Betrayed and Dumped: She Rose Stronger Than Ever novel Chapter 24

One guy pulled up the coding platform right away, bringing up everyone’s code on his screen. He’d been swamped with his own project these past few days, so he hadn’t even glanced at what Rebecca had submitted.

He figured he’d take a quick look now, just to check in, but the moment he did, he was floored.

Rebecca’s code was on another level. Not only was it clean and organized, but her logic was incredible. Every line felt intentional and well thought out, not just tossed together to get the job done. Some of her solutions were so clever, he and his buddy had to sit there and think it through just to understand what she’d done.

The two of them just stared at the screen, totally stunned.

He couldn’t help but blurt out, “Ms. Harper, were you a programmer before?”

Rebecca shook her head with a little smile. “Not exactly. I majored in Financial Engineering in college. That program is really heavy on the computer science side.”

“Oh, wow, I’ve heard that’s a tough major. Which school did you go to, Ms. Harper?”

“Westmere University.”

He almost choked. “Wait, the Westmere University? The one that’s as famous as Larkhaven College? The top school in Coralbridge with sky-high entrance scores? And you were in their Financial Engineering program?”

His eyes practically sparkled. “No wonder you became a CEO so young, Ms. Harper. That’s really impressive.”

Rebecca laughed. “I just got lucky, honestly.”

She wasn’t just being humble. She really believed it. If she hadn’t started the company with Bruce back then, she never would have gotten into market development or learned to see things from a big-picture perspective. She wouldn’t be where she was today.

Sometimes, good things come out of unexpected places.

Looking back, she actually owed Bruce a thank you.

With a boss like Rebecca, the two guys felt even more awkward when she reviewed their code. Compared to hers, theirs looked messy and long-winded. They wished they could just disappear.

But Rebecca didn’t criticize them at all. She just said, “As long as it works, that’s what matters. Right now, we need speed more than perfect code.”

Later that afternoon, after finishing her own work and helping her teammates squash a major bug, Rebecca finally got ready to leave.

As luck would have it, she ran into Stephen in the elevator again.

She’d noticed something about Stephen, the head of Duncan Corporation. For someone in his position, he actually left work pretty early. Every time she ran into him after work, it was still before eight.

The elevator doors slid shut. Stephen caught her looking and lifted an eyebrow. “Is there something you want to say to me?”

Rebecca felt a little awkward and quickly turned away, pretending to fix her hair.

“Huh?” Rebecca was caught off guard. “Yeah, I do.”

Stephen nodded. “Alright. Good to know.”

She had no idea what that was about.

Rebecca didn’t dwell on it. She waved goodbye to Stephen and headed off toward the subway.

As Stephen got into the car, his assistant Liam looked at him in the rearview mirror. “Heading home to the Duncan estate, sir?”

Usually, Stephen stayed at his apartment during the week and only went back to the family estate on weekends. It was a ritual he never skipped.

But today, Stephen’s voice was casual from the back seat. “Take me to the Larkhaven College faculty apartments.”

Liam was surprised for a second, then quickly realized who Stephen was planning to visit. He didn’t say another word, just started the engine and headed for Larkhaven College.

When Stephen arrived, Dr. Palmer and his wife were in the middle of a mild argument.

His wife stood with her hands on her hips, voice a little louder than usual. “Ricardo, are you trying to drive me crazy? Last week I asked if you still needed that thing. You said no, so I put it up in the attic. Now you say you need it again and want me to go find it? Do you even know how much stuff is up there? I only go up there once a year!”