Chapter2:Ashes andresolve
1374 Words
The c***k of her palm against his cheek echoed through the empty intersection.
Maximos Vasilis didn't move. Didn't flinch. Didn't even blink.
He just stood there, his face turned slightly from the impact, a red mark already blooming across his sharp cheekbone.
Netim's hand throbbed. Her chest heaved with rage and tears and something wild she couldn't name.
"Feel better?" His voice was calm. Too calm.
"No." Her voice broke. "You destroyed my life. You took everything—"
"I took what was legally mine." He turned his face back to her, those cold eyes locking onto hers. "Your father borrowed money he couldn't repay. Made deals he couldn't honor. When the debts came due, I bought them. All of them." His tone was matter-of-fact, like he was discussing stock prices. "It's just business, Miss Danjuma. Nothing personal."
"Nothing *personal*?" She wanted to hit him again. "That's my family's legacy—"
"Your family's legacy was built on borrowed time and bad decisions." He reached into his jacket, and she tensed—but he only pulled out a business card. "Tomorrow. Nine AM. Vasilis Tower, 47th floor. There's a contract waiting for you. Executive assistant. Two years. The terms are non-negotiable."
"I'd rather starve than work for you."
"No, you wouldn't." He tucked the card into her coat pocket before she could stop him. "You're angry. That's understandable. But anger without strategy is just noise. And you strike me as someone who prefers results."
He walked back to his car—a black Bentley that purred to life like a sleeping predator.
"Nine AM, Miss Danjuma," he called through the open window. "Don't be late."
The taillights disappeared into the night, leaving her alone in the intersection with his words ringing in her ears.
---
Netim drove on autopilot, her hands gripping the wheel too tight, her thoughts spinning in circles.
She needed answers. She needed to understand how everything had fallen apart so quickly.
She needed her father.
The penthouse loomed above the city—forty stories of glass and steel that had once represented everything the Danjuma name stood for. Power. Success. Permanence.
Now it just looked like a monument to lies.
The doorman avoided her eyes as she walked past. He'd already heard. Everyone had heard.
The elevator ride felt endless. When the doors finally opened to the penthouse floor, she found her father's door unlocked.
She pushed it open quickly.
"Daddy?"
The apartment was dark except for a single lamp in the living room. Her father sat slumped in his leather armchair—the one he'd always called his "throne"—still wearing his suit from this morning. It was wrinkled now, stained with what looked like whiskey.
A half-empty bottle sat on the table beside him.
"Netim." His voice was hoarse, hollow. "You shouldn't have come."
"Where else would I go?" She crossed the room, her heels clicking sharply on the marble floor. "My apartment's in your name. My car's in your name. My entire life was built on your company, and now it's *gone*."
Then she added. "Everyone I know has turned their back on me. Jared's gone. Adanna—" Her voice cracked. "She was sleeping with him. Did you know?"
He finally looked up, and she saw it—the guilt, the shame, the complete collapse of the man who'd once owned rooms just by walking into them.
"I suspected."
"You suspected?" Fury flooded through her. "And you said nothing?"
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" The word tasted bitter. "Sorry for what, exactly? For lying to me? For gambling away everything we had? For—" Her voice cracked. "For letting Jared and Adanna get close to me when you knew what they were?"
His hands trembled as he reached for the bottle. "I thought I could fix it. I thought if I just had one more good quarter, one more big deal—"
"But you didn't." She grabbed the bottle before he could drink, slamming it down on the table. "You lost everything. And when Maximos Vasilis came to collect, you just *gave* it to him?"
"I had no choice!" He stood abruptly, swaying slightly. "The debts were too high. The legal fees alone would have bankrupted us even if we'd won in court. Vasilis offered a clean buyout—he paid off the creditors, took the company, and left us with... with..."
"Nothing." She finished his sentence. "He left us with nothing."
"He left us alive." Her father's laugh was bitter. "Some of those creditors wanted blood, Netim. Literal blood. Vasilis buying the debt saved my life. Maybe yours too."
She stared at him, trying to process what he was saying. "So we should be *grateful*?"
"No. We should be smart." He sank back into the chair, suddenly looking decades older. "Stay away from him, Netim. He's dangerous."
"He offered me a job."
"No." Her father stood abruptly, the bottle falling to the floor. "Absolutely not. I won't let him use you—"
"Use me?" She laughed bitterly. "You used me, Daddy. You paraded me around at galas, made me smile for cameras, told me everything was fine while you gambled away our legacy!" Her voice rose. "At least Vasilis is honest about what he wants."
"Netim—"
"He wants me close. Fine. I'll get close." Her mind was racing now, pieces falling into place. "I'll learn how his empire works. I'll find his weaknesses. His secrets. And when the time is right—" She paused. "I'll take back what's ours."
"That's insane." But there was something in her father's eyes now. Hope. Desperate, terrible hope. "He'll see through you. He's too smart—"
"He thinks I'm just a spoiled heiress who's lost everything." She smiled, but it felt sharp. Dangerous. "Let him underestimate me. Let him think I'm broken. I'll play the part perfectly."
Her father stared at her like he was seeing her for the first time. "When did you become so..."
"Like you?" She finished. "Maybe I always was. I just never had a reason to show it."
She turned toward the door.
"Netim." Her father's voice stopped her. "Be careful. Men like Vasilis... they don't just take businesses. They take everything."
She looked back at him—this man who'd lied to her, who'd destroyed their family's future, who'd let her walk into a trap with Jared and Adanna because he was too ashamed to warn her.
"Then I'll make sure he has nothing left to take."
---
She didn't go back to her apartment. There was no point. By morning, the locks would be changed.
Instead, she sat in her car in the parking garage, staring at the business card Maximos had forced into her pocket.
**MAXIMOS VASILIS**
**CEO, Vasilis Holdings**
On the back, in sharp, precise handwriting: *Vasilis Tower. 47th Floor. 9 AM.*
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
She opened the message, and her breath caught.
**The contract is waiting. Two years of your life for a chance to rebuild. I suggest you take it, Miss Danjuma. You won't get a better offer.**
Her fingers tightened around the phone.
Then another message came through.
**P.S. — Your mother would have been proud of that slap. She always did have excellent aim.**
Netim's hand went numb.
Her mother.
Her father had told her the story a hundred times. Her mother had left them when Netim was five. Ran off with a wealthier man and never looked back. Chose money over her own daughter.
*"She's dead to us,"* her father had always said. *"Dead and gone."*
But what if he'd lied about that too?
What if her mother was alive somewhere, and Maximos Vasilis—this stranger who'd destroyed her family—somehow knew?
Netim stared at the message until the screen went dark.
It didn't matter if it was true. It didn't matter if he was just playing mind games.
She was going to that meeting.
She was going to sign that contract.
And she was going to destroy Maximos Vasilis from the inside out—one secret, one weakness, one calculated move at a time.
Tomorrow, she would walk into his tower with nothing.
But she wouldn't leave with nothing.
She'd leave with a plan.
- Writer
