Shadows of Submission

The First Sin

Ch- 10 –

The First Sin

The office was dark except for the skyline bleeding in through the glass, a smear of neon and shadows across the floor. Midnight had stripped the building of its usual hum; no footsteps, no murmurs of assistants, only the electric thrum of silence.

The intern sat alone, the black folder open before her. Pages stared back like silent judges. Numbers, names, strategies—secrets worth more than blood.

And she was trembling.

Because she knew what she was about to do.

The door clicked open behind her. Soft. Certain. She didn’t need to turn to know who it was.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Selene’s voice was silk over a knife’s edge.

The intern closed the folder halfway, but Selene was already walking toward her, heels ticking against the glass floor. She carried a single glass of wine, deep red like spilled blood, and set it down beside the folder as though claiming the space.

“You’re shaking,” Selene whispered. “Fear?”

“Guilt,” the intern admitted, voice cracking.

Selene smiled, slow and devastating. “Good. Guilt means you still have something to lose. Which means you’re not broken yet. That’s useful.”

She sat on the desk, her legs crossing deliberately close, perfume enveloping the intern in waves. One hand reached, sliding the folder fully open again. Her nails traced over the names on the page like claws.

“This… is Jhonshon’s power,” Selene said. “His empire. His leash around the throats of men too rich to admit their weakness. And now—it’s in your hands.”

The intern swallowed hard. “Victoria told me never to open it.”

“And Jhonshon told you never to think for yourself.” Selene leaned closer, her lips brushing the air near the intern’s ear. “I’m not telling you what not to do. I’m telling you what you can do. Don’t you feel the difference?”

Her hand slid lower, fingers brushing over the intern’s wrist where it trembled against the desk. The touch was fire, invasive, intoxicating.

“You’ve been passed between them like a coin,” Selene whispered, her breath warm on skin. “Victoria shapes you, Jhonshon breaks you. Both of them want ownership. I’m offering something else.”

Her lips grazed the intern’s neck, soft, lingering. “Freedom.”

The intern’s eyes fluttered shut against the heat, against the confusion swirling in her chest. Her pulse was betraying her, racing faster with every word, every touch.

Selene pulled back just enough to search her eyes. “All it takes is one choice. One step into the fire. Give me one piece of him.” Her finger tapped the page. “One name. One account. One betrayal. And I’ll give you the kind of power that makes them both irrelevant.”

The intern hesitated. Her throat tightened, mouth dry. The folder seemed to glow under the city lights, a curse waiting to be spoken aloud.

Selene leaned closer again, pressing her forehead to the intern’s. “You want me. I can feel it. But wanting me means wanting more than skin, more than pleasure. It means wanting the world I can give you. Do you?”

The words slipped out before she could catch them. “…Yes.”

Selene’s smile was pure victory.

Her hand guided the intern’s trembling fingers across the page, until they landed on a single name. A billionaire whose downfall would shatter alliances. A piece of Jhonshon’s empire—small enough not to draw immediate suspicion, but heavy enough to bleed him.

“Say it,” Selene urged.

The intern whispered the name.

The moment the word left her lips, she felt it. The shift. The point of no return.

Selene kissed her then—hard, consuming, sealing the betrayal with fire. The intern’s breath tore in her throat, half-desire, half-damnation. Her body leaned into it, even as her mind screamed at the betrayal she had just committed.

When Selene finally pulled away, her eyes gleamed with triumph. “There. Now you’re mine.”

The intern stared at the folder, at the name that had slipped from her lips. Her hands shook harder. She wanted to take it back, to claw the words out of existence. But it was too late.

Somewhere in the distance of the city, she could almost feel the ripple starting—an empire cracking, alliances shifting.

She had given Selene her first piece of blood.

And she knew it would not be the last.