I sat quietly in the old office under a flickering neon light, struggling to hold on to the last glow of a long day. Before me lay the company dissolution document: black letters smudged on white paper, signed by my own hand. Crawford Cyber Defense—the brainchild into which I had poured my heart and soul—was now nothing but ashes.
Bankruptcy. The word tasted bitter, like a knife pressed against my heart. My hand trembled as I set down the pen.
The ink was not yet dry while my soul had already turned ice‑cold. How could I have imagined that only three months earlier everything seemed perfect? Let me start from the beginning—from the days when I was still Skyler Crawford, thirty‑six years old, CEO of a leading U.S.
cybersecurity company. Three months ago the press praised me as an icon of the new generation: calm, humble, disciplined, and steadfast about professional ethics. Back then I felt invincible.
My life was a perfect painting: a solid career, a spotless reputation, and a beautiful wife, Iris, with our son, Alan. It all looked unbreakable, as if the heavens had arranged for me to live in a dream from which I would never wake. Every morning I woke in a sprawling villa on the edge of a U.S.
city, sunlight filtering through large glass windows to illuminate the lush garden. Crawford Cyber Defense was at its peak. We built security software for major corporations to fend off attacks and threats.
Revenue soared. Our stock price climbed. Invitations to speak arrived weekly.
I lived by discipline—up at five, a jog, some reading, then work. I believed in professional ethics, never cutting corners or stealing ideas. That was the principle I thought had brought me success.
Life, it turns out, doesn’t always honor principles. Disaster struck like an unexpected storm. It was a Wednesday afternoon in an executive board meeting when my phone rang and my secretary’s voice trembled: “Sir, there’s a letter from the court.” I opened the envelope and the world seemed to stop.
We were accused of financial fraud and of stealing source code from a competitor. The allegations hit like thunder. Someone had slandered us, presenting fabricated evidence that we had copied another firm’s technology.
I knew it was a lie. We had never done such a thing. But the evidence was too detailed, too convincing.
The story doesn’t end here –
it continues on the next page.
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