CHAPTER Six

Dominic's  POV

I burst through the doors of the gala, warm night air hitting me with the force of a fist. My breathing was in harsh, jagged gasps. I could hear the pounding of Serena's heels on the marble behind me as she attempted to catch up.

"Dominic! Dominic, what is it?" she yelled, pulling at my arm.

I shook her off in a daze, my head spinning with anger and shock. My lungs burned as I stumbled toward the sidewalk, fumbling for my car keys in shaky fingers. Everything, both past and present came crashing down on me at once.

She was supposed to remain a memory. Not a reckoning.

Not this.

Serena stood beside me, taking my wrist in her long, bony fingers. "What's wrong? Tell me, what's going on? Why are you behaving like you've just seen a ghost?"

I  said nothing, I just opened the car and got inside behind the driver's seat, holding on to it so hard my knuckles ache. Serena hesitated for a moment, then opened the door and slipped in beside me into the passenger's seat.

"I need a minute," I growled, my voice rough. "Just give me a second… I have to think."

I wheeled out of the valet circle, tires screaming on the pavement as I plunged into the darkness, hardly able to see the road beneath my wheels. My heart was pounding louder than the engine. My eyes ran wet at the edges, everything narrowing down to the pictures flashing behind my mind.

Flash.

I could see her again, Liana, in our old kitchen, the burnt smell of toast and bad coffee hanging over the room. A computer on the counter. Dark hair falling into her eyes as she motioned for me to approach, a flash of enthusiasm spreading over her face over some scheme she had cooked up: an innovation pipeline to purchase struggling technology startups before they could fail entirely.

"You're adorable when you attempt to be serious," I'd joked, passing by her without even a glance, grabbing my briefcase off the dinner table without realizing that that moment would prove to be one of the very last mundane ones we would ever experience together. 

If I'd known what lay in store, maybe I would have lingered. Maybe I would have kissed her, or listened better. Maybe none of this would be happening now. I would have treated her right. 

Another flash.

A board meeting. Liana, sitting silently beside me, passing me a scribbled note during the middle of a heated acquisition negotiation. I didn't even open it, just crumpled it up and threw it on the ground, too busy thinking myself a mastermind.

If only I had known. 

Then, another flash.

This one was that evening she had left. Her bag packed, leaning against the entrance. No screaming, no sobbing, only one look, that icy, suffocating glance  and the sound of the door shutting. And she was gone, I never heard of her again. 

Now she loomed above me. Now she just might hold the future of my hardwork in her hands.

The car skidded to a screaming stop in front of my penthouse. I charged out, Serena scrambling behind to keep up.

The immaculate white walls of the interior closed in on me. I ripped off my jacket, tossing it across the room, and began pacing like a caged animal.

"Dominic," Serena whispered, sliding inside behind me again. "Please, talk to me. You're scaring me."

I barely glanced at her. My mind reeled, spinning, struggling for rational explanations.

This cannot be happening. She cannot possibly wield that kind of power. She was a start up, she was naive. She definitely left some lapses I can maneuver 

I picked my phone with shaking hands, dialing people who once would have answered on the first ring.

Gregson. No answer.

Pearce. Straight to voicemail.

Davenport. "Unavailable.

I called again, reaching out to my old board supporters, men who had smiled over cigars and slapped me on the back in congratulations.

Nothing.

It was like they'd all disappeared.

Or worse, been bought.

Sweat trickled down my back as I flung the phone onto the couch, running my hand through my hair in agitation. I strode across the room, poured myself a drink, something strong and downed it in one quick gulp.

When the shrill ring of my landline pierced the silence, I sprang for it.

"Dominic Smith," I barked.

"Dominic, it's Russell," was the gravelly, deep voice of my financial advisor. "We need to talk."

I sensed the tension in his voice pierce the haze of fear.

"Talk," I growled.

There was a moment of silence, as though he were choosing his words. "You asked months ago that I keep an eye out for any unusual activity against Smith Industries, you remember?"

"Yes, and?"

"I should have warned you earlier. But I thought they were random purchases, Minor works and I didn't make much of it. But now it doesn't seem random at all, Dominic. I believe it's a tactic. Organized."

My gut fell. And he just thought to tell me?

"Russell, come on. Spit it out."

"Z-Core has acquired majority stakes in dozens of companies including three of your most significant suppliers. The companies that supply your core business. Without them, your margins collapse. Your leverage collapses."

"No." I shook my head vigorously. "That's not possible. My contracts…"

"Were up for renewal last quarter. While you were busy chasing that merger, Z-Core moved in and negotiated sweeter deals. You didn’t even notice. This is dog eat dog competition Dom, they are taking over the technology world."

Silence stretched between us, dense and suffocating. "If you do not hurry," Russell asserted harshly, "Smith Industries will find themselves on the liability for an attempted takeover or an abominable partnership within months."

My fingers locked around the phone until the plastic cracked. "She set this up," I whispered.

"She?" Russell asked, sounding really lost. I ended the call without answering, letting the receiver drop from my fingers onto the floor. The world spun around me, but I stood on my feet.

Serena had retreated into the corner of the room, arms wrapped tightly around herself, staring at me like I was a stranger. Good, cause I felt like one.

I stumbled over to the window, looking out at the city lights glinting like stars. The skyline that had been my dominion now taunted me.

She had done it. Liana fucking Davids had done it.

She had manipulated me. Painfully but skillfully. And I, the man who thought he knew everything, had laid the path to her revenge for her without even being aware.

Fury seethed inside me, hot and all-consuming. I slammed my fists into the glass window, pain shooting up both arms, but it was irrelevant. Nothing was relevant except the burning need that tightened in my stomach with each passing second.

I had to confront her. I had to look her in the eye and talk to her. 

If she wanted war, she would get war.

But beneath the anger seethed and bubbled, something darker slipped in unseen: a thread of doubt, of guilt.

And beneath it all, deep inside, a tiny, dangerous spark of something I did not want to name.

It wasn't revenge, no. It was something else, something worse.

I whirled around from the window, gasping.

This most certainly was not business.

It was now personal and it had just begun.