NathanI had built an empire from nothing.Controlled it with an iron grip.And now, piece by piece, it was being taken from me.Chloe.The board.Even the goddamn media.It was all slipping through my fingers.I stood in front of the massive floor-to-ceiling windows of my penthouse, watching the city lights flicker against the darkness. My reflection stared back at me, distorted in the glass, a mockery of the man I once was.I should be strategizing.I should be tearing Sophia apart.Instead, I was thinking about her.She had been the perfect pawn. Someone I could control, manipulate, mold into whatever suited me. But she wasn’t playing her part anymore.She was rewriting the game.My grip on the whiskey glass tightened.She had no idea who she was dealing with.The world saw Sophia as this phoenix rising from the ashes, reclaiming what was stolen from her. But they didn’t understand. They didn’t know me.I don’t lose.I don’t bow.And I sure as hell don’t let anyone—not Sophia, not
NathanThe air in the boardroom was suffocating.Not because of the heat. Not because of the room itself.But because I could feel it.The shift.The silent, irrevocable betrayal taking shape right in front of me.I had walked into this meeting prepared for war. I had studied my enemies, predicted their moves, fortified my position. And yet—I was losing.I never lost.Yet here I was.Losing.Again.My fingers twitched against the folder in front of me, my pulse drumming like a war drum in my skull. I had brought ammunition. A carefully orchestrated attack. Proof of financial discrepancies, offshore accounts linked to Mitchell Holdings, evidence that could bury Sophia under the same weight she had tried to use against me.And yet—She wasn’t shaken.Not even slightly.Across the table, Sophia sat, poised and unreadable, her silver eyes watching me with the same cold calculation I had once admired—had once controlled.She wasn’t flinching.Not even when I threw the first grenade.I sli
NathanI should have seen it coming.I should have known that Sophia Mitchell wouldn’t stop at just winning—she needed to obliterate me.The board’s decision to strip me of my own company should have been the end. They thought they had caged a wolf and called it victory.But they didn’t realize—I bite harder when I bleed.I stood outside Carter Industries, staring at the gleaming glass tower that no longer bore my name, no longer answered to me. The empire I built now belonged to my greatest enemy.My fingers curled into fists, my nails biting into my palm. It should have burned—losing everything I’d spent years constructing—but all I felt was a slow, dark hunger clawing inside me.A hunger for revenge.Vince stood beside me, silent, waiting. He had learned over the years that when I was this quiet, when I wasn’t punching walls or throwing glasses, it meant I was planning something far worse.Finally, I turned to him, my voice controlled. "Did you get it?"He nodded, handing me a thi
SophiaNathan Carter was a wounded beast.And wounded beasts were the most dangerous.The board meeting may have ended in a temporary victory, but I knew better than to assume it was over. Nathan wasn’t the type to accept defeat. He was the type to retreat just long enough to sharpen his claws before striking again.I sat at my desk, tapping my fingers lightly against the glass surface. The city lights flickered outside, a sprawling testament to power and ambition—the very things Nathan was desperate to reclaim.Alex leaned against the window, arms crossed, studying me. “You’re thinking too hard.”I exhaled. “I’m thinking just enough.”His lips curled into a smirk. “You won today.”“For now.”He moved closer, dropping into the chair across from me. “Nathan’s lost his grip, Sophia. You saw it in his eyes. He’s unraveling.”I shook my head. “No, he’s adapting. That’s what makes him dangerous. He won’t play fair.”Alex swirled the whiskey in his glass, watching the amber liquid dance. “T
SophiaThe air inside Carter Industries felt suffocating.Tension crackled like electricity, thick and charged, pressing against my skin. The walls that once held Nathan’s power now stood under my control, yet somehow, he was still clawing at them, still trying to pull me down from the outside.I stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in my office, arms crossed as I watched the city below. Nathan’s smear campaign had taken root. The headlines were relentless, each one a twisted narrative designed to shake my foundation.“Mitchell’s Leadership in Question Amid Corporate Scandal”“Whispers of Corruption: Is Carter Industries in the Wrong Hands?”“Nathan Carter’s Revenge? The Battle for Carter Industries Continues”I had expected a counterattack, but Nathan had taken it to another level. This wasn’t just about tarnishing my reputation. He was trying to make the board, the investors—hell, even the employees—doubt me.Bellion entered the office, his steps measured, his expression u
SophiaThere was something different about the night air.It wasn’t just the weight of everything that had happened. It was something else—something unseen but felt. A storm on the horizon. A presence lurking just beyond reach.I stood on the balcony of Alex’s penthouse, my hands gripping the cool railing. The city sprawled below, lights flickering like dying embers, unaware of the war waging in the shadows.“You should get some rest.”Alex’s voice was quiet, but there was an edge to it—like he knew neither of us would be sleeping tonight.I turned slightly, meeting his gaze. He was leaning against the glass doors, arms crossed, his expression unreadable.“Something doesn’t feel right,” I admitted.He exhaled through his nose, his eyes scanning the skyline. “That’s because it isn’t.”There was a beat of silence between us, heavy and unspoken.Then—Bellion appeared in the doorway, his usual calm edged with something sharper. “Sophia. We need to talk.”I turned fully, my spine straight
SophiaThe safe house was silent.Not the quiet that calms. The quiet that suffocates.I sat on the edge of the couch in a room designed to make people forget where they are. Beige walls. No-frills lighting. Non-distinct furniture. Sterile. As if it had no recollection, no past, only a placeholder for moments like this.Moments when all seemed to balance in the scales.Alex paced, each step more aggressive than the previous one. His jaw clenched tight, the muscle pulsating along his cheek. He looked occasionally towards the windows, the door, the hallway. As if peril could slink in through the walls if we were to let our guard down for a moment.My hands were folded in my lap, the reverberation of that gunshot still buzzing through my bones. I could hear the vibration of it in my ears. The heat of Alex's body as he shoved me to the ground. Charred metal smell of gunpowder, the acrid bite of panic which had erupted on the sidewalk.But what lingered most… was the rage.Nathan had wound
SophiaEvery lie we said was a blueprint for their destruction.The safe house was silent, but now the silence was movement. The calm before impact. My head was a fuse, smoldering hot, unwinding the pieces as they fell into place. Athena. Deimos. Vince. Nathan. It wasn't a line anymore, it was a net. One I intended to ignite.I looked at the photograph stuck on the wall and remembered that night two years ago. Nathan had brought in a large European firm. Alex was standing in the shadows, negotiating deals into the ears of men three times his age. And I... I was the smile they didn't anticipate. The woman in warpaint and stilettos who'd already mapped out their weaknesses before I even shook their hands.How quickly it all fell apart. "You're not saying anything," Alex said behind me. I turned. "I'm doing math."He moved closer, his feet quiet on the wood. "You're stalling too.""I don't stall," I said. "I wait. There's a difference."He folded his arms, looking at me. "So wh
SophiaWe sat beside the fire hours after it went out.It was now mere embers, burning softly, as silently as the anger I'd yet to shed.Lina was tightly swaddled under Alex's jacket, breathing even but shallowly, as if she listened in her sleep. Alex remained beside her, a guarding hand on the small of her back. He did not talk. He had not said much since Chloe's smile lit the headlines like a spent sun.I could not tell if it was pressure or peace.Either likely.I rested my elbows on the earth, steadying myself as the pre-dawn chill crept across the clearing. Less than twenty-four hours. Less than twenty-four hours since I'd put my sister's destruction in front of every viewer in the country.And already, I could feel the shift.Not victory.Not yet.But momentum.Julian sent word last night—coded, in a phony headline about crop futures. "Shareholder momentum is shifting. Carter board breaks. Keep pressure."I didn't reply.I couldn't.Because while the world was finally seeing Nat
AlexAs the sun dipped below the ridge, the entire forest was holding its breath. The news was out. The world had seen it.We waited now.We didn't say much that evening. I watched Sophia sitting against the rig's weathered hull, legs outstretched, one hand resting low on her belly as if a secret. She wasn't conscious that she did this. As if her body already knew there was something, someone... growing inside her.God.I hadn't made up my mind what to do with that information.Every time I looked at her, I saw the woman who might bring down empires. And now, I also saw what weight she carried. Not of blood or of lineage. But of the life we might have lived.And I wasn't ready for it.Not because I didn't want it.Because I wasn't sure that I deserved it.Sophia looked up, noticing me staring at her. "You okay?" she asked, her voice cheerful, but there was tension brewing just below the surface, like a note sustained too long.I nodded. "Just thinking."She cocked an eyebrow. "Dangero
SophiaThe cabin felt smaller than it previously had.It wasn't just the walls closing in. It was the weight of his words—"We expose him tomorrow"—and the sound of Nathan on the radio, painting me as a saboteur. Every shadow was more pronounced, every breath harder.I woke up before dawn again, the cold wooden floorboards beneath my feet. Lina was still asleep on the worn rug, curled up in a ball as if she could wish herself away. I walked outside silently. The forest was wet—dew droplets on every leaf, the world trembling with possibility.I clamped my hand across my stomach as a second wave of nausea washed over me. The pregnancy was still a secret that Alex and I shared, and I hated how it seemed to grow with every passing day. Fatigue engulfed me like a blanket that I couldn't shake; my body no longer belonged just to Sophia.I didn't say that fear to Alex yet. I wrapped my arms around myself as wind blew across my shoulders and stared at the mist.A stick snapped behind me. I tur
SophiaThe note was short.A lone digit. Four figures.But it might have been thunder.I scowled at the crackling radio, my heart racing so violently it was a countdown. The air inside the cabin stirred. As if the woods outside sensed that something had changed."They heard us," I whispered again, this time almost to myself.Alex nodded once, his hand still light on my wrist. "Someone on the board. Someone still alive."I didn't answer. My eyes were on Lina, who hadn't stirred, still huddled on the floor in the blanket like a shadow pretending to be a child. My heart skipped a beat.There was a war coming. And now that someone on the inside had responded, it wasn’t just going to be fought with guns and secrets.It would be fought with truth.And truth always demands sacrifice.Alex turned back to the transmitter, fingers working with tense precision. “I’m gonna send a cipher. If they’re listening, they’ll know it’s me.”“You’re sure it’s safe?”“I’m sure it’s necessary.”I observed hi
SophiaThe ridge fell away from us as we traveled further into the forest.It was as if I was leaving behind a piece of myself that I had not yet become. A piece that maybe would never have the chance to be if we didn't move quicker, smarter. If we didn't succeed.Alex led us down a ravine lined with moss and fog. Lina sat silently on the rig, her small hands grasping the frame as if she understood the world could break at any second. Maybe she did. Maybe she always had.I had no idea what we were going towards.But I knew what we were leaving behind.Ashes.And maybe that was enough for now.Following another mile, we encountered a narrow path branching off to the left, almost covered by bushes. Alex pulled up, looking at it."I recognize this path," he said. "Bellion told me about an old safehouse out here. Abandoned, off-grid, analog through and through. If it exists in one piece.""It's ours," I finished.He nodded. "We go subterranean. Reconstitute. And call out."I glanced over
AlexShe slept in my arms.That never used to happen.Not when she'd wake with fists bunched and lungs half to shout. Not when every creak of metal was danger and every nightmare ended in blood.Now, though?Now Sophia burrowed into me like I was something secure.I wasn't.Not exactly.But I'd die trying to be.The fire from earlier had burned low, soft coals glowing under a ring of stones we’d found in the clearing. Lina was still curled beside the rig, breathing even. For now, the world was quiet.Too quiet.I kept my eyes on the treeline, but my thoughts stayed tangled in her.She spasmed in her sleep, forehead creasing. I stroked her hair. Wet with perspiration, matted from the run. But still soft. Still hers.God, how she'd kissed me before.It hadn't been a kiss.It had been surrender.Not to me.To hope.I had no idea how much I'd needed it.Something rustled at the edge of the clearing. My hand went to my blade, slow, silent. But it was only a fox, limping, half-starved. It s
SophiaWe ran.Not like we used to, with fear chewing at our ankles and the past choking our airways... but with purpose.The tunnel went down, curved and ancient, rusted metal arches vaulting overhead like the skeleton of some long-dead giant. The air was colder here. Damp with memory. Each step echoed too loudly, as if we were already dead.But I wasn't dying here.Not again.Alex brushed against my shoulder as we swung around a tight curve, squeezing under a low-slung pipe. The emergency rig puffed behind us, rolling on automatic tracks with pods secured inside. Bellion had calibrated it to my bio-readings, it would follow me anywhere.Good.Because I wasn't going to stop.Not until they were safe.Alex reached forward and slapped the override on the next gate passage, and it buzzed in rage before sliding open. His jaw was clamped shut again. That look he has when something inside of him is breaking and he doesn't want anyone to see it.Too late.I saw it.Each crack. Each falter.
AlexShe didn't let me go. Not right away.And I didn't ask her to.Her heartbeat thudded against my chest, steady now—like the system inside her had come to terms with the world outside of her. Or maybe it was the other way around. Either way, Sophia's body leaned into mine not as if she were falling apart, but as if she had finally stood.I'd had broken people before. I'd pulled people back from dying in blood and flames. But this? This wasn't the same.This was a girl who'd died in pieces, a thousand shattered fragments of her, to have one breath for herself, alone.And in that breath—I fell harder.She looked at me, lashes heavy, that spark of after-sync light still flickering behind her eyes."How long was I asleep?" she asked.Long enough that Bellion became agitated and threatened to boil the entire system," I told her, sweeping a lock of hair out of her face.She snorted something that might have been a laugh. "He still around?""Yeah. Glowering in the corner like a paranoid g
SophiaI awoke with static in my mouth.Not pain. Not breath. Not even blood.Just. silence.Another type.Not the type that exists after screaming or before rain. The type that is like stepping outside of your body and the universe hasn't blinked. A void where sound is supposed to be. Where memory is supposed to be.And then...His voice.Frantic. Distant. Cutting through numbness like a wire scraping sparks."Sophia."The world came back in pieces.My name.The shake in it.His fingers on my face."Sophia, look at me... hey, stay with me."My eyes bladed open.Not light.Not dark.A blur of both.Shapes, motion, warmth. His face came into focus first. Not the angles. Not the sharpness. Just the eyes.God, those eyes.Blue spat with desperation, edged in terror he no longer bothered concealing. He resembled a man who'd screamed for decades. Who hadn't drawn breath since I fell. I attempted to speak and only produced a rasp.Alex caught it nevertheless."You're okay," he said—to hims