Hired by the Billionaire I Destroyed

The eviction notice wasn't what broke her. It was the name glowing on her phone screen. Devereux Sporting Group. Seraphina stared at the email, her thumb hovering over delete. Three years. Three years of rejection letters, bounced checks, and landlords who stopped pretending to be patient. And now the empire she destroyed was calling her back. She opened it. Ms. Laurent. Mr. Devereux requests your presence at headquarters. Tomorrow. 9 AM. Come alone. No signature. No department. Just a time, a place, and the weight of a name that had haunted her career since she watched it burn. Her landlord's voice echoed from the hallway. "Miss Laurent, I know you're in there. Rent was due twelve days ago." She deleted the email. Then she packed her only remaining blazer and prepared to meet the devil. The Devereux headquarters hadn't changed. Glass towers that swallowed the sky. Marble floors polished enough to reflect the shame of anyone who couldn't afford to stand on them. Seraphina walked through the lobby with her chin raised, ignoring the whispers that followed her like a shadow. That's her. The journalist. The one who tried to take him down. She hadn't tried. She had succeeded. At least for a while. The elevator ride felt like a sentencing. Each floor chimed with another memory she couldn't escape. The article. The awards. The death threats from fans who worshipped Lucien Devereux like a god. The slow realization that no publication would touch her after the lawsuits settled. When the doors opened, a woman in black escorted her through hallways designed to intimidate. Seraphina counted the exits, a habit she'd developed when her sources started disappearing. Three doors. Two stairwells. One window at the end of the corridor that would never open from the inside. His office was at the top. Of course it was. She expected him behind a desk, surrounded by lawyers, ready to crush her with legal documents. Instead, she found him standing at the window, his back to her, hands in his pockets like he hadn't spent three years rebuilding what she'd nearly destroyed. "Three years," he said without turning around. "I wondered when you'd finally crawl back." The voice hit her like a physical blow. Cold. Controlled. Exactly how she remembered it from the one time she'd interviewed him before everything fell apart. "I didn't crawl," she said. "You summoned me." He turned then. Older than she remembered. Sharper. The kind of face that belonged on magazine covers about ruthless billionaires who ate struggling journalists for breakfast. Lucien Devereux looked at her like she was a stain on his marble floor. "You look like shit." Seraphina laughed. She couldn't help it. "Three years of being blacklisted tends to do that." "Good." The word hung between them, loaded with venom. She deserved it. She knew that. But she wasn't going to stand there and let him enjoy it. "If you brought me here to gloat, save your breath. I have applications to file." She turned toward the door, already calculating how fast she could escape this tower of glass and privilege. "One hundred thousand." The number stopped her cold. "What?" Lucien moved to his desk, pulling out a contract that looked thick enough to stop a bullet. "One hundred thousand euros. That's what I'm offering you." Seraphina's heart hammered against her ribs. One hundred thousand. It would cover her debts. Her rent. The lawyer fees that had been suffocating her since the counter-suit. "For what?" she asked, hating how desperate her voice sounded. He smiled. It didn't reach his eyes. "I want you to investigate the championship scandal again." The words didn't make sense. She waited for the punchline, the cruel joke that would explain why the man she destroyed was offering her money. "You're insane." "Possibly." He slid the contract across the desk. "But I'm also patient. And I've spent three years wondering who really orchestrated the scandal that ruined my reputation." "I exposed the truth. The evidence was clear." "The evidence was fabricated." The room tilted. Seraphina gripped the back of a chair to steady herself. "That's not possible. I verified everything. I had sources. Documents. Witnesses." "You had what someone wanted you to have." Lucien's voice remained calm, but his jaw tightened. "Someone inside my company fed you forged evidence. Someone wanted me destroyed. And you were the perfect weapon." Her mind raced through the investigation. The anonymous tips. The financial records that had arrived in an unmarked envelope. The witness who had confirmed everything before disappearing into witness protection. "I don't believe you." "I don't care what you believe." He moved closer, close enough that she could smell expensive cologne and barely suppressed fury. "I care about the truth. And you're going to find it for me." Seraphina shook her head. "Even if I wanted to help you, no one will publish anything with my name on it. I'm radioactive." "That's exactly why I want you." Lucien's eyes locked on hers. "No one will suspect the woman who destroyed me is now working to save me. You're the perfect cover." Her phone buzzed. She glanced at it. Another message from her landlord. Another threat. Another reminder that she was running out of options. "Why should I trust you?" He laughed. The sound was ugly and sharp. "You shouldn't. Trust is for people who haven't tried to destroy each other." "Then why would I accept?" "Because you're broke." He said it without malice, just cold fact. "Because your father's medical bills are piling up. Because you haven't published anything in three years and your career is a corpse. Because I'm the only person in this city willing to pay you for anything." Seraphina's hands curled into fists. She wanted to throw the contract in his face. She wanted to scream that she'd rather starve than work for him. But she was tired. And hungry. And terrified of what came next if she refused. "One condition," Lucien said. "If you prove I'm innocent, you publicly clear my name. Front page. Every publication that ran your original story." "And if I prove you're guilty?" "Then I'll pay you double and you can watch me burn." The offer was absurd. Impossible. Exactly the kind of trap a ruthless billionaire would set for the woman who ruined him. But something in his eyes made her pause. Behind the anger, behind the cold control, she saw something she recognized. Fear. Lucien Devereux wasn't just offering her a job. He was begging for help without knowing how to say the words. Seraphina picked up the contract. "I'll need access to everything. The original files. The witnesses. Your personal records. Everything." "I wouldn't expect anything less." "And I'll need protection. If someone really manipulated my investigation, they won't want me digging again." Lucien's expression shifted. For a moment, he almost looked impressed. "Already thinking like a target. That's good. It means you're taking this seriously." "I'm taking the money seriously." He handed her a pen. "Sign. Then we'll talk terms." Seraphina stared at the contract. One hundred thousand euros. A chance to clear her name. A chance to prove she wasn't the monster the world believed her to be. Or a chance to finish what she started and destroy him completely. She signed. Lucien's hand wrapped around hers before she could pull away. His grip was warm. Firm. Electric in a way she refused to acknowledge. "Welcome back to the empire, Miss Laurent." "Don't welcome me yet." She yanked her hand free. "I still think you're guilty." "I know." He smiled again, that same cold smile that made her blood run hot. "That's exactly why I chose you." The door opened behind them. A man in an expensive suit entered, carrying a tablet. "Sir, there's been a breach. Your office security system was accessed remotely last night." Lucien's face went hard. "When exactly?" "Three AM. The same hour the first anonymous tip was sent to Miss Laurent's original investigation." Seraphina's stomach dropped. "That was three years ago." The man nodded. "I know." Lucien turned to her, his eyes blazing with intensity. "You wanted evidence that someone manipulated you?" He grabbed his coat. "It just started following us." He moved toward the door, already issuing orders into his phone. Seraphina stood frozen, the signed contract still in her hand. She had come here expecting revenge. Instead, she'd stepped into a trap that had been waiting three years to spring. And for the first time since she'd written the article that destroyed him, Seraphina Laurent was genuinely afraid. Not of Lucien Devereux. But of whoever was watching them both.