Kirrily Archer’s POV
The rain in Byron Bay always brought back memories I had spent four years trying to bury. Saltwater. Cold concrete. The taste of humiliation. Four years ago, on a stormy night in Sydney, security guards had walked me out of the Vance corporate tower like a criminal. I had been carrying one battered suitcase, my reputation had been destroyed, and I had already begun hiding the secret growing beneath my heart. Now, every time rain hammered against the windows, I remember that night. I dragged a cloth slowly across the weathered dining table, barely paying attention to what I was doing. Outside, the Pacific Ocean crashed against the dark basalt rocks below the headland. Wind whipped through the trees, sending sheets of rain against the bay window. Byron Bay was supposed to be a sanctuary.
A quiet coastal town where people came to disappear, start over, or build a softer life. I hadn’t come here for any of those things. I had come here to survive.
And while I survived, I had sharpened myself into something much harder than the woman who had left Sydney four years ago. “Mummy, look!” I looked toward the living room. Four-year-old Toby sat cross-legged on the rug, surrounded by wooden blocks. He held up a crooked tower with both hands, his face glowing with pride. “The storm made a giant castle!” Despite myself, I smiled.
“It certainly did.”
I rested one hand against my lower back and studied his creation. “It’s magnificent, Tobes. Just keep it away from the window, okay? The wind’s getting stronger.” His little forehead creased. “Will the storm knock it down?” “Not while I’m here.” He considered my answer seriously before nodding. “Okay.” He returned to his castle. I watched him for a moment longer. There were days when I looked at my son and couldn’t believe how quickly four years had passed.
He had my olive skin and my sister’s soft, dark hair.
But his eyes…
Those belonged to his father, metallic silver-grey. The same eyes that had once looked at me with love. The same eyes that had eventually looked at me as though I were the worst mistake of Lachlan Vance’s life. I swallowed the ache that rose in my throat and turned away. On the surface, I was simply Kirrily Archer, a quiet single mother living in a small rented cottage overlooking the ocean. The locals knew me as the reserved woman who kept to herself. The woman, who paid her rent on time, rarely went into town, and ran along the coastal trails before sunrise. They knew nothing about the woman sitting behind the monitors in the corner of my dining room.
I pulled out my chair and sat. The soft hum of my computers filled the room. Three security prompts appeared, and I cleared them. Then came the passphrase, twenty-four characters. I typed it from memory. The final screen opened.
“ARCHANGEL”
My fingers settled over the keyboard. The familiar rhythm of numbers filled the monitors. Australian Securities Exchange data streamed across the screens, order books, liquidity movements, institutional trades, distressed assets. To anyone else, it would have looked like meaningless information, but to me, it was a language. A language I had spent four years learning to speak fluently.
Four years ago, Lachlan had believed he had taken everything from me. He had believed I had betrayed him. That I had leaked the blueprints of Vance Green Energy to his competitors. That I had married him for money and status before stabbing him in the back. He had been wrong, terribly wrong. While Lachlan was publicly tearing my name apart, I had been building Archangel in secret. I had created shell companies and moved money through legitimate channels. Bought distressed debt from Vance Enterprises’ failing subsidiaries piece by piece, I kept parts of his empire alive.
Not because I loved him, not anymore.
I needed Vance Enterprises solvent.
Because someday, when the time was right, I intended to take it from him. But that wasn’t even the most important reason. My eyes moved to the small notification that had appeared on the lower corner of my screen.
My breath caught.
PATIENT: TAHLIA ARCHER CONDITION: UNCHANGED SEDATION: STABLE
Tahlia, my little sister.
My fingers tightened around the edge of the desk. Four years ago, she had been healthy, brilliant, and impossible to keep still. Now she lies in a private medical facility in Sydney, trapped inside a body that refuses to wake.
The doctors called it a rare neurological condition. I had stopped believing them a long time ago. I closed my eyes. I could still hear the whisper from four years ago.
“Say one word about who really took those files, Kirrily, and Tahlia won’t survive the night.”
They had thought that threat would keep me silent forever. They had underestimated me.
And they had definitely underestimated what a woman would do when the lives of her sister and child were at stake. I opened my eyes, the weakness was gone.
“ Mummy?”
Toby’s voice pulled me back. I turned. He was staring at me from the rug.
“Is Tahlia still sleeping?”
I forced a smile.
“She’s resting, baby.”
“Will she wake up soon?”
My chest tightened.
“The doctors are taking care of her.”
For now.
Until I bought the clinic from beneath them.
I turned back to the computer. The next move was already waiting. Archangel had been preparing for weeks. Today, I was going to make my first serious strike against Vance Enterprises. My cursor hovered over the execution button.
Two per cent.
That was all I needed.
Two percent of the voting shares in Vance’s primary logistics subsidiary. Small enough to look insignificant. Large enough to trigger the right alarms. And once those alarms went off, one person would see the name attached to the transaction.
“Lachlan.”
My heart began pounding.
This was the moment I’d been preparing for. For four years, I had hidden. Today, I was stepping out of the shadows. I looked at the screen.
“For Tahlia,” I whispered.
Then I clicked.
The order was executed.
ORDER EXECUTED: 2,400,000 SHARES ACQUIRED ENTITY: ARCHANGEL HOLDINGS
I leaned back and released a slow breath. Then my secure phone vibrated.
Once, twice. My eyes narrowed. Only one person had access to that number. I picked it up.
“Kirrily.”
The voice on the other end was distorted by the scrambler.
“Talk.”
“It went through.”
“I know.”
“You need to shut down your local nodes.” I frowned. “Why?”
“The trade wasn’t as clean as you thought.” My gaze moved toward Toby. He was busy rebuilding his castle.
“Explain.”
“Five minutes ago, someone authorized a high-priority override directly from the CEO’s office.” My stomach tightened.
“Lachlan?”
“He didn’t wait for the regulators. He bypassed them completely.” My grip tightened around the phone.
“That’s impossible.”
“It isn’t.”
A pause.
Then the words that made my blood run cold. “He deployed a private intelligence team.”
I stood.
“How much did they trace?”
“Enough.”
“Enough for what?”
“They know the buyer isn’t in London or Singapore.”
My pulse quickened.
“They’ve narrowed it to New South Wales.”
Silence.
Then…
“Kirrily… they’re moving.”
I looked toward the window.
The rain suddenly seemed much louder.
My mouth went dry. “How long?” “Not long.”
The line went dead.
I stared at the phone.
Then I heard it.
A deep engine rumbling outside.
Slow.
Powerful.
Getting closer.
Toby stopped playing.
“Mummy?”
I turned toward him.
“Who’s that?”
I didn’t answer.
I walked toward the window.
Every instinct in my body screamed at me to stay away. I ignored it. With trembling fingers, I pulled the curtain aside just enough to see through the glass. A black luxury sedan sat in the driveway. The driver’s door opened. A tall man stepped into the rain. Broad shoulders, dark coat and black umbrella.
My breath stopped.
There were some silhouettes a woman could recognize even after four years.
I knew that one.
I had once known every line of that body.
Every movement.
Every expression.
My hand fell away from the curtain.
Lachlan Vance had found me.
And this time, there was nowhere left to run…
