I Love You, Miss Genius novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Name

I put the pitcher down on the carpet.

My hands had stopped shaking, which surprised me.

I crossed the board room, past nine staring faces, and took the clicker out of Bettina's hand.

She let me.

I paused the video on the girl's open mouth.

"That's me," I said.

My voice came out steady.

"A woman in the front row told me to keep going."

At the far end of the table, Ingrid Vollmer's cane stopped tapping.

I looked at the investor.

"You asked who owns the code," I said. "Watch."

I turned to the terminal, and Bettina stepped back.

"You asked for the older request to go last," I said.

My fingers found the keys.

I did not look at them.

I typed seven lines in a few quick strokes, and the board room was so quiet I could hear the clicking.

When I hit enter, the wall went green.

Two test patients appeared in the queue, and the younger one came first.

I tapped the screen once.

"Done. It's a worse rule for sick people, so I'd put it back," I said. "But you wanted to see who owns it."

Nobody said a word.

The investor's mouth had fallen slightly open.

Then she started, very slowly, to laugh.

"I'll be damned," she said. "It really is a girl with a water pitcher."

The board did not laugh.

One of them said, "My God," under his breath, stunned by the sheer speed of it.

Behind me Bettina found her voice.

"She lied to everyone," she said, high and thin. "She's a fraud, she's a..."

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