The Code of Karma Goodbye, Ex-Boyfriend

As the top-ranked computer science graduate year after year, I only believed in science and hard data. I never knew how to compromise, hated kissing up to people, and rarely cared about social pleasantries. Everyone called me cold-blooded. Only my best friend and my boyfriend would smile and brush it off. "Can't help it. Geniuses are always lonely. As long as we get you, that's all that matters." Then, out of nowhere, my best friend fell head over heels into tarot readings, blowing through thousands of dollars in a single month. Having no other choice, I built her a customized tarot website. She bragged about it for days—until she showed up at my door, face pale, voice shaking with tears. "I did a reading. You and Julian are cursed. If you stay together, disaster is going to strike." I frowned, telling her there was zero scientific basis for any of it. Yet from that day on, Julian had one accident after another. He twisted his ankle on the way to work. Walking down an open sidewalk, debris dropped out of nowhere and nearly cracked his skull. He looked at me helplessly. "Maybe we should take a break? I can't keep risking my life here." My best friend chimed in right on cue. I looked at the hidden excitement glowing in their eyes, and this time, I didn't say a single word. They had no idea that every single message they plotted on SnapChat was showing up on my screen in real time. The cicadas outside were buzzing relentlessly. I sat in front of my monitor, watching an interview with Julian, the CEO of Singularity Tech. The startup I had built with my own bare hands was now a rising star in the tech industry. Julian had always been favored by fate; time barely left a mark on him. In the video, he looked just as charming as the day we met. The only difference was that his faded shirts had been replaced by bespoke designer suits, though his demeanor had grown distinctly polished and corporate. Back in the early days, he promised he would handle the charm and PR, while I would change the world. I bought it. Just like I genuinely believed he would love me for the rest of his life. Until a few days ago, when Serena sat across from me, her face pale and heavy with gloom. "Stella, I watched the stars last night and pulled another card for you. It came up reversed. It means your relationship is doomed to shatter—and it's going to bring total disaster with it." My fingers froze over the keyboard. I looked up at her. Serena was someone I considered family. Emotional, romantic, dramatic. I could never understand her obsession with tarot. Just like she could never fathom why staring at lines of code kept me energized for twenty-four hours straight. "Serena, we've talked about this. There is no logic behind it. It's just probability and cognitive bias." I tried using science to bring her down to earth. She stomped her foot in frustration. "Can love be explained by science? I'm doing this for your own good! Your energy naturally clashes with Julian's!" I sighed, sending over the link to the website I had spent three days building for her. "Stop wasting your money. I made this for you. Every card meaning and combination on the market is logged into the database. Have fun with it at home." I thought that would put an end to it. The very next day, a barista at the café beneath our office slipped and spilled scalding coffee down my arm. When Julian called, his voice was thick with panic and distress. "Stella, are you okay? I'm coming down right now!" I swallowed the pain, muttered that I was fine, and headed back up to my office. Serena knelt beside me, carefully applying burn cream, her eyes rimmed with red. "Julian, I warned her... The Tower card... Stella just won't listen." Julian pulled me tightly into his arms. "It's my fault. I didn't protect her." He looked up into my eyes. "Stella, from now on, I'm sticking to your side wherever you go." I nodded. Yet for the first time in my life, a cold, strange intuition crept into my chest. Over the next few days, it only got worse. Walking through the tech park, a flowerpot dropped from a third-floor balcony and slammed into my shoulder. The pain left me paralyzed on the pavement for minutes. Driving out to meet a client, a reckless scooter smashed into my driver-side door in the parking garage. Even at home, a heavy bookshelf in the living room collapsed in the dead of night, pinning my leg and leaving a massive bruise. Julian's reaction shifted from initial worry to deep, heavy silence. Before long, he started subtly keeping his distance from me.Whispers spread through the company like wildfire. People said I had a cursed aura—that I was ruining myself, and soon, anyone near me. They said the tech genius was nothing more than bad luck. That evening, Julian and Serena showed up at my lab together. Julian looked thinner, his brows knit tight with manufactured grief. He sighed, speaking first. "Stella, I think... maybe we're just not meant to be." His eyes darted away, avoiding my gaze. "Serena's readings, and everything that's happened lately... I'm not superstitious, but I'm genuinely terrified. If this keeps going, I'm afraid one day you won't survive it." Serena nodded frantically beside him, tears spilling on cue. "She's right, Stella. Julian is only doing this to protect you. Let's just take some time apart and see if the bad luck clears up, okay?" Serena reached out to take my hand, but I pulled away. I watched the two of them perform their little duet. One was the man I had vowed to love forever. The other was the best friend I once would have bled for. They had no clue that because I built that tarot website, I had root access to the entire backend server. Yesterday, Julian claimed he had a late business dinner. Having some rare downtime, I logged on to do server maintenance. While scanning for malware, I stumbled across an encrypted chat log between the two of them. [Serena: Are you here yet?] [Julian: Five minutes, babe.] A bitter laugh escaped my lips, my vision blurring with tears. In the company's infancy, broke and stripped of resources, I solved every single technical bottleneck by myself. Once, after working seventy-two hours straight, I collapsed on the office floor. Julian held me just like that, calling me his baby over and over, swearing that meeting me was the luckiest thing that had ever happened to him. Another ping snapped me back to reality. [Serena: You're brilliant. Making her think she's genuinely cursed works a hundred times better than anything we could say. That Stella is a brainless nerd. She doesn't understand anything outside of code.] [Julian: Relax, just one step left. Once she initiates the breakup, we can go public cleanly. The core source code is still in her hands. We have to secure it.] [Julian: People like her have too much pride. The second she believes she's bringing bad luck, she'll leave faster than anyone. She'll think she's making a noble sacrifice, completely blind to the trap.] At the very end of the thread were explicit, intimate photos they had sent each other. I sat in front of my screen from sunset to sunrise. For over a decade, Julian and Serena had been the center of my world. I never knew how to play social games or flatter people, and my brutal honesty pushed everyone away. Even when my parents divorced, they fought over who got my younger brother, leaving me behind. Only the two of them had smiled and said: "Can't help it. Geniuses are always lonely. As long as we get you, that's all that matters."They had given me the rare warmth of my youth. And in return, using my sheer technical brilliance, I turned Julian from an empty, pretty face into an acclaimed Silicon Valley prodigy. I thought we were soulmates, comrades fighting side by side. I looked up, meeting their gazes. Even knowing the ugly truth, a sharp, dull ache still tore through my chest. I looked at Julian and asked softly: "If we break up, what happens to the company?" Julian was clearly caught off guard by how calm I was. He blinked, stunned. Then he let out a sigh. "Stella, I know how much the company means to you. Don't worry about operations; I'll handle everything. You just take some time off to rest. Think of it as a vacation." "Exactly, Stella," Serena jumped in instantly. "Money is endless, don't be so stubborn. Your health and peace of mind come first. Just hand over your current workload, and Julian will hire someone to take over." Hire someone to take over? I smiled inside. They couldn't even bother to finish acting out the script. "Okay." My voice didn't waver. "I agree. I'll leave." Julian hadn't expected me to fold so quickly. He stood there dazed for a moment before speaking. "Stella, thank you for understanding. Don't worry. Once this storm passes, everything will go back to normal." "When that happens, I'll bring you right back, and we'll get married!" "You know you're the only one I love." Looking into Julian's sincere eyes, my mind drifted for a second. Right after college, living in a moldy basement studio, we had split a single dry bagel between us. Back then, he had looked at me with that exact same earnest gaze. "Stella, you're suffering by sticking with me. I swear I'll give you the world." "In my book, there's no such thing as a breakup. Only till death do us part." And at the beginning, he had kept his word. Once the startup gained traction, industry peers teased him that he needed a glamorous female assistant. He had pulled me into his arms without hesitation, laughing: "I would never do anything that could make my princess Stella jealous." Back then, he really did love me. So when did it all turn rotten? After they left, I sat in the lab alone for hours. I used to believe the world of code was pure and fair. As long as you put in the work, you were guaranteed a return. Human hearts, however, weren't lines of code. They were riddled with hidden variables and toxic malice I could never calculate. The next morning, I handed the encrypted hard drive and root admin credentials to Julian. "Everything on Centrum 2.0 is in here, along with full administrative access to the servers." Julian's hands trembled slightly as he took the drive. "Stella, I'm sorry to put you through this. Don't worry, once you return, I—" "Save it," I cut him off. "I'm exhausted. I'm heading back to my hometown for a while." Serena glided over right on time, wearing an expression of pure, sisterly concern. "Stella, take care of yourself out there. We'll visit you all the time." "Don't worry! I'll keep an eye on Julian. He won't dare do anything behind your back!" "Sounds great," I said, offering a faint smile.I left without packing a single belonging. Just as empty-handed as the day I first arrived in this city. Julian wasted no time. He called an emergency board meeting and announced that he was taking full control over all R&D. He also hired Serena on a massive salary as his executive assistant. The plaque highlighting my bio in the lobby was quietly taken down. Julian paraded Serena around to every high-profile event, sparking rumors across social media. "Wait, didn't CEO Vance claim it was 'till death do us part' with his founder girlfriend?" "Figures. Men get rich, men get trashy." Julian didn't even hide it. Using his verified account, he replied directly to the comment: "Consider me dead, then." Business partners sent me private messages, asking what happened. I ignored every single one. Almost overnight, they became the tech scene's hottest golden couple. Miles away in my quiet coastal hometown, I saw his smug face on Bloomberg and CNBC every single day. My phone stayed completely silent. Aside from my parents, the only person who reached out was Julian's father. "Stella, you need to look forward. Julian's career is peaking right now; don't drag him down with unnecessary drama. Your little tech skills only mattered because our company gave you a platform. People need to show gratitude." "You and Julian are done. Shouldn't you voluntarily surrender your forty percent founder shares? For old time's sake, the company is willing to buy them back at nominal value. It's best for you, and best for the business." Gripping the phone, I nearly laughed out loud. "Mr. Vance," I asked quietly. "Do you know why I named the system Centrum?" Silence hung on the line. "In the game of Go, Centrum is the absolute center of the board. Command the center, control the four corners. That system was the very first gift I ever gave Julian. I truly believed he was the center of my universe." A cold, impatient snort came through the receiver. "What's the point of bringing up the past? Stella, be smart about this. Without you, Centrum is only going to scale higher. Don't turn this into an ugly scene where everyone loses face." "Fine," I replied softly. "I'll do as you say." I hung up, watching the last sliver of warmth in my chest freeze over. On the day of Centrum 2.0's global launch, Julian rented out the largest convention hall in the city. He invited hundreds of international tech reporters and thousands of industry elites. At eight sharp in the evening, the keynote officially kicked off. Beneath the blinding spotlights, Julian looked radiant, practically glowing with arrogance. He talked passionately about our shared dreams, waxing poetic about the grind of entrepreneurship. Then he paused, looking down at Serena in the front row with utter adoration. "Tonight, I also want to take this moment to introduce the most important person in my life. My muse, my partner, and my fiancée—Serena Brooks!" The crowd gasped in excitement. Blushing delicately, Serena walked onto the stage and fell into Julian's arms. The golden boy and his perfect muse. A match made in heaven. Guests throughout the auditorium began whispering in admiration. Just as Julian reached out to initiate the live demo, I stepped slowly out from the crowd. "Hold on." I smiled. "Such a massive milestone... why didn't anyone invite me? Didn't we promise never to miss each other's biggest moments?" Julian and Serena froze on stage. I glanced down at the smartphone in his hand. "Take a look at my wedding gift to both of you." The second the words left my mouth, every single phone in the hall went pitch black.