Chapter 1

I hid my identity as the sole heiress to the Kingswell Group—one of the most powerful Wall Street empires—and spent five years living in a cramped apartment with Carter Miller, helping him build his tech startup from scratch.

Finally, our company, Atlas Tech, was about to go public on Nasdaq.

But at the IPO celebration party, he went down on one knee and proposed to Tiffany Vance, the daughter of a wealthy real estate developer.

After the proposal, he dragged me into a quiet corner and handed me a non-disclosure agreement.

"Tiffany is bringing a hundred million dollars in Series C funding to Atlas Tech," Carter said, his eyes cold and transactional. "What do you have to offer, Stella?

You're just an orphan. Sign this. I'll buy you a luxury condo in downtown Manhattan and give you a hundred thousand dollars a month. Just stay in the shadows and be my good girl."

I looked at his arrogant, smug face and burst out laughing.

"Carter, did you forget? I wrote every single line of the core AI algorithm that made this company worth billions."

He thought I was just a nobody with no background. He had no idea that with one single phone call, the tech empire he was so proud of would crumble into dust.