Her phone buzzed again. The engineer’s email arrived. It included the sentence Dana needed: leadership ordered reuse of Mara’s modules after she left. It also mentioned a term sheet clause calling it “the Mara framework,” as if her authorship was known and mocked inside the company.
Mara forwarded the email to Dana and asked for immediate action. Dana replied that she could file notices and send a cease-and-desist to the acquirer before signatures landed. Legally speaking, it seemed that Mara’s odds of winning were pretty good.