Page 8 of Code of Heart

Aurelia couldn’t breathe or stave off the waterfall of tears threatening to be unleashed.

Eleanor ended with a heartfelt goodbye. “I love you. I trust you. I believe in you. Now go flaunt your assets. I’ll be watching…and judging. Always judging.”

The screen went dark.

Aurelia sat frozen as she tried to process everything that was just thrown at her, the weight of it all crushing her.

Then, overwhelmed, she bolted for the door…only to crash straight into Selene.

CHAPTER 3

Levi

There was yet another Neuronix, Inc. Board of Directors meeting scheduled for today, and Levi Lockwood was trying to find a way out of it. As the CEO, he knew nothing short of being in the hospital could get him out of it—and even that was a strong maybe.

Though faking a coma did cross his mind.

He sighed heavily, resisting the urge to run his hands through his wavy dark chocolate hair, as he sat behind his hunter green executive desk. He had been going over his notes in preparation for this meeting for the past few hours.

Levi had been up before sunrise despite going to bed late last night, trying to absorb everything. It was extremely important to be ready for any questions that came up.

It took him longer than the average person to go through documents like this, often requiring him to be up exceedingly early after a late night. The document text was blurring more than usual, his dyslexia amplified by his exhaustion.

The lack of sleep, among other things, was starting to catch up with him.The dark circles under his green eyes were extremely noticeable, despite his bronzed skin. There was no time for a full shave this morning either, so that didn’t help.

Attention buried in the financial report on his laptop, he was interrupted when one of his best friends, co-founder of the company, and Chief Technology Officer, Isaac Nolan, walked into his office, carrying a drink tray with two tall steaming coffees on it in one hand, and his tablet in the other.

Levi perked up and looked longingly at the coffees. “Please tell me at leastoneof those is for me,” he pleaded.

Isaac set them down on the desk and cast his deep blue eyes at his watch, frowning. “What time did you get here? The workday has barely begun, and you're already whining for more coffee.”

“Too early,” Levi grumbled as he reached for his coffee. “Every time Tyler calls for one of these useless Board meetings, I end up having to prepare more just to make it through them. Is it me, or have they become unbearable?”

Isaac sat in a chair across from his desk and took a sip from his coffee before replying. “He’s an ass, so no, it’s not only you.” His expression darkened. “Speaking of Tyler, yesterday, I found out that the development team was working on changes to Project DL that weren’t authorized by me or any of my direct reports.”

Levi furrowed his brow, “What do you mean by 'changes'?”

“Oh, you know…just the Chairman of the Board somehow convincing one of my employees to make changes to the underlying code without approval fromliterallyanyone,” Isaac casually said with an edge to his voice.

Levi completely stilled as the severity of Isaac’s message settled over him.

Neuronix was born when he was still a computer science major in college, sharing a dorm room with Isaac and his Chief Security Officer and childhood friend, Owen Voss. It was there that Isaac met the love of his life, and now wife Grace, who had been studying marketing and communications. She dragged her best friend, Ivy Blake, into their group. Ivy served as both Levi's Executive Assistant and Chief Operations Officer, and together they founded and built the company from the ground up.

Levi was no stranger to struggle and how cruel people could be to those they didn’t understand. This small group of friends witnessed many of those situations firsthand. They channeled their anger by pooling their talents to not only build a successful company, but one that created technology to help others like Levi.

Since then, Neuronix has been at the forefront of developing state-of-the-art assistive technologies that provide life-changing support for individuals with disabilities, especially those with dyslexia. Many of their applications and software aim to make reading, writing, and learning more accessible and efficient.

The company grew exponentially, finally satisfying a desperate need in the disability services market. This growth took them from being a small private company run out of someone's dorm room to a large publicly traded global company. Answering to a Board of Directors took some getting used to, but after a time, it became second nature.

At least until Tyler Faulkner joined the Board a little less than a year ago.

After Tyler somehow managed to earn enough votes to become the Chair of the Board, the other members forgot they were allowed to have opinions and a voice…or that they had equal decision-making power as Tyler.

Tyler had become more emboldened since amassing thousands of company shares during the last couple of months. The added increase to the stake he previously owned positioned him as one of the majority shareholders in the company. Then he gradually began inserting himself where he shouldn’t, single-handedly trying to run the company.

Yet the rest of the members had remained silent, turning a blind eye as they allowed it to happen instead of intervening.

Just the thought of Tyler having this much individual control over the company Levi co-founded grated on his nerves.