Mara returned to Sloane and asked for a copy of the acknowledgment “to review everything properly.” Sloane hesitated, then agreed and emailed it, confident that Mara would be a problem easily solved. The email arrived with a subject line that made Mara’s jaw tighten: Founder Support Acknowledgment.
Mara read it more closely. One clause referenced “core computational methods authored internally.” She forwarded the email to Dana and asked whether it would do. Dana replied: “The best link would be a company officer admitting they reused Mara’s modules after she left.”