Victoria Black had spent her entire life learning one simple lesson: the world belonged to people who had power.She learned it as a child, long before she understood what power truly meant.Victoria grew up in a small, broken-down neighborhood where poverty was not something people talked about because everyone already knew what it looked like. It was the empty cupboard in the kitchen. It was the landlord knocking on the door. It was her mother coming home late at night with tired eyes and pretending she wasn’t exhausted. It was wearing the same shoes until the sole began to separate from the bottom. It was watching other children receive things they took for granted and learning not to ask for them because she knew her mother couldn’t afford them.Her father had left when she was young, taking whatever little hope the family had of becoming stable with him.Victoria remembered asking her mother one night why they had to struggle so much.Her mother had looked at her for a long time before answering.“Because we were born without power.”Victoria never forgot those words.She promised herself that she would never be powerless again.But Victoria was not an ordinary child.When she was sixteen, something inside her awakened.It happened during a fight at school. A girl who had spent months humiliating her finally pushed her too far. Victoria grabbed her wrist, expecting nothing more than to push her away.Instead, the girl suddenly stopped.Her expression changed.The anger disappeared from her face and was replaced by confusion, then sadness. Within seconds, tears were running down her cheeks.Victoria let go.The girl collapsed into a chair.Victoria had no idea what she had done.She soon discovered that she could feel emotions that did not belong to her. She could sense fear before someone showed it. She could make an angry person calm. She could make someone who hated her suddenly trust her. With concentration, she could manipulate emotions so strongly that a person could experience feelings that were not their own.At first, Victoria was terrified.Then she realized what her ability could do.She had spent her entire childhood watching powerful people control her family.Now she had something they didn’t.She had a weapon nobody could see.But there was a price.Every time Victoria manipulated another person’s emotions, she lost a small piece of her own.At first, it was something insignificant.A happy memory would become dull.A moment of excitement would feel empty.A childhood memory would lose its warmth.The more she used her ability, the more emotionally distant she became.Victoria noticed it happening but convinced herself that it was worth it.After all, emotions had never saved her family.Money could,Influence could,Power could.So Victoria chose power.She left school determined to build a life nobody could take from her. She started smallShe worked wherever she could find work. She learned about business, finance, technology, investment and human behavior. She watched wealthy people closely. She learned how they spoke, how they negotiated, how they lied and how they recognized weakness.Victoria didn’t just want to become rich.She wanted to understand the system that had kept people like her poor. Then she wanted to own itHer first successful business was a small security company.It wasn’t glamorous, and nobody expected much from it.Victoria saw an opportunity where everyone else saw an ordinary business.She used her intelligence, determination and supernatural ability to negotiate contracts.Whenever a powerful businessman tried to intimidate her, she made him feel uncertain.Whenever someone planned to betray her, she sensed it before they acted.Whenever someone tried to cheat her, she knew.Victoria’s company grew. One business became threeThree became tenTen became an empire.Within fifteen years, Victoria Black went from a poor girl nobody noticed to one of the most powerful women in the country.Her company, Blackstone International, expanded into technology, security, finance, real estate and private communications.She owned hotels.She owned companies.She owned buildings that reached the clouds.She had drivers, private security, assistants and people who waited hours just for a chance to speak to her.The little girl who once worried about where her next meal would come from now lived in a mansion overlooking the city.The world called her a self-made billionaire.Victoria called herself prepared.Because underneath the expensive suits, private jets and millions of dollars was the same frightened girl who had once watched strangers remove her family’s belongings from their home.She never forgot where she came from.And she never trusted anyone enough to let them take it away again.But success came with enemies.Victoria had built her empire in a world where powerful men were accustomed to controlling everything.Some hated that a woman had become richer and more influential than they were.Others feared her.Some wanted to work .

Alex grew up knowing what it meant to live without a father.She never had the chance to experience the kind of childhood where a father came home at the end of the day, asked about school, or sat beside his family at the dinner table. Her father was a distant figure in her life, someone whose absence became a part of her reality before she was old enough to fully understand what it meant.But there was a house.. It was the one thing she could point to and say, This is ours.Her father had left behind a house, and for a while, that house gave Alex, her mother, and the family a sense of belonging. It was not a perfect home, but it was home. It carried memories, laughter, arguments, quiet nights, and the ordinary moments that Alex would later realize were more valuable than she had known.Then, one day, everything changed.The house was given to her father’s brother’s son.Alex was too young to understand the reasons behind it. She only understood what happened next: they were asked to leave.There was no place of their own waiting for them. No carefully planned move. No certainty about what came next.They had to go to her grandmother’s house.Alex remembered that period differently from everyone else because she had been the only one staying with her mother when everything happened. She witnessed the confusion, the pain, and the reality of losing the only home she had known, She carried those memories quietly.For a child, it was a lot to understand.Why did they have to leave?Why couldn’t they stay?Why did it feel like the things that belonged to them could suddenly be taken away?Alex didn’t have the answers.She only knew that something had changed.Eventually, life in the village became a chapter they had to close. Alex and her mother left for the city, hoping that somewhere beyond the familiar roads and old memories, life could become better.The city was different. It was bigger, louder, and unfamiliar. But it also carried something Alex desperately needed: hope.That was where her story truly began.Alex started school. Despite everything she had experienced, she was a bright student. She loved learning, and school became more than just a place she went every morning. It became her escape. Between books, assignments, examinations, and dreams of the future, Alex found a world where she could imagine becoming something more.While Alex focused on her studies, her mother focused on survival. Her mother took whatever jobs she could find e.g hawking, She worked different jobs, sometimes doing things that were exhausting and difficult, just to make sure there was food on the table and that Alex could remain in school. Alex noticed.She noticed the tiredness in her mother’s eyes. She noticed how hard she worked.She noticed the sacrifices she made without complaining.And somewhere deep inside Alex, a promise began to grow.One day, I will make all of this worth it.She didn’t know then what life had in store for her.She didn’t know about the battles she would eventually fight within herself.She didn’t know that the little girl who had already experienced loss, displacement, and uncertainty would one day struggle with emotions she couldn’t explain.She didn’t know that there would be days when getting out of bed would feel like a battle.She didn’t know that she would lose pieces of herself before learning how to find them again.But for now, Alex was just a young girl in a new city, going to school, carrying her mother’s sacrifices on her shoulders, and dreaming of a better life.She was a good student.She was hopeful that one day she will be able to help her momShe was still becoming.Alex had always been a good student.She had worked hard through primary school, determined to make her mother proud and prove that the sacrifices being made for her education were not in vain. But when primary school came to an end, another battle was waiting for her Secondary school.For many children, moving into secondary school was simply the next step. For Alex, it felt like a mountain.Her mother could barely keep food on the table, let alone afford school fees, uniforms, books, transportation, and all the other expenses that came with secondary education.Alex watched her mother struggle and slowly began to understand that wanting an education was not enough. Sometimes, life demanded that you fight for the opportunity to receive one.Then, something unexpected happened.Alex received a scholarship from a foundation that supported less-privileged children.For the first time in a long while, it felt like someone had opened a door for her.The scholarship gave Alex the opportunity to continue her education, and she held onto it with everything she had. She knew what it meant not just for her, but for her mother, who had worked so hard to give her children a future.Alex completed primary school and eventually graduated, carrying with her the hope that secondary school would be the beginning of something even better.But life had other plans for her surviva