CHAPTER 3
1232 Words
Sienna Rhodes POV
Wolfe Enterprises – 38th Floor Conference Room
‘Viktor Serrano’
The name felt like a blade had just sliced my tongue.
I swallow a huge gulp as a chill goes down my spine.
How could I possibly forget a man like that? Viktor Serrano wasn’t just a businessman; he was the leader in many of the thousands of scandals that have happened here in New York.
‘Wait,’ I said slowly, mind racing. ‘The Serrano AI Leaks… the biotech spyware trials… the offshore laundering reports…’
‘Yes, it’s all real,’ Dominic cut in, jaw clenched. ‘And much worse than you think.’
My mouth went dry.
He continued. ‘Your father had a history with Serrano. So do I. That photo you saw? It wasn’t just a deal. It was bait.’
‘Bait?’ I asked, narrowing my eyes.
He nodded. ‘Your father wasn’t working for me. He was playing both sides. I didn’t know until it was too late.’
No way.
I quickly got up from my seat, as I slammed my hands against the table.
‘So let me get this straight,’ I snapped. ‘You’re telling me my deadbeat dad was involved in corporate espionage, somehow ended up dead, and you just happened to be standing over his body when I walked in?’
Dominic stepped closer. ‘It wasn’t just ‘happened.’ He asked to meet me at Circe Lounge. A private conversation, no staff, no recordings. But when I got there…’
He paused. ‘He was already dead.’
My breath caught in my throat. ‘You expect me to believe that?’
I let out a low laugh as my heart started to beat faster.
He reached into his jacket, pulled out a slim silver flash drive, and slid it across the table.
‘That’s from the club’s deleted camera footage. Only a few fragments remained after someone wiped the servers remotely. I’ve been trying to recover it since.’
I hesitated, then picked it up.
‘What’s on it?’
Dominic’s expression hardened. ‘The moment before you walked in. I believe your father was trying to warn me… or maybe trap me. I can’t be sure. But if Viktor was involved, that means you’re already in danger.’
A rush of panic pulsed in my chest.
‘Why would I be in danger?’
He stared at me. ‘Because Serrano doesn't leave loose ends. And your father didn’t just die. He was executed.’
I felt the ground shift beneath me.
Why was this happening all of a sudden?
‘I think I… I need some air,’ I whispered, the walls of the conference room closing in. ‘I can’t…this is too much…”
‘Take the rest of the day,’ Dominic said softly. ‘But tonight, you’ll need to start digging into what your father left behind. I believe there’s a trail, and you’re the only one who can follow it.’
Later that Night - Sienna’s Apartment
Trying to process everything that had just happened earlier today felt like I had a knife going through my chest.
I sat on my tiny studio apartment floor, my hair tied up in a messy bun, while I stared at my laptop screen.
I plugged the flash drive in as my hands trembled across my keyboard.
‘No,’ I say out loud.
‘I don’t think I’m ready,’ I say out loud again.
Why would I even believe Dominic in the first place?
What if all of this was just his own little game of trying to make not to focus on him being the main problem here?
I run my hand through my hair, let my bun fall loose against my shoulders.
Maybe he was trying to give me something to focus on to draw my attention away from him.
I closed the laptop with a snap and pushed it aside.
This was insane.
All of it.
A dead father who was supposed to have been buried years ago.
A billionaire who showed up over his body.
I grabbed the cheap wine I had abandoned on my kitchen counter and took a swig straight from the bottle.
The pain in my chest or the burn in my throat as I gulped the wine, I couldn’t tell which was worse.
I stood up and suddenly started pacing around my apartment.
Dominic wanted me close.
He said I was “in danger.”
He handed me a flash drive with just enough data to keep me curious.
What kind of game was he playing?
Was he trying to manipulate me into doing his dirty work?
Or was this his way of making sure I didn’t expose him for what he was?
I stopped pacing and stared at my reflection in the window.
My eyes looked tired.
What if I were just walking into another trap?
But then again... what if I wasn’t?
What if that flash drive did hold something I needed to see?
“f**k it,” I muttered.
I sat down, yanked my laptop open, and shoved the flash drive back into place.
A folder popped up immediately.
Dominic had already unlocked it once, though. So he knew what was inside. Which meant this wasn’t a test.
This was a message.
I clicked through the corrupted folders. Most of the files were unreadable or erased. But one labeled "VOX121 - Audio" stood out.
I clicked.
My father.
“They think I’m dead already. If anything happens… tell her to check the red notebook. Tell Sienna—”
The audio cut. Just like that.
Silence.
I sat frozen.
I replayed it again. And again.
Red notebook?
I knew that voice. That tone.
He wasn’t faking that.
He wasn’t lying.
I quickly rose from the ground and rushed to the storage bin under my bed, and scanned through the old photo albums, receipts, unpaid bills, and half-burned candles until I found it.
A leather notebook. Burgundy red. The corners were peeling. The paper smelled like mold and ink.
Dad’s journal.
He used to scribble in it when I was a kid, right before he’d disappear for weeks.
After he left for good, I kept it hidden. Just another useless relic of a man who abandoned me.
But now… maybe it wasn’t so useless.
I sat cross-legged again and flipped through it.
Most pages were filled with rambling thoughts. Tech jargon. Names I didn’t recognize.
Drawings of diagrams that made no sense.
And then, towards the back.
A new page.
Written in a pen I didn’t recognize.
Different ink. Fewer smudges.
“She will find me. She has to.
The truth is buried beneath Wolfe’s name, but it never belonged to him.
Viktor set the fire. I only lit the match.”
My vision blurred.
This was real.
This was happening.
My father had been trying to say something… to warn me. And I was already neck-deep in it.
Everything I thought I knew about Dominic, about my father, about why I was at Circe that night, was all twisted in ways I couldn’t explain yet.
But now?
Now I had something.
Now I had direction.
I wiped my face, opened a fresh page in the notebook, and started writing:
Leads:
● Viktor Serrano
● Dominic Wolfe’s past contracts
● Wolfe Enterprises' AI program history
● Dad’s ties to private investors
The war had already started.
And I wasn’t running anymore.
- Writer
