Page 16 of Code of Heart
The blood in his veins turned to ice.
He blinked slowly, rage building.
Turning to the meeting clerk, he said with measured calm, “I want a verbatim account of Chairman Faulkner's comments about my inability to read without assistance and my response captured in the meeting minutes.” Tyler began to protest, but the clerk’s glare shut him down.
Facing Tyler, Levi spoke, voice cold and cutting. “You seem to forget what Neuronix stands for—who we serve. Your comment proves how unfit you are to chair this Board. You’re a liability and an embarrassment.”
Levi shifted his attention to the other Board members. “Let me be clear. If anyone here mocks me or any Neuronix employee for their disability again, you’ll be facing a very public discrimination suit. Imagine the headlines:Board member at company supporting disabled users sued for mocking a disabled employee.”
Levi stood and swiftly gathered his things, then scrutinized everyone in the room. “Yoursilence enabled this monster. You’ve let his leash go slack, and now he’s an uncontrollable menace.”
As he angrily strode across the room with Isaac in tow, he continued, “Please consider this my formal notification: badge access for Board members has been restricted. You may now only access this floor’s meeting area. Further entry will require an escort.”
Stopping at the end of the conference table, Levi locked his eyes on Tyler and added, “I have a company to run. If you have any questions, email them to me and Ivy. You know…in case I need help reading the bullshit you keep spewing.”
Without looking back at anyone’s reactions, Levi walked out head held high, Isaac hot on his heels.
Levi stalked back to his office, radiating pure ire and still reeling from that debacle. No one had made him feel that inadequate since he was a teenager. To have it happen at Neuronix was enraging.
What Tyler said about his relationships wasn’t appropriate…although it wasn’t untrue either.The truth was that when he was in a relationship, he became blind to their flaws. He hated being alone and had anticipated being married with a family by now.
Instead, Lana was in jail after her foolish larceny attempt, while he was still very single. He was ashamed to admit he missed the extremely obvious red flags that were there. And that he didn’t listen when his closest friends repeatedly told him that she was out of her mind.
Owen had yet to let him forget it.
He stopped mid-stride, realizing how awful his judgment of character had been when it came to his own love life. His spiraling thoughts were cut off as Isaac’s massive body plowed into him from behind, sending them tumbling to the ground.
Isaac stood, picked up everything he dropped on the floor, pointed at Levi, and barked, “Your office.Now.” He spun around and continued marching towards it, not looking back to see if Levi followed.Isaac was as dangerous as a live wire when he was angry.
Levi knew he was in deep shit.
Getting up as quickly as possible, he jogged down the hallway to catch up with Isaac, reaching him as they made it to his executive suite. Isaac greeted Ivy and curtly asked her to join them in Levi’s office as he let himself in.
She looked at Levi with two raised and perfectly manicured eyebrows and said, “Well, this ought to be good.” Levi rolled his eyes at her as he passed by.
Isaac’s back was to him, hands in his pockets, as he stared out the glass panes of the high-rise. One of the biggest benefits of being CEO was having an office with uninterrupted panoramic views of Joia City.This advantage offered a view so breathtaking it seemed otherworldly, a city suspended between land, sea, and sky.
Beyond the windows, the city unfolded like a living mosaic, its rooftops and natural vegetation a dazzling array of colors that shimmered in the sunlight like scattered jewels. The city clung to the cliffs that rose sharply from the turquoise lagoons below, their calm waters cradling reflections of the colorful façades like a painter’s palette. Narrow streets wound through the hillside like rivers of volcanic rock cobblestones, flanked by cascading terraces of vivid flowers.
The lagoons came in all shapes and sizes, tucked within the verdant embrace of volcanic craters, and glowed in an impossible array of colors—aquamarine, various shades of emerald, and one so deep a blue it looked as though the ocean itself had pooled within. From above, the mountains rose, cloaked in greenery so vibrant it almost felt unreal.
They both temporarily lost themselves in the view, not noticing when Ivy joined them. She soundlessly snuck up from behind and loudly said, “Which one of you stirred the pot time?”
They jumped, startled out of their thoughts.
Ivy chuckled and walked towards Levi’s desk, her long sun-kissed almond hair swishing across her back from the slicked ponytail high on her head.
In her mid-thirties, like Levi and Isaac, she met both in college through Isaac’s wife, Grace. She knew them as well as they knew themselves, if not better.
Levi stalked to his desk while Isaac took a seat in one of the cream overstuffed wingback chairs before it. The air was thick with tension and just as stifling.
Ivy gathered her notebook and pen before settling herself down in a round but plush oversized armchair that sat between the executive desk and the white oak conference table. It was a pea green monstrosity with sparkling lemon, orange, and lime slices embroidered into the velvet fabric, so much so that it stood out against the calming neutral tones throughout the rest of the suite.
Levi had begged her to replace it on multiple occasions, even going as far as offering to pay to reupholster it, but Ivy loved it exactly the way it was. She loved how much Levi hated it even more.
Ivy held two positions at Neuronix. She might have been listed on paper as Levi’s Executive Assistant, but that title barely scratched the surface. She was his translator, his buffer, his fiercely loyal right hand—and the reason no one outside their inner circle ever questioned how seamlessly he managed the chaos of leading a global tech empire.
She understood exactly how his dyslexia affected his work, and without fanfare, quietly delegated the bulk of his administrative load to two trusted assistants she personally trained and managed. That gave her the space to do what she truly excelled at: running the show.
