Chapter 4 Chapter 4

The elevator ride down from Adrian’s office was silent except for the soft hum of machinery. My fingers were still trembling from signing the contract—even though I tried to hide it by tucking my hand into my pocket.

Revenge. I had agreed to it. I had tied myself to a man I barely knew. A man who terrified half the city… and for reasons I couldn’t explain, didn’t terrify me.

When the elevator doors opened to the lobby, Adrian was already there, speaking to one of his assistants. His voice was calm, firm, the kind that didn’t rise yet somehow filled the room. The moment he saw me, he finished the conversation with a small nod and walked toward me.

“Come with me,” he said.

No explanation. No hesitation.

Just that.

I wanted to question him, but something about the certainty in his voice made me follow without argument. We stepped outside into the cool evening air. His car—a black sedan that looked too expensive to even breathe on—was waiting with the door open.

“Where are we going?” I asked as he slid into the seat beside me.

He didn’t look at me. “To see what your new life looks like.”

“My… new life?” The words felt foreign in my mouth.

“You walked away from everything today,” he said quietly. “You need a place to land. And a place to plan.”

The car pulled forward smoothly. City lights streaked by the windows like blurred memories. I leaned my forehead against the cool glass, watching the world rush past. My old life felt distant already—like something that had happened to someone else.

After twenty minutes, the car turned through tall iron gates and rolled up a long driveway lined with lights. When we stopped, I stared at the building in disbelief.

Calling it a house would have been an insult.

It was a fortress of steel and glass rising into the night sky, cold and beautiful. The kind of place only someone untouchable would live in.

I swallowed. “You… live here?”

Adrian finally looked at me. “Did you expect a small apartment?”

I almost smiled, despite everything. “Honestly?No.”

“Come,” he said again, stepping out.

Inside, the house was warm but sharp, every corner clean, every surface polished. The lights were soft, the halls wide, the silence expensive. He walked ahead, not checking if I followed—he knew I would.

We entered a room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. A storm was forming again, the clouds gathering like bruises across the sky.

“This will be your space,” Adrian said, gesturing around. “Bedroom, bathroom, workspace. You’ll be comfortable here.”

I blinked. “You’re giving me a room in your house?”

“You need privacy. Safety. And control.” He stepped closer. “And I can’t execute step one of the plan if I don’t know where you are or if Daniel tries something again and we will be getting married soon.”

My chest tightened. “He won’t.”

“He has already,” Adrian said simply.

I looked away.

For a moment, the silence between us wasn’t heavy—it was grounding. I exhaled slowly and finally asked, “What is step one?”

He walked toward a sleek black table near the window and tapped a tablet lying on it. It lit up, revealing documents, charts, photographs—Daniel’s world spread out neatly like prey prepared for slaughter.

“The first step,” Adrian said, “is information.”

I frowned. “Information?”

“Your husband—ex-husband soon—is expanding Carter Industries into three sectors. He’s made promises to shareholders he can’t keep.” Adrian’s eyes flicked to mine. “If we want to break him, we hit him where it hurts: his pride and his money.”

My breath hitched. “You already know all this?”

“I’ve known for months,” he said. “I wasn’t waiting for you. But now that you’re here… the plan becomes clearer.”

I stepped closer to the table, my eyes scanning the images. Daniel at meetings. Mandy beside him. Photographs of documents, emails, a map of his company’s investments.

Adrian observed me silently, arms crossed.

“You look surprised,” he said.

“I thought you wanted revenge for competition,” I said honestly. “Not for… me.”

A strange expression flickered across his face, something I couldn’t place.

“This isn’t about you,” he said, though his tone wavered. “Not entirely. But your betrayal gives me the sharpest weapon possible.”

I didn’t know how to respond. I didn’t know if I wanted to.

Instead, I asked, “What do you need from me?”

Adrian’s eyes narrowed slightly, like he was assessing me—my stability, my strength, my usefulness. “You lived with him. You know his weaknesses. His habits. Who he trusts. How he thinks. You were the one person he let close enough to see his real face.”

“And I was stupid enough to ignore it,” I whispered.

“You were loyal,” Adrian corrected. “That’s not stupidity. That’s a weapon in the right hands.”

My pulse quickened. His confidence in me felt dangerous.

Dangerous, and addictive.

“So.” I inhaled. “We start with information.”

He nodded. “And we start now.”

He turned, walking toward a smaller room connected to the hall. Curious, I followed. The moment he opened the door, I froze.

Inside were monitors—dozens of them—each tuned to different cameras, different feeds. Some showed traffic patterns. Some showed building schematics. Some showed Carter Industries.

He had been watching Daniel for a long time.

My stomach twisted, not with fear but with realization. Adrian wasn’t simply powerful.

He was prepared.

“This a lot ” I said softly.

“B you need to understand the level of the game you stepped into,” he said. “Your world was emotional. His world was personal.”

He turned to me fully.

“But mine? Mine is strategic.”

His eyes held mine, unwavering.

“If you want revenge, Elena, you must learn to think like me.”

A shiver rolled through me—not of fear, but of clarity.

This was the world I was entering.

A world where feelings didn’t matter.

Where betrayal wasn’t cried over—it was avenged.

“Teach me,” I said before I realized the words were mine.

Something in Adrian’s expression shifted—approval, maybe. Respect.

“Good,” he murmured. “Your training begins tonight.”

Hours passed. Adrian showed me how Daniel moved money, how he lied in his reports, how he manipulated shareholders. I watched the screens, absorbing every detail, feeling my anger sharpen into something precise.

At one moment, my vision blurred. I swayed.

Adrian’s hand shot out, steadying my arm.

“Sit,” he ordered gently.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re pregnant.” His tone dropped lower. “Sit.”

I sighed and sat reluctantly. My hand instinctively touched my stomach. I wasn’t showing yet, but the reminder hit me—my children were in there.

His children.

Adrian’s eyes followed the movement, his expression unreadable.

“Does it bother you?” he asked quietly.

“What?”

“That you’re carrying the children of a man you want to destroy.”

I hesitated. “It… hurts. But it won’t stop me.”

His voice dropped. “Good.”

I didn’t know why that single word sent a faint tremor through me.

By the time he called for a break, it was almost midnight. He walked me to my room—a room too beautiful, too spacious, too peaceful to belong in the same reality I had been living in.

“If you need anything,” Adrian said, stopping at the doorway, “press the silver button by the bed.”

I nodded.

As he turned to leave, something made me speak.

“Why me?” I asked quietly. “You could have handled Daniel alone. You didn’t need me for this.”

Adrian paused.

When he faced me again, his eyes were darker, deeper—not cold, not warm. Just… real.

“I’m not helping you out of charity, Elena.”

A slow breath escaped him.

“And I’m not asking you to help out of desperation.”

“Then why?” My voice barely rose above a whisper.

“Because,” he said, holding my gaze like it was the only steady thing in the room,

“you’re the one person Daniel never expected to rise.”

My heartbeat stumbled.

“People like him,” Adrian continued, “never fear their enemies. They fear the ones they counted out.”

The words sank into me, deep and hot.

He stepped back, giving me space—but his presence lingered like heat on my skin.

“Rest,” he said. “Tomorrow, we begin step two.”

And with that, he walked away.

I closed the door slowly, leaning my back against it. The room was quiet, but my mind wasn’t. Everything felt surreal—this house, this plan, this new life forming around me.

I touched my stomach again, my hand trembling.

“Daniel Carter,” I whispered into the darkness,

“I’m coming.”

Outside, thunder cracked.

Inside, something in me steadied.

Not peace.

Not fear.

Just power.