alone. In the entryway sat the custom watch Laurie had given me two months ago. Underneath the box was an Iceland travel brochure. I used to think it was a subtle hint at a proposal. Now I realized it was just a page dropped from Simon’s itinerary. The computer in the study was still on. Laurie’s corporate account hadn’t logged out, and an itinerary confirmation email was centered on the screen. The flight was booked two weeks ago. The hotel was an aurora view suite. The guests listed were Laurie and Simon. The so-called emergency was a lie prepared for me from the start. Just as I was about to close the tab, a new email popped up. The sender was Jasper. Subject: PR Contingency Plan Regarding Mr. Sean’s Exit from the Boreal Project. Sent three days ago. I opened the attachment. The very first line read: If Sean discovers the Iceland trip, his brother, Sam, will handle comforting him, while Jasper delays him. And on the last page, there were two words personally approved by Laurie: Approved. The next morning, Laurie sent her assistant over with a necklace. The assistant placed the velvet box on the table with a smile. “Ms. Gosling said this is an anniversary gift. She hopes you can cool off and join the launch rehearsal on time this afternoon.” The pendant was a silver snowflake. Identical to the one I received on my birthday three years ago. I flipped over the bottom of the box and saw the duty-free receipt. Location: Iceland Airport. Quantity: Two. I pushed the box back across the table. “Thank her for me, but please tell her to give this to someone more suitable.” The assistant looked awkward. “Mr. Sean, Ms. Gosling also said that the Boreal project is at a critical stage. It’s best not to bring personal feelings into work.” I raised my eyes. “Take a message back to her for me too: Don’t use other people’s hard work to please her ex.” That afternoon, I went to the company headquarters. A massive poster hung by the entrance of the launch hall. Laurie’s name was at the top, and Simon stood right beside her, labeled as the Creative Founder of the Boreal System. My name was completely gone. Jasper was directing the staff to swap seat tags. When he saw me, he immediately dragged me aside. “Why are you here early?” “If I didn’t come early, how would I know someone else is sitting in my seat?” He lowered his voice. “This is just a marketing strategy. Simon is an avalanche survivor. Using his story gives the media a narrative they actually want to cover.” “So you erased my name.” “Ms. Gosling said that true achievers don’t need to obsess over credit.” I stared at the man who had been my friend for twelve years. When he was maliciously fired by his previous employer, I brought him into Laurie’s company and begged her to make him the PR Director. The first time he received a bonus, he hugged me crying, swearing he would never let me down. Now, he was using the crisis management skills I taught him to manage me. The giant screen suddenly lit up. Laurie joined the video conference remotely from Iceland. She wore a black parka, with a snow-covered wooden cabin behind her. Simon was wrapped in her scarf, sitting by the fireplace. “Let’s start the rehearsal,” she said. I stepped in front of the camera lens. “Who approved that poster?” When Laurie saw me, her brows furrowed. “Simon’s story has more marketing value. After the press conference, I will credit your contributions in an internal memo.” “I don’t want an internal memo.” Simon rose from the sofa and interrupted softly. “Sean, don’t blame Laurie. I just felt a personal connection to the name Boreal, so I agreed to help promote it.” He raised his hand to adjust his scarf, revealing a woven cord on his wrist. I had woven that cord for Laurie myself. Embedded in the knot was an old microchip, the processor that burned out during the very first successful test run of the Boreal System. Laurie had said it was proof of what we endured together. I asked, “Where did you get the item on your wrist?” Simon subconsciously glanced at Laurie. Laurie said indifferently, “It’s just an old cord. He liked it, so he took it.” “That’s mine.” “Sean,” her tone grew sharp. “Don’t make a scene in front of the employees.” Whispers erupted among the staff below. Sam arrived out of nowhere and gestured to me from the front row. “Sean, come down first. Simon is just borrowing it. There’s no need to throw a fit over something so trivial.” I didn’t move an inch. “The core architecture of the Boreal System belongs to me. As of today, I am revoking the authorization.” The hall fell dead silent. Laurie’s gaze darkened. “All your development was completed at the company. The intellectual property belongs to the firm.” “The initial version was written before I ever joined this company. The original source code and copyright registrations are all under my personal name.” Jasper’s face drained of color. Sam rushed onto the stage and grabbed my arm. “Are you insane, Sean? The company invested tens of millions into this project. Revoking authorization now, are you trying to force Laurie to fly back just to soothe your ego?” I pulled my arm free. “I’m simply taking back what belongs to me.” Laurie stared at me through the screen for a moment, then let out a cold laugh. “You won’t do it.” “What?” “You spent four years pouring your soul into Boreal. It’s like your child. You won’t actually destroy it.” She was so certain. Certain that I couldn’t let go of the project, and certain that I couldn’t let go of her. “Continue the rehearsal,” Laurie instructed her assistant. “Temporarily suspend Sean’s backend access. We’ll restore it once he cools down.” The screen went dark. Security guards walked up to me and politely asked me to leave. As the elevator doors were closing, I saw two staff members carrying cardboard boxes out of the R&D department. Inside the boxes were my original handwritten calculation manuscripts. Stuck on top was an international shipping label. Destination: The wooden cabin in Iceland where Laurie and Simon were staying. I intercepted the two boxes. The assistant stepped in front of me. “Mr. Sean, this is Ms. Gosling’s arrangement.” “These manuscripts are my personal property.” “Ms. Gosling said Mr. Simon needs to understand the development process for his interview tomorrow.” I tore off the shipping label and hugged the manuscripts to my chest. “If he wants to tell a story, let him tell his own.” The assistant tried to stop me again, but Sam charged out of the elevator and yanked the boxes out of my hands. “Sean, stop throwing a tantrum!” His movement was too violent. The bottom of the box ripped open, sending hundreds of pages of manuscripts scattering across the floor. A passing employee dropped a cup of coffee, spilling brown liquid right onto the oldest stack of calculation sheets. I knelt down to pick them up. The edges of the paper were soaked through, crumbling at the slightest touch. Those were the very last data sets my father had helped me check before he passed away. He didn’t understand programming, so he wore his reading glasses, checking every single number line by line. Sam caught sight of the handwriting on the paper, and his expression froze. “They’re just a few draft pages. Everything is backed up on the cloud anyway.” I looked up at him. “This is Dad’s handwriting.” His lips twitched, but he quickly averted his eyes. “If Dad were still alive, he wouldn’t want to see you ruin Laurie’s company either.” Jasper knelt down to help me gather the papers, whispering, “Sean, once the Boreal launch succeeds, Laurie is giving you a five percent profit share. If you cooperate now, everyone wins.” “You all knew she was giving the creator credit to Simon, didn’t you?” His hands stopped. I asked again, “Iceland, the itinerary, the project, what else have you been keeping from me?” Sam answered impatiently, “Laurie just owes Simon an closure. They broke up back then because Simon went on a mountain survey for her and got caught in an avalanche.” “And?” “And so Boreal was originally something Laurie wanted to build for him!” Sam glared at me. “You were just the engineer who executed her vision.” Four years of development. Over fourteen hundred sleepless nights. In my brother’s mouth, it all boiled down to being the engineer who executed her vision. I picked up the dry manuscripts and turned to walk away. Laurie’s video call came through to the assistant’s phone. “Put him on.” The assistant handed the phone over. It was late at night in Iceland. Simon was asleep, resting his head on Laurie’s shoulder. She didn’t push him away, only kept her voice hushed. “Simon has an interview tomorrow morning. Hand over the manuscripts.” “No.” “Sean, stop being unreasonable.” “Laurie, do you have any idea that my father’s final notes are on these papers?” She went quiet for a moment. “I’ll hire an expert to restore them.” “Some things can’t be restored.” “Then rewrite them,” her voice carried a hint of exhaustion. “You’re a professional engineer. There’s no need to make things hard for a recovering patient over a few old sheets of paper.” Jasper reminded her from the side, “Ms. Gosling, the media already knows Simon is the project founder. If we don’t have the original manuscripts, the interview will fall apart.” Laurie didn’t hesitate. “Take the manuscripts.” The assistant took a step forward. As I backed away, my spine hit the wall, and the papers slipped from my arms again. Sam took the chance to grab the box, while Jasper blocked my path. Jasper whispered, “Once the launch is over, I’ll personally help you get them back.” “What makes you think you have the right to get anything back for me?” Jasper avoided my eyes. Over the phone speaker, Laurie settled the matter as effortlessly as she always did. “After the project concludes, I’ll stay at the family estate with you for a few days, and we’ll restore your father’s study to exactly how it was.” “What happened to the family estate?” The surrounding air instantly went still. Sam’s face turned ghostly pale. I glared at him. “What did you do to the estate?” “The company was short on cash flow last year, so Laurie used the house as collateral for a loan,” he stammered out. “It was just for temporary liquidity.” That house was the only legacy our father left us. Ownership was split fifty-fifty between us. My signature had never appeared on a single mortgage document. “Who signed my name?” Sam clutched the box tighter. “Sean, Laurie promised to buy me a new apartment. I just thought the old house was sitting empty anyway.” “I asked you, who signed my name?” His eyes turned red as he snapped back, “I forged your signature! But Laurie promised that once Boreal succeeds, the loan will be paid off immediately!” Laurie didn’t deny it. She remained composed on the call. “Sean, I will explain everything when I return. Sign the authorization extension right now, otherwise the bank will recall the loan early, and the estate will be repossessed.” The assistant conveniently handed over a pen and the legal document. The signature flag was already attached to the final page. I looked at my brother, looked at my best friend, and looked at the woman on the screen who had once promised to protect everything I cherished. Then, I took the pen. Laurie’s tense brows finally relaxed. What she failed to notice was that in the authorization duration column, I didn’t write Permanent. I wrote 72 Hours. Laurie didn’t contact me the day she landed. Instead, photos from the airport trending online took over the news. In the shots, she was pushing Simon’s luggage with one hand while keeping her other hand around his waist. They were both wearing matching red cords on their wrists. The caption read: A Decade-Long Aurora Promise Kept. Jasper called me, urging me to get to the office. “The media found out about your relationship with Laurie. Everyone is saying Simon is a homewrecker. You need to clarify things publicly.” “Clarify what?” “Say that you two broke up amicably a long time ago, and that her Iceland trip has nothing to do with you.” I hung up the phone. Half an hour later, Sam arrived at my apartment with two security guards. “Sean, Laurie is waiting at the estate. The bank reps are there too. If you don’t sign the permanent authorization today, the house gets seized.” I went with him. The gates to the ancestral estate were wide open. The pomegranate tree my father planted was uprooted and dumped by the courtyard wall. The antique furniture in the living room had been completely cleared out. Simon stood in the center holding a roll of architectural blueprints, chatting cheerfully with Laurie. “Let’s convert the study into a nursery. It’ll be convenient when we have kids after we get married.” I stopped at the doorway. Laurie caught sight of me, her expression faltering slightly. “He was just talking casually.” “This is my home.” The smile on Simon’s face faded. Sam hastily jumped in, “Sean, Laurie bought out your share of the title. If you marry her later, this will still be your home. Simon is just helping look at the renovation plans.” I walked over to the uprooted pomegranate tree and touched the jagged tally marks on its trunk. My father had carved those marks to measure mine and Sam’s height when we were kids. The axe cut sat right on top of the very last mark my father had made. Laurie walked up behind me. “The roots were rotten, which posed a safety hazard. I’ll have someone plant a new one.” “Where are my manuscripts?” She retrieved the box from her car. The top few pages had already been cut out and placed inside Simon’s media interview binder. Beside my father’s handwriting was Simon’s flourish signature. “The press required physical proof,” Laurie said smoothly. “I’ll return them after the launch.” I reached out and pulled those pages out of the binder. Simon reached over to stop me, and his sleeve caught the aurora snow globe sitting on the edge of the table. The glass shattered on the hard tile floor. Green glitter mixed with liquid spilled across the stone. When Laurie gave it to me, she had recorded a voice message in the base. When Boreal succeeds, we’ll get married. Now, the base was cracked in two, the recorded voice looping erratically: “We will… We will…” Simon turned pale with fright. “I’m so sorry, Sean, I didn’t mean to!” Laurie immediately shielded him behind her back, ordering her assistant to clean it up. I knelt down to pick up the broken base. She gripped my wrist tight. “There’s broken glass. Don’t touch it.” “Let go.” “It’s just an old trinket. I’ll buy you a brand-new one.” I looked up at her, a question slipping out. “Laurie, when you pursued me back then, was it because of him too?” She didn’t catch my meaning. But Simon’s face changed instantly. I pulled an old sheet from his interview binder. It was a wishlist written ten years ago: Watch the Northern Lights. Build a risk warning system. Propose under the pomegranate tree. Signed ten years ago by Simon. Every single thing I had ever done with Laurie was nothing more than an item checked off Simon’s old bucket list. Jasper hurried in. Seeing the list in my hand, he immediately said, “Why bring up ancient history? The fact that Laurie did all those things with you later proves she chose you!” Simon’s eyes welled with tears. “Laurie was just missing me too much back then, so she found someone with a similar personality to keep her company. But she wasn’t bad to you either, Sean. Please don’t force her to admit it.” I looked at Laurie. This was the final chance I was giving her. “Is what he said true?” Laurie offered no answer. She simply placed a legal statement in front of me. “The launch is about to start. Sign this first.” In the statement, I was to admit that I had never participated in the core development of Boreal, and that I apologized to Simon for maliciously attempting to claim ownership. Further down was an incident liability confirmation. During their time in Iceland, Simon had remotely altered the testing parameters, nearly causing the partner company’s hardware to overload. They wanted me to take full responsibility for the malfunction. Sam coaxed me softly, “Sean, Simon has a medical condition, he can’t handle an investigation. You’re a professional engineer, at worst you’ll just face a temporary suspension.” Jasper added, “Once the statement is released, the public outrage will settle down. You’ve loved Laurie for five years, you can’t really stand by and watch her company fail its IPO, right?” Laurie handed me the pen. “Sean, sign it. I will settle the estate loan immediately. Once this passes, we will get married as planned.” I didn’t take it. She took my hand and forced the pen into my palm. “Don’t act out of spite. I know you won’t leave.” At that exact moment, the pain ran so deep that there were no tears left to shed. I signed my name at the bottom of the statement, pulled out another document from under it, and handed them both over to her. Laurie only glanced at the signature before instructing her assistant to release it to the press. She failed to notice that the second document was not an authorization extension. The second the statement went live online, the main screen in the launch hall went black. Laurie’s phone blasted a piercing system alarm. Her assistant rushed in, face pale as a sheet. “Ms. Gosling! The Boreal System authorization just expired!”
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