Mag-log in“ What time are you meant to be here?”
“Sir, I was…” “What time…” he interrupted “...are you meant to be here?” He repeated “ 8 0 clock Sir but there was…” “You are fired,” Victor said, his eyes fixed on the screen of his laptop. “Get out of my office” he said and the man turned to leave his office. Seth was tending at the other side of the office arranging some more documents into the shelf. “ Seth, what time is my meeting scheduled for?” he asked. “ Exactly 10 o clock,Sir” Seth said and Victor shut his laptop, checked his wristwatch as he stood up. “Get a replacement for that nitwit…” “ Done already, she'll be here before 10” “ A she?” Victor paused “ I don't want a she” “ She came highly recommended and …” “ I don't want a she, Seth” he repeated walking to the door and Seth followed after packing the needed documents into his bag. “ Alright Sir.” Seth said “ I want to kingtone, Sephora corporation and AllGem document reviewed and placed on my table by the time I get back, those documents on my table arranged according to the date of application “Victor ordered walking to the elevator. “ Am I staying back?” Seth asked and Victor turned to him. “You are coming with me” “ Then who will do all that?” Seth asked, frustrated. “ The new secretary” “ You just said you don't want a she” Seth replied “ Get a he” Victor fired at him. “ I can't get a he within this short period, Don” Seth said and Victor frowned “ Sir” he corrected himself. “ Fine, she'll work for a month” Victor turned and Seth stepped forward punching in the number. The elevator opened and they got in with Seth delivering the information to the communication board. Victor stood as the elevator decended. A minute later, the elevator opened and they stepped out, Seth walking behind him and clicking out Victor's schedule. “ Sir, the meeting with the Smith clashed with the keystone so I postpone the Smiths” Seth said. “ cancel the keystone out, I changed my mind about working with them and the Smith, reschedule it to this afternoon.” Victor said then paused as his eyes caught a lady hurrying to his receptionist and then to an elevator. She held strong resemblance to the lady he had a night stand with and had rejected his money but he strongly believed she wasn't the one. What could she be searching for on his company? “Is everything okay, Sir?” Seth asked and he nodded heading straight out of the corporation. ### “Damn, the time” Isabella enclaimed as her eyes brushed the time board when Delaney pulled into the company's car park, she dropped the bagel and took a tissues to clean her mouth. “ Relax Isa, it is on or before ten and it's still eleven minutes to 10” “ First impression matters, Delan” Isabella said, picking her bag and getting out. “ I will be her for a while, I can't bear this hunger anymore. Best of luck, bestieeee” Delaney sqeeled and laughed at how Isabella hurried into the company. She brought her breakfast and started feeding on it when her eyes caught the glassy door of the cooperation opening again and it was a very breathtakingly handsome man dressed in suit walking out . She was fascinated by how his walks radiates power, tranquility and peace and she oddly thought he looked familiar until her eyes fell on the equally attractive man with very sharp features walking out with him. She recognized him instantly, he was the man that had acted like she wasn't that much of a charm. Delaney dropped her bagel and did a quick touch-up of her make-up before attempting to get down and approach him again when her phone started ringing. It was her manager. She scoffed, saw them standing and discussing. She took the call impatiently. “What?!!” She said immediately into the phone “ Delaney, the ceo locked her inhaler inside her office and now she's having a crisis” “What?” She was shocked,keyed the car immediately. “Her car is faulty, you have the extra key and…” “I'm on my way” Delaney groaned kissing away an opportunity to woe her dream man. ### “So, this is your office” the lady in charge to guide her said to you” the lady said and walked away. Isabella watched her leave before she sat into her very comfortable swivel chair. Kade Enterprise was a big cooperation in Los Angeles with many branches all around the world and she was opportune to be the secretary to the President. She scanned the communication board with her membership card as instructed and then a list of instructions sprung to the screen. It definitely wasn't meant for her. She put the communication board off and relaxed back into her seat trying to relax before she begin the day. From the lady that had given her a tour of the upper floor, the president sure came off as a ruthless, heartless, inconsiderate, and boring person. After few minutes, Isabella was bored so she unlocked the communication board again and read the lists of instructions under which was assigned to the new secretary,her. She got up, and walked to the president's office. Her eyes catching the elevator by the side. The president had a personal elevator. She got into his office, it was spacious and bigger that her whole house also modestly equiped, a shelf of documents, a set of furniture,his mahogany table and behind it was his seat. Isabella went over to seat on his executive leather chair, twirled it and watched the views through the wall to floor glass. Later on, Isabella explored the office before switched to working and taking out every instruction one after the other. At noon, she got tired and went to the couch. while reading a newspaper as she rests, Isabella drifted into a short nap. Hushed voices woke Isabella from her nap, she jumped up seeing two men standing and staring at her . “ I am sorry sir, I did not not mean to…” her system kicked before she could finish her apology and she pushed through them and to the toilet to throw up. Once inside the toilet, Isabella washed her face while cursing at herself for the begel she took and job she would lose even before getting it. Why would she fall asleep? The salary was five times better than her previous and she started cursing at herself for her recklessness. “ Are you okay?” A masculine voice asked and she stiffened, why was he bothered when she was going to get fired. “ Yes sir” she replied, reprimanded herself once more before stepping out of the toilet and trying to keep her head down. It was awkward, she was nervous. “ Sir, I…” “Why did you sit on my chair?” the question caught her off guard. “What?” She enclaimed and looked up only to see Victor Kade, the man from her night stand, staring at her with clear irritation and disgust on his face.Victor admitted it to himself first. The thought was bitter. “It’s possible, isn’t it? The message… it could be from the same person. The one who set up Rome.”Isabella moved to the window. Her back was to him. City lights reflected in the glass. She was thinking. He could almost hear it. She was going over everything she learned since coming back. She was more like Felix than she knew. A planner. A fighter.“How many knew your exact moves that night?” Her voice was low. Careful.Victor paused. He counted in his head. The inner circle. The ones who handled the most secret info. “Four. Me included. My security chief, Vincenzo. My consigliere, Marcello. And Seth.”“Four.” She turned. Her eyes narrowed. “Three others.”“Three others,” he confirmed.“And how many of those three are still… active?” She hesitated on the last word.“Two,” Victor said. The old suspicion weighed on him. “Vincenzo is gone. Died a few years back. Natural causes.”“Leaving Marcello and Seth,” she said, her ga
Isabella felt her phone buzz as she walked away from Victor’s office. His anger still felt close, like heat on her skin. Another unknown message. Her stomach turned. She thought it might be from Cora. Another threat. Another taunt. But when she read it, cold fear ran through her. Worse than anything Cora had sent._Don’t trust the man keeping you safe._ _The same hands that held your father while he died… are the hands now holding you close._Isabella’s breath caught. This wasn’t Cora. This was different. Her blood went cold, then hot. Every part of her wanted to delete it. To pretend she never saw it. But the words were already stuck in her head. She was done being kept in the dark. Done being used.Without thinking, she turned around. The door to his study was still open. Victor sat at his desk again, staring at papers. A half-empty glass sat under the lamp. He looked up, surprised, when she pushed the door open wider.“Isabella?” His voice was calm, but his jaw looked
The words were stuck in Victor’s throat, thick and heavy like old oil. He hated this. He hated the way his stomach twisted, a familiar cold knot forming low in his gut. Protecting Isabella felt like a constant battle against forces he couldn’t always see, and now, calming her was no longer part of that equation. Keeping her calm was the opposite of what he had to do. This was going to break that fragile peace they’d somehow cultivated. But she needed to know. She deserved to know.Victor pulled out his phone, the screen felt hot in his hand, and turned it around without a word. The image filled the small space between them, stark and intrusive. Isabella, standing by the sandwich cart, her dark hair catching the light, a small, unconscious smile on her lips. A moment of normal, weaponized.Her eyes, usually so expressive, widened just a fraction. It was fleeting, a ripple across a perfectly still pond. Then, the stillness settled in, cold and sharp, like winter ice. Victor recognized i
The words were stuck in Victor’s throat, thick and heavy like old oil. He hated this. He hated the way his stomach twisted, a familiar cold knot forming low in his gut. Protecting Isabella felt like a constant battle against forces he couldn’t always see, and now, calming her was no longer part of that equation. Keeping her calm was the opposite of what he had to do. This was going to break that fragile peace they’d somehow cultivated. But she needed to know. She deserved to know.Victor pulled out his phone, the screen felt hot in his hand, and turned it around without a word. The image filled the small space between them, stark and intrusive. Isabella, standing by the sandwich cart, her dark hair catching the light, a small, unconscious smile on her lips. A moment of normal, weaponized.Her eyes, usually so expressive, widened just a fraction. It was fleeting, a ripple across a perfectly still pond. Then, the stillness settled in, cold and sharp, like winter ice. Victor recognized i
The dead line hummed in Victor’s ear, a stark reminder of Cora’s words. Thirty seconds. He held the phone to his ear, listening to nothing, absorbing the silence that now filled the space where her frantic voice had been. Kevin was coming. Kevin knew about the necklace. He had killed someone for it. Victor lowered the receiver slowly, the plastic cool against his palm.“Seth!” he bellowed, his voice rougher than he intended.A moment later, crisp knocks sounded on his door, and then Seth entered, closing it softly behind him. He looked at Victor, a question in his eyes. Seth was good at picking up on shifts in Victor’s mood, always had been. Today, the shift was a seismic event.“Cora called,” Victor began, the words tumbling out, almost tripping over each other. He told him everything. Her terror, the hurried warning, the name: Kevin Moretti. He described the necklace, the specific way she’d spoken about it, connecting it unequivocally to Felix. And then, the chilling detail—the woma
Victor’s fingers tightened around the phone, the plastic digging into his palm. It had been thirteen years. Thirteen long years since she’d vanished, a ghost in the wind, leaving nothing but questions and a gaping hole in his life. He’d torn the city apart looking for her, chasing shadows, clinging to scraps of hope that always turned to dust. Now, a voice, a whisper from the past, was making his blood run cold.“Cora?” he breathed, the name a foreign sound on his tongue after so long.“Yes, Victor. It’s me.” Her voice, softer now, but with an underlying steel he remembered well, sent a shiver down his spine.His mind reeled, trying to process the impossible. “Where have you been? Why… how?”“I had to disappear,” she said, her tone flat, devoid of emotion. “It was the only way to survive.”“Survive what?” The words tumbled out, laced with a decade of frustration.“The information I possessed,” she explained, a sigh escaping her lips. “It made me a target. Staying alive wasn’t easy,
“What happens now,” Isabella said, her voice quiet but steady as she sat across from Victor and tried to keep her hands from shaking in her lap.Victor did not answer right away and she did not rush him because she was busy turning his last words over and over in her head, slow and careful, the sam
“Why does Kevin matter to you this much when you barely say his name without your jaw locking like that,” Isabella said, her voice already tired.Victor did not answer immediately.“I asked you a question,” Isabella said again, softer this time, “and I am done pretending I do not notice when your e
“I am going to need you to start from the beginning,” Isabella said as she followed Victor into the study, her voice controlled but tight, like she was holding herself together by force rather than choice.Victor closed the door behind them without rushing, then walked past her toward the window li
“I cannot keep doing this in my head alone,” Isabella said under her breath as she shut her bedroom door behind her and leaned against it for a second like the wood itself might steady her thoughts.She walked a few steps in and stopped because sitting felt like admitting she was falling apart, and







