C5 The Past Never Dies

Antonio

The city looked different from this height — quieter, smaller.

From the top floor of Nikolaou Holdings, Velmor’s skyline stretched endlessly, glittering like broken glass. The kind of beauty that cut if you looked too closely.

My reflection stared back at me in the window — same tailored suit, same composed face. A stranger.

But inside, the storm never really stopped.

> “She should have gotten engaged to Patrick when her father told her to.”

Her words still echoed in my head, poisonous and perfect.

It had been three years since that night, yet I remembered every detail — the taste of betrayal, the sound of her voice cracking as she lied to me, the ring she threw that hit the pavement and rolled until it disappeared into the dark.

And now she was here. In my building. Wearing that same look — guilty, fragile, beautiful enough to ruin a man twice.

I clenched my jaw and turned from the glass as Leonis entered — my cousin and second-in-command, the only one who dared to step into my office without knocking.

“You’re still here,” he said, dropping a file on my desk. “You’ve been staring at the city for twenty minutes. That’s never a good sign.”

I didn’t look at him. “What do you have?”

He leaned against the edge of my desk, smirking. “You tell me, boss. You disappear from the underground for months, suddenly buy out a legitimate company, install yourself as CEO, and—” he tapped the file, “—hire your ex-fiancée as your assistant. I’d say you’re the one who owes me an explanation.”

My gaze sharpened. “I don’t owe anyone an explanation.”

“Right,” he drawled. “You just happen to want revenge on the woman who broke your heart. Got it.”

“She didn’t just break my heart, Leonis,” I said quietly. “She destroyed my trust. Used me.”

“Or,” he countered, “maybe she had her reasons. You of all people should know there’s always more to the story.”

I hated that he said that. I hated even more that he might be right.

“Find out everything,” I ordered. “What she’s been doing since the Galanis scandal. Every company she applied to, everyone she’s spoken to, every debt she owes.”

Leonis frowned. “You already have her under your nose. Why dig through the past?”

“Because,” I said, turning back to the window, “if I’m going to make her regret it, I want to understand exactly what she lost.”

---

When she walked in earlier, I almost didn’t recognize her.

Daphne had always been light — soft laughter, reckless kindness, eyes that could undo me with one look. But the woman who stood before me today was different. Sharper. Quieter. As if the world had taken her warmth and replaced it with armor.

And yet, the second our eyes met, something inside me cracked.

I felt it — that same pull I’d sworn I’d buried years ago.

Damn it.

I’d told myself this would be easy. Hire her. Humiliate her. Watch her beg.

But the moment she looked at me like that — wide-eyed, stunned, still so heartbreakingly beautiful — my resolve trembled.

---

By the time the office emptied, my other world began to breathe again.

The lights dimmed, the city outside swallowed by darkness. I poured myself a drink and waited for my next appointment — Theo Barlos, head of the Barlos family and one of our oldest allies.

He arrived at eight sharp, flanked by two guards. His gold cufflinks gleamed in the low light. “Antonio, my boy,” he greeted with a booming laugh, “running an empire and a corporation at once? You make the rest of us look lazy.”

“Not an empire,” I corrected smoothly. “Just diversifying.”

He smirked, settling into the chair across from me. “And how’s my daughter, Rhea? Still convinced you two will be married before the year ends?”

I kept my expression neutral. “Rhea’s… persistent.”

Theo chuckled. “Persistent is an understatement. She told me she plans to visit your office tomorrow. I hope your new assistant doesn’t mind competition.”

The glass nearly slipped from my hand. “My assistant?”

Theo laughed again. “She keeps track of everything, doesn’t she? Don’t worry — Rhea’s harmless. But you might want to warn your employees.”

After he left, I sat in silence, the ice melting in my glass.

Harmless.

Rhea Barlos was many things — beautiful, entitled, dangerous — but never harmless. And if she set her sights on me again, Daphne would notice. She always noticed.

---

At midnight, I finally locked my office and took the private elevator down to the underground garage. My guards followed at a distance.

The black Aston Martin waited where I left it. I slid in, engine rumbling like thunder, and stared at my own reflection in the windshield.

Three years ago, I was a man in love.

Now, I was the one she should have feared.

I’d give her orders. Watch her obey. Make her remember the man she’d thrown away.

But as I drove through the empty streets, the image that haunted me wasn’t her betrayal — it was her face when she said “Goodnight, sir.”

So polite. So distant. So heartbreakingly unfamiliar.

---

When I finally reached home, I loosened my tie, poured another drink, and tried to drown the ghost of her voice.

But it stayed.

Her laughter. Her warmth. The way she used to whisper my name when the world fell away.

I slammed the glass down.

“No,” I muttered under my breath. “She made her choice.”

And now, I was going to make mine.

She’d think I brought her here to help her rebuild.

She’d think this job was a mercy.

But it wasn’t.

It was the beginning of her punishment.

---