THE BILLIONAIRE'S FORBIDDEN OBSESSION

A MONSTER FROM THE SURFACE

The system was dead, but the chaos was far from over. In the frantic rush to evacuate the executive suites, Neri had been pushed down the emergency stairwell by a stampede of fleeing employees, ultimately becoming trapped on the 18th floor as the automated fire doors slammed shut, locking her inside the smoke-filled corridor.

Meanwhile, Chen was swiftly moving his boss toward the subterranean parking garage, guiding Gabriel through the high-priority executive elevator that ran on an independent emergency generator.

As the elevator descended smoothly past the mid-level floors, Chen checked his security tablet. A flashing red indicator caught his eye.

"Boss, the new cleaner was trapped on the 18th floor," Chen reported.

Gabriel didn’t even look up from his phone, his face hardened into an emotionless mask.

"Let her die in there."

Gabriel has a suspicion that the blonde girl is actually a spy on his firm. She was hired under cover by the government or someone from his business competitors. To avoid any witness he needs to clear the path.

Chen nodded out of habit, but his eyes betrayed a deep confusion. A sudden wave of pity washed over him. The girl was strange, yes, but leaving her to suffocate in a locked sector felt unnecessarily ruthless. Still, he kept his mouth shut as the elevator reached the garage.

Three hours later, the building’s specialized hazard teams and local authorities finally cleared the blocked levels. When they breached the 18th floor, they found Nerie slumped against a concrete pillar. She was entirely unconscious, but her pulse was steady and strong.

Back at his temporary command post, Gabriel received the official incident report. He scanned the lines until his eyes locked onto a specific update. The maintenance worker trapped on the 18th floor was luckily saved. She is currently stable and recovering at the nearest hospital.

A strange, magnetic pull tugged at Gabriel's heart. Without a word to his executives, he stood up. "Chen. Prepare the car. We are going to the hospital."

The private room in the metropolitan hospital was completely silent, with a dull beep of the heart monitor. Neri lay perfectly still beneath the white sheets, her curly blonde hair spread across the pillow like dried gold.

Gabriel stepped inside the room, Chen hovering like a shadow just behind him. The attending physician met them by the bedside, looking over Neri's charts with a puzzled expression.

"She is perfectly fine, Mr. Vance. She just needs some rest. Honestly, it’s a miracle. No smoke inhalation, no bruising from the stampede, and absolutely no injuries whatsoever." the doctor whispered.

"Thank you Doc." Gabriel dismissed the doctor with a curt nod.

Once the door clicked shut, he walked closer to the bed, his dark eyes pinned into Nerie's peaceful face. Then, his gaze drifted to the bedside chair. Draped neatly over the metal frame was the blue janitorial uniform, whereas the nurses had put it off from her when she arrived.

Gabriel reached out, his long fingers picking up the fabric. He rubbed the material between his thumb and forefinger.

His eyes narrowed, and sharp thoughts played again. Because the uniform was completely dry.

If she had been caught directly under the torrential blast of the fire sprinklers on the server floor, an emergency system that had dropped thousands of gallons of water in minutes, her clothes should have been completely ruined and heavy with moisture.

Even after three hours, the synthetic fabric of a standard uniform should have been damp to the touch. Yet, the blue cloth felt as crisp and dry as if it had just been pulled from a warehouse shelf.

Gabriel turned his head slowly to look at Nerie’s pale, flawless skin. The realization struck him like a physical blow. The water hadn't just missed her, it was as if the water itself had refused to touch her.

The steady beep of the heart monitor suddenly skipped a beat.

Nerie's eyelids fluttered, and she gasped softly as she returned to consciousness. Her ocean-bright eyes snapped open, instantly clear and completely devoid of the grogginess of a normal human waking up from a trauma.

The very first thing she saw was Gabriel. He was standing right beside her bed, while he tightly held the dry blue janitor’s uniform in his hands.

Gabriel's dark and penetrating gaze was fixed on her, filled with a lethal mixture of suspicion, and that same dark fascination had paralyzed him, from his office.

Nerie didn't flinch.

She stared right back into his eyes, her gaze dropping briefly to the dry fabric in his hand. She knew she had been caught. Gabriel slowly lowered the uniform back onto the chair, never breaking the eye contact with her.

"Chen, Leave the room" Gabriel commanded.

Chen for the main time, was the lead stand guard at the door and make sure no one enters. Not the doctors, not the nurses. No one.

Chen hesitated for a fraction of a second, his eyes shifting from his boss to the mysterious blonde girl in the bed. He could feel the suffocating weight of the unsaid secrets in the room.

"Yes, sir," Chen muttered.

He bowed stiffly, stepped backward, and closed the heavy door behind him, leaving Gabriel and Nerie completely alone.

Gabriel took a slow step closer to the bed, leaning slightly down toward her. "You didn't breathe in a single drop of smoke. You don't have a single scratch on your skin. And your clothes are completely dry after a catastrophic flood," he whispered, his voice was dangerously smooth.

"Who are you, and what did you do to my servers?" Gabriel confronted her.

Nerie did not answer with words. Instead, one of her hands slipped out from beneath the sterile hospital sheets. As it emerged, the soft skin rippled and shimmered, transforming before Gabriel's eyes. The Silver-green scales spread across her hand, catching the dim light like polished emeralds, while her fingers lengthened into elegant, webbed digits tipped with razor-sharp, and pointed claws.

Before Gabriel could react, the transformed hand darted forward with the speed of a striking predator. Her scaled fingers clamped around his wrist in an iron grip. Though graceful in appearance, her hold was impossibly strong... far beyond that of any human can do.

Gabriel gasped and instinctively tried to pull his arm away, but her grip was as strong as iron. The moment her scaled hand touched his skin, everything around him seemed to disappear. His eyes widened, and his pupils darkened. He froze, unable to move or even breathe. Then a powerful force crashed into his mind like a massive wave, leaving him completely stunned.

Suddenly, Gabriel wasn't standing in a sterile hospital room anymore. He was plunged into the crushing, pitch-black freezing depths of the Mariana Trench. He felt the terrifying weight of miles of ocean pressing down on his chest. But the physical sensation was nothing compared to the emotional agony that followed.

Through Neri’s touch, he heard it, thousands of voices screaming in tragic harmony. It was a collective wail of terror, heartbreak, and agonizing pain. He felt the burning, blinding frequency of his own company’s sonic drills tearing through ancient, peaceful sanctuaries. He experienced the sheer horror of a mother trying to shield her children as the heavy machinery ruptured their hidden world.

Gabriel felt the suffocating despair of an entire civilization, realizing they were being systematically erased by a monster from the surface.