Chapter 6

My eyes swept over the front rows.

The smirk on Marcus Sterling's face had completely frozen.

Chloe’s face was drained of color, her fingers crushing a plastic water bottle.

Julian stared blankly at the screen, his expression fracturing into disbelief.

"Now that you've seen the capability, let's talk commercial reality."

A new slide populated the screen.

On the left: performance benchmarks of current industry leaders. On the right: ours.

Every single metric eclipsed the competition by at least thirty percent.

The fatal blow was the unit economics.

The leading industry suite cost $18,000 per vehicle.

Ours cost $5,200.

The room erupted into frantic whispers.

"True engineering isn't about bragging rights; it's about accessibility," I said firmly. "Skye AI’s mission is to put full autonomous safety into everyday family sedans. It shouldn't be a luxury tax for the ultra-rich."

"To date, we have signed Letters of Intent with three major automotive manufacturers."

The logos hit the display: Ford, GM, and Rivian.

Audible gasps rippled through the hall.

Marcus Sterling bolted upright in his seat.

His phone buzzed. He glanced down, and his complexion turned sickly pale.

I didn't need to guess. Astra Tech’s stock was crashing.

"Before we close," I took a steadying breath, "I have a question for Mr. Julian Vance."

Every camera swung around.

"At your press briefing yesterday, you told the media that unproven startups hyping lab projects are an insult to the industry. You claimed real technology requires institutional accumulation that cannot simply be recreated outside a corporate platform."

"So tell me, Julian... who actually accumulated the technology behind Astra Tech?"

A low hum of excitement swept through the reporters as lenses zoomed onto Julian's face.

His neck flushed crimson.

"Evelyn—"

"This is the complete version commit history of Astra Tech’s autonomous system from 2018 to 2023."

The screen transformed into an intricate, timestamped timeline.

Behind every breakthrough release, behind every architecture patch, sat the primary contributor’s name:

Evelyn Clark.

Evelyn Clark.

Evelyn Clark.

I clicked through the slides, page after page.

With every slide, the uproar in the audience swelled.

"So tell me—who left whom behind to call it 'leaving the platform'?"

The auditorium descended into utter chaos.

Julian jumped out of his chair.

"Evelyn, whatever personal issues we have can be discussed in private—!"

"We don't need privacy," I cut him off cleanly. "Right here. Right now. In front of every camera in this room."

His mouth opened and closed, entirely speechless.

Beside him, Chloe suddenly shrieked.

"Enough! Evelyn, that is enough!" Her voice went shrill. "This is nothing but petty revenge! You're just lashing out because Julian dumped you!"

Tears spilled from her eyes as she pointed an accusing finger at me.

"Your divorce was a private relationship issue! What does that have to do with the company?! Do you have any idea how much Julian bled for Astra?!”

“He was the one flying across the country closing deals! He was the one drinking himself sick at client dinners! You think typing a few lines of code makes you a god?! Without him, Astra would have never gone public!"

I looked at her coldly.

"You're right about one thing. Julian does have skills."

"His skills are sales, spin, and glad-handing. Not engineering."

"And the statements he made to the press yesterday were bold-faced lies."

"Since when does a liar get to represent this industry?"