when Sarah and Emily walked in without knocking. Their confiden

the deep learning servers is denied. And Mr. Davies isn

looking up from my screen. "

mean, revoked? We need those resources for th

tated calmly. "You deferred your admission to MIT. You are no longer on that track. You chose to pu

sudden compliance followed by this cold, logical withdrawal of support. They expected me to argue, to

you?" Emily asked, her voice laced wi

their eyes. "It's a matter of policy. You made a

le. They didn't believe me. They thought it was a tactic,

conference room when I heard their voices, sharp and angry

her tone venomous. "He actually cut us off.

. "He's always been like this. So possessive. He thinks because his family paid for thi

d been their biggest champion. I'd stayed up late helping them debug code, argued with my o

ed. "Alex needs that processing

ink he's won. Maybe I'll even hint that I might reconsider the marriage arrangement with his family. That'll get his attention. Once he restores our

of friendship, mentorship, and support were just a transaction they were ready to void the moment a be

would be no more second chances, no more benefit

urture their talents. The directive was simple and absolute: All Miller Corp resources, intellectual property, and personnel support for Sara

en we were just kids. I remembered spending a whole weekend with Emily, helping her build her first functional robotic arm for a science

ve more and more around this new guy, Alex, a junior developer they'd met at a local tech meetup. They spoke of his "raw talent" and "unconventional genius,"

in my head. He's ju

w far they can step without t