- Chapter 7
- Stephan tried to make sense of his unraveling world. A half-empty bottle of whiskey, a new portion yet untouched in his glass as he sat at his desk, fingers pressing against his temples.
- The reports in front of him blurred together—anoter shipments delayed, funds mysteriously rerouted, allies hesitating to return his calls.
- Celeste.
- She was behind all of it, that’s for sure.
- He had underestimated her once, and now he was paying the price.
- It wasn’t just her strategy—it was her.
- Had she always planned this? Had she gotten close to him just to destroy him?
- No. Unlikely.
- The idea felt wrong, even as he tried to convince himself otherwise.
- If she had only been after information, she wouldn’t have hidden for so long. She wouldn’t have played the part of the obedient fiancée so convincingly, quietly smoothing out the problems in his household, balancing delicate relationships, ensuring that he never had to worry about the small details.
- She had loved him once.
- Of that, he was sure.
- Stephan leaned back in his chair, exhaling slowly as his mind drifted back to the beginning.
- Six years ago, at the Azure nightclub. He remembered how she’d caught his eye—not with flash or beauty like the other women who sought his attention, but with her quiet authority.
- The nightclub was packed. High-end, exclusive, drowning in money and sin. The kind of place where deals were made in whispers, and fortunes were lost in a single bet.
- Stephan had been there for business. Then, he saw her.
- Valerie.
- Not on the dance floor, trying to impress anyone.
- She was behind the shadows, moved like she belonged there, always watching. Like she could handle anything thrown her way.
- He watched as a drunk VIP grabbed her wrist, too bold, too entitled.
- She didn’t flinch. She didn’t scream. Simply twisted his arm with practiced ease, forcing him to his knees in seconds.
- Stephan smirked from across the room. He liked her already.
- And Valerie rejected him. Over and over again.
- “I don’t mix business with pleasure,” she had told him, continuing checking the barmen’s workspace without even sparing him a glance.
- Stephan leaned against the bar, undeterred. “Good thing I don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”
- She had smiled then—but it wasn’t the kind of smile women gave him. It was mocking.
- “You’re used to getting what you want, aren’t you, De Luca?” she mused, tilting her head.
- He didn’t deny it. And yet, it took him months to wear her down. She made him work for it. Made him chase. And when she finally let him in—he thought he had won.
- Stephan had slipped the ring onto her finger a bit more than three years later, watching the way the diamond glowed under candlelight.
- Had that all of that been part of the act? A carefully crafted performance to draw him in?
- But there definitely were the moments that felt real—their first kiss in the rain outside the club, their first sleepless night all over his sheets and place. The way she’d trembled when he’d proposed, the genuine fear in her eyes whenever violence erupted in their world.
- Has any of it been true?
- Perhaps, yes. Celeste hadn’t planned any of this. If she had, she would’ve burned his world to the ground long before he humiliated her. Abandoned her.
- Right now it is revenge, not a long-term strategy.
- She makes Stephan become well aware of the sharpness of her teeth.
- The phone felt heavy in his hand as he dialed her number. She finally answered on the fifth ring.
- “You think you can just waltz back into this world and take what’s mine?” he demanded, anger masking the confusion in his voice.
- “Correction.” Her voice was cold, unfamiliar. “It was never yours to begin with.”
- “I know you, Valerie. You don’t have the stomach to go through with this.”
- “That’s right—you had known ‘Valerie’.” A soft laugh, sharp as broken glass. “But what would you possibly know about me?”
- The line went dead.
- Stephan hurled his glass against the wall, watching it shatter.
- Across the city, less than an hour after a short phone-call, Celeste stepped out of an exclusive restaurant after securing another alliance.
- The night air carried the scent of jasmine and gunpowder.
- The attack came swift and silent—a shadow moving in her peripheral vision, the crack of a bullet splitting the air.
- Her security detail erupted into action, but Celeste remained still, a small smile playing at her lips. She had been waiting for this—the first real attempt to test her resolve.
- Time to show them exactly who they were dealing with.
