Creed’s POVI barely make it halfway down the hall when I hear raised voices.Again.I sigh, straightening my suit as I round the corner—only to find Zara and Yuyu standing toe-to-toe in the middle of the hallway.Zara’s posture is poised, arms crossed, her lips pressed in a tight, unimpressed line. She looks as if she’s just stepped off the cover of a luxury magazine, her perfectly manicured nails tapping against her elbow with elegant disapproval.Yuyu, on the other hand—Drenched.The front of that ridiculous rhinestone dress is soaked, clinging to her in dark, wet patches, but her expression is eerily composed."What," I say flatly, "is going on here?"Zara turns to me instantly, relief flashing in her eyes as she steps forward, gracefully reaching for the lapels of my suit, her delicate fingers brushing against the fabric as if seeking comfort."Creed," she breathes, eyes soft, yet stormy with emotion. "You will not believe what just happened."I arch a brow.She exhales, lookin
Yuki’s POVThe moment I stepped into the office, I felt all eyes on me.I wasn’t surprised. I probably looked like a mess—coffee-stained, slightly damp, and definitely not as put together as usual.“Yuyu, are you okay?” Jason was the first to ask, his brows knitting together.I let out a slow breath, setting my things down before shaking my head. “Not really, but you know me—always rolling with the punches.”Amber leaned forward, eyeing my dress. “What happened?”I sighed, rubbing my temples. “Short version? I had a run-in with Zara. Long version? I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and now I’m wearing my morning coffee.”They all looked concerned."Wait," Jason said, blinking. "Zara did this?"I held up a hand. "Let’s just say she was heavily involved."Amber muttered something under her breath, shaking her head. "Damn. That woman’s a nightmare."I let out a small chuckle, but the ache in my chest lingered.Because despite my frustration, I knew one thing for sure—calling Zar
Creed’s POVThe moment I stepped into my penthouse, the silence felt almost suffocating. The space was immaculate—modern furniture, expensive artwork, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city skyline. Everything in its place. Everything untouched.It was the kind of home that should feel grand, yet it only ever felt empty.I sighed, tossing my blazer over a chair and heading straight to the bathroom. Hot water cascaded down my back, washing away the exhaustion clinging to my muscles. For a brief moment, I let myself relax—until the sound of the doorbell shattered the quiet.I froze.Then, the faint click of heels against the marble floor.Zara.My grip on the towel tightened as I stepped out of the shower, steam curling around me. And there she was.She stood at the entrance, bathed in the golden glow of the chandeliers. A deep red dress hugged her figure, the fabric draping over her curves like it had been painted on. The slit rode high on her thigh, teasing glimpses of flawless
Yuki's povMy head was pounding.A dull, relentless throb pulsed behind my eyes, making me groan as I shifted under the covers. My mouth was dry, my limbs felt like lead, and for a brief moment, I considered staying in bed forever.Then Suzu barked.Loud. Piercing. Right in my ear.I flinched. "Not now, Mama. My shift at the bar doesn’t start until—"Wait.I don’t work at a bar anymore.My eyes snapped open, darting to the bedside clock.8:07 AM.Shit.I bolted upright. "No, no, no—fuck! Lily!"Across the bed, Lily was sprawled out, completely undisturbed by my panic attack.I shook her shoulder roughly. "Wake up! It’s past eight—I overslept!"She groaned, swatting at my hand without even opening her eyes. "Five more minutes…""Lily, it’s past eight."That got her attention.Her eyes flew open as she shot up, panic settling in. "Oh my God! Yuki! How did we—?!""I don’t know!" I groaned, rubbing my temples. "Maybe the vodka and chocolate strawberries?""Damn those evil berries," she mu
I leaned against my desk, fingers flying over the keyboard as I stared at my screen. My head still throbbed slightly from last night’s vodka and chocolate strawberries disaster, but that wasn’t even the worst part of my morning.No. That honor belonged to the absolute joke of a project we’d been assigned.Two hours ago, General Manager Olive—the mother of the woman I hated most in this company—had strutted into the conference room and delivered the verdict."Each department must work on a project that enhances our company’s efficiency. Your results will be evaluated, and the department with the best execution will win the vacation."Sounds fair, right?Except it wasn’t.While the PR and Marketing teams got flashy campaigns, the Data Analytics and Coding team got saddled with an AI-driven customer experience system.In other words, we were expected to design and implement a fully functional AI that would revolutionize customer interactions. An interactive, personalized system that coul
Creed’s POVTwo weeks.Two excruciatingly painful weeks of this vacation bullshit.Everywhere I turned, people were smiling, laughing, talking about god-knows-what with their teeth on full display, like the air itself had been laced with some kind of happy drug.It was suffocating.Every single damn person looked like her.Like Yuyu.That pissed me off.I hadn’t spoken to her since the coffee incident with Zara, and honestly, I preferred it that way. Our lack of communication had done nothing to erase her from my surroundings, though. I still caught glimpses of her—talking to Olive, assisting Jason, handling a hundred things at once as if she had six pairs of hands.And today wasn’t any different.I had seen her earlier, standing outside the manager’s office, discussing something about extending time for the project. She was wearing a black skirt and a silky blue top, her dark hair cascading down her back, catching the light in waves.Her lips moved and moved and moved as she talked.
Twenty million dollars.The words echoed in my head, but instead of feeling victorious, I felt a strange sense of unease. My chest tightened as I looked at Creed, expecting some kind of reaction—relief, satisfaction, maybe even smugness.Instead, his expression was unreadable. His eyes darkened, fingers drumming against the polished desk in that slow, measured way that meant he was holding himself back. His lips pressed into a thin line, and tension radiated from him in waves."For what?" His voice cut through the silence, sharp and controlled.Mr. Evan leaned back, looking far too pleased with himself. "For an employee transfer."I stiffened.Creed's fingers curled into fists.Mr. Evan turned to me, his expression filled with admiration. "I like your confidence, Miss Roman. Not many would dare interrupt a high-stakes meeting and challenge me the way you did. You’re sharp, well-spoken, and you clearly have a deep understanding of what makes Creed X Technologies stand out. I want that
Yuki’s POV"Alright, team, we have exactly four months to finish this AI model, and if we don’t come up with something groundbreaking, we’re basically screwed."My voice echoed through the conference room as I leaned over the table, my hands splayed on the glossy surface. The other developers, designers, and data analysts sat in a semi-circle, most looking exhausted, some barely engaged."We’ve been brainstorming for two hours," Amber groaned, stretching her arms above her head. "We need something that won’t take six months to code.""We need a miracle," muttered Jacob, pushing his glasses up his nose."Or just a solid idea," I corrected. "Throw everything you have at me. Even if it sounds stupid.""Machine learning predictive models?""Too long.""Neural network training optimization?""Too complicated.""A chatbot with dynamic emotion recognition?"I sighed. "Good, but not innovative enough. We need something that makes Creed X Technologies stand out from the rest."The room fell si
Yuki's POVI did not know what to do with this. With him. With this. miserable life. Grandpa Roman was bleeding — his hand was slashed open, red spreading onto the floor and Lily's voice disintegrating in horror as she ran left and right. Everything appeared to be unfolding too fast and too slow all at once. The glass, the blood, Suzu's frantic barking, the aching in my chest. My head was an absolute, overwhelming void."Yuki! Grab the first aid kit, now!" Lily screamed.My legs barely worked. I was stuck there, agape, like my brain couldn't wrap around it. Like I couldn't wrap my head around how fast everything disintegrated. One second he was just standing there, screaming at my mother, the next glass was shrouding everything, blood on his wrist, and the fragile reality I was pretending to hold together had broken completely."Yuki!"I jumped and ran for the kit.Lily was pressing a towel over his palm, speaking reassuringly to him but he wouldn't stop struggling, calling out for la
Zara's POVI was furious. No — furious didn’t even begin to cover it. I was livid, seething, burning so hot I thought my skin might melt off my bones.After everything I did, after everything I exposed… Creed didn’t even react.I expected rage. I expected him to throw that lying, pathetic excuse of a human being out of the building. I expected him to grab me by the arm, pull me aside, demand to know how I found out, maybe even slap me, shake me, fire me, break something — anything.But nothing happened.He stood there, looking like a statue, his eyes void of any of the fire I’d always loved seeing in him. There was no anger, no betrayal, no disgust, not even pain. Just a flat, hollow emptiness.It made me sick.He should’ve done something.I stormed into my mother’s office, slamming the door so hard a frame rattled against the wall.“Mom,” I snapped, pacing the floor like a caged animal. “He didn’t even react.”My mother barely lifted her gaze from her tablet, calm as always. “What a
Yuki’s POVI felt heavy. So heavy.Like my whole chest had been filled with cement, and someone left me sinking at the bottom of some endless, dark ocean. I laid there, my back flat against my tiny mattress, staring up at the ceiling like it could explain why everything had gone so wrong. My mind was… nothing. A complete abyss. Blank.I couldn’t think.I couldn’t feel.I couldn’t even see properly — everything looked foggy, like my eyes had turned into glass.It felt like a dream.A dream I’d spent years carefully stacking, one fragile piece at a time, and today it just… cracked.Shattered.And in the fallout, I couldn’t even tell where my heart used to be.Why?Why did it have to go down like this?Why did I let it happen?I planned to run, to leave before anyone really got hurt.I never wanted to break anyone.Not him.But it hurt… it hurt so much because I saw it in his eyes — Creed, that mixture of confusion and betrayal and something way worse — like I wasn’t even human to him an
Creed’s POVHow could I be so goddamn stupid?The question kept looping in my head like a song you hate but can’t stop hearing. It was there in the way my stomach twisted, the tightness in my jaw, the way my fists clenched at my sides like I could punch the thought away.YuYu Roman.What a fucking joke.Except it wasn’t a joke. It was my life. My embarrassment. My shame.He wasn’t a she.Not even close.And the worst part wasn’t the lying — it was how it made me feel. How kissing him felt good. Too good.Soft lips, warm breath, the way my heart had stumbled in my chest like it didn’t know better. Like it wasn’t supposed to feel disgusted. And when his hand had brushed against my cheek — so light, so tender — something inside me had cracked open, a small flicker of warmth I didn’t think existed anymore.And now?Now it felt like filth under my skin.A goddamn stain.I could still feel it.Still taste it.I wanted to throw up.How could you be so blind? How could you be so easy? So… des
Lily's POVThe supermarket smelled of tomatoes, discount floor cleaner, and something sweet baking in the next aisle. I was supposed to be focusing — carrots, lettuce, and a little garlic for Grandpa Roman's soup — but my eyes kept drifting towards the ice cream aisle like a church sinner.I could almost feel the chill tub of chocolate fudge ripple in my hand. One. I could push it into the cart, under the pile of health food. No one would notice. No one had to know.But then my chest tightened.Grandpa.His face flashed before me — pale, confused, his eyes fogging over in those moments when he didn't even know my name. He was declining. The seven hours a day I could care for him between work, errands, and sleep were no longer enough. He needed constant care… and I was failing.I swallowed the guilt and picked up a bag of spinach when something sharp, something intimate hit my nose. A scent. New cologne, with something masculine and citrus notes. My airway stopped.It couldn't be.Not
Yuki's POVThe world shattered.Not figuratively. Not in some poetic, theoretical way. It shattered in hard, harsh, calculating pieces like a glass grenade primed to explode the moment I walked into that conference room.the screen kept flashing A video.My video.The one I made six years ago.Me.In a dirty little room, in front of a shattered mirror with my real voice.With my short hair.With my name.Yuki Roman.I felt my stomach cave in, my chest tightening like a vice. My heartbeat was loud — frantic, erratic, like it wanted to run out of my body without me.My secret — the one I’d carried like fine glass — was smashed wide open, spilled on the floor like blood.I couldn’t breathe.The silence in the room was a suffocating thing. Eyes. All of them. On me.Jacob’s grip on my elbow tightened. His glasses fogged up.Then a voice cut through.Creed.Cool. Commanding. Steady as steel.“Zara. You’ve done enough. Get out.”The whole room flinched.Even Zara stumbled, her confident mas
Creed's POVThe conference room gradually filled — a steady stream of confused, concerned, half-irked employees abandoning their workstations because of one woman's behavior. Zara's voice had echoed loudly through the intercom a few minutes prior, her voice crisp, authoritative, impossible to ignore:"Everyone, report to the conference room immediately. This concerns the integrity of the company and your future. Move."It was the kind of tone that would get your blood cold for a second — not because she was dominant, but because she sounded like she was going to burn the whole building down.I walked towards her, fighting through the growing crowd, my heart thudding against my flesh. Something made the air heavier, and tension wrapped around everyone's neck like a vine. And she was there — Zara, standing directly in front of the main presentation screen as if it belonged to her, her face pulled tight with that same self-satisfied smirk I remembered all too well."Zara," I stated my vo
Yuki’s POVYou know that feeling when the sun’s out, your playlist is hitting every single mood right, and your hair decides to cooperate like it’s on a paid commercial shoot?Yeah — that was me this morning.I slid into my emerald jumpsuit — one of those slinky, sparkly, hug-you-in-all-the-right-spaces kind of numbers. Gold sparkles winked across the fabric like miniature stars, catching light as I shifted. Damn, Yuyu, you're a work of art, I thought, making a goofy pose in front of the mirror.And the shoes. The gold heels. Four inches of pure, blinding hazard. I still thanked all stars and planets for Lily, who basically terrorized me through a bootcamp of Heels 101: How Not To Die While Serving Looks. For real, my ankles were on life support due to her.But being there — standing like a walking disco ball with cheekbones — something odd crossed my mind.What does a hot diva like me do with all these heels when this mirage is over?I didn’t linger on it. Not today.“Okay, sparklebu
Zara's POVRaw, unadulterated excitement coursed through my veins like lava as I tore through the city streets to Creed's house. Every red light, every bump in the road seemed to be personally sent to stop me, but nothing could quell the fire that burned inside. I was on pins and needles. I was alive.I could barely maintain my seat in the car.The night had finally arrived.I wanted to be the first to tell him.I wanted to be the first face he saw when the truth smacked him in the face of his stunning, clueless face.I wanted to be standing there, front row center, when his heart shattered and the tiny dream world he'd built around his precious Yuyu crashed down in front of his eyes.Ved moved out of the way — I made sure.I did it perfectly well. As usual.I got to Creed's house around five.A little too early, yeah — but I didn't mind. I wanted to wait.I wasn't waiting to mind, not for this one.The office let out at six. He'd've been home at six-thirty, seven latest. Eight at a s