Gemotions

The email arrived at 2 am. "Great minds think alike!" It was from her boss, forwarded from a competitor. Attached was a proposal that mirrored her own, down to the color scheme and the specific font she had chosen. Her vision. Her life's work.

A cold dread coiled in her chest. She had spent the last year working in isolation, thinking she was ahead of the curve. Now, it was as if someone had seen inside her mind and stolen everything that was inside.

She sat up in bed, the sheets twisted around her legs. She couldn’t bring herself to respond to the email, to acknowledge the blatant plagiarism. Her fingers trembled as she deleted the message, and then deleted all the project files from her computer, before burying her face in her pillow.