The office was dark except for the faint lighting coming through the windows, Dominic sat still, with his hands resting over a folder on his table, He had already read the documents, but he could not handle the weight of its content,
It was Alicia,
Every plot, every false report, and every whisper of scandal traced back to her, The woman he had trusted all this years, The woman he had thought he would have built a future with, And all this time she had been dismantling his empire behind his back.
He let out a slow ragged breath, running his hand through his hair, His mind raced in loops, and circled the same question over and over, "How far had she gone? And why hadn't he seen it?"
The sound of his phone buzzing on the table snapped him back from his trance, it was a private number, there No message this time, it was Just a single image, one of the falsified files that had brought Nova's career to the brink of collapse, Below it, it had two words,
Wake up,
Dominic's pulse hastened, He already knew what this meant,
He picked up his phone, and his fingers hovered over Nova's name, He could only imagine how she would respond.
But he could not stay silent, at least Not this time,
Finally, he typed in the words before he could think about it,
I know,
Then he hit send.
.
Nova sat on the edge of her bed, her body felt drained and her mind restless, The weight of the last few days had left her feeling hollow, her Investors were fleeing and The board was whispering suspicions behind closed doors.
She had fought so hard to rise all these years, and now it felt to her as though it was all slipping through her grasp,
Her phone buzzed, She almost didn't bother checking it, But then she saw his name,
I know.
Her breath seize
She sat still for a moment, her fingers hovered over his name, She didn't want to play whatever game he had planned, But curiosity overrode her caution.
Know what?
She replied before she could even think about it,
It wasn't me, I can prove it.
Nova's clenched her fist at her chest, She just set the phone down without replying, her heart was pounding,
She didn't know whether to believe him or not.
.
The café was almost empty when Nova walked in, her eyes scanned the dimly lit room until she saw him.
Dominic sat in the corner, his expression was as unreadable as ever, he rested his hands on the table before him, just For a moment, Nova hesitated near the entrance of the café, her heart beat painfully in her chest, Every instinct in her body screamed that this was a mistake,
But she forced herself to move.
She sat in the seat across from him without saying a word, Her hands remain folded on her lap, her back was straight and rigid, her eyes were fixed on him with a cold determination.
"Thank you for coming," Dominic said softly,
"Make it quick," she replied with a sharp tone, "I don't have time for whatever this is."
He gave a small nod in agreement, reached into his coat and pulled out a thin folder, He slid it across the table toward her.
"Everything's in there, The paper trail, the transfers, and the leaks, It wasn't me, Nova, It never was."
She stared at the folder but didn't move to open it, "And I'm supposed to believe you?"
His jaw tensed up, "I don't expect you to trust me, I'm just giving you the truth."
For a brief moment, neither of them said a word, The tension between them felt thick, all the years of betrayal and hurt weighed down on their every breath,
Finally, Nova reached for the folder, She opened it slowly and scanned the documents inside. The undeniable proof that the attacks on her business had come from Alicia and not from Dominic.
Her throat tightened, it turned out he wasn't lying,
Her gaze lifted to meet his, and for the first time in what felt like forever, she saw regret and exhaustion, it could even maybe something deeper.
"Why are you really doing this?" she asked quietly,
His lips flickered into a faint, bitter smile, "Because I've made enough mistakes where you're concerned."
The words hit harder than she expected,
She shut the folder and stood, her heart was a mess, "I'm not forgiving you," she murmured, "This changes nothing between us."
"I know," he said softly,
She left without saying another word, and the weight of the truth crashed over her.
In that instance, an alliance had been formed,
But trust, that was still miles away.
.
Alicia sat in the silence her penthouse, the only sound was the soft clink of ice in her glass, The city lights shimmered beyond the glass walls, but her focus was somewhere else, it was on the final plan she had prepared with utmost precision,
She could feel it in the air, Dominic was slipping away from her grasp, and Nova wasn't yet broken.
But that would change,
Her fingers flowed across her tablet screen, reviewing the last set of instructions she had fed to her team, The next leak was already prepared, and the damage would be irreversible, And by the time the dust had settled, there would be nothing left of Nova's empire.
A faint smile escaped her lips, If they wanted to play together, they could both burn together.
.
Across the city, Victor sat alone in his apartment, while staring at his phone. Luthor's messages lit up his screen, but he couldn't bring himself to respond to them,
Everything had unraveled so quickly,
He recalled the look on Nova's face when she told him the truth, that Alicia had been the enemy all along, The woman they all had overlooked, she was the woman who had torn apart Nova's life piece by piece while they all stood and went after the wrong target.
Victor's loyalty was pulled in two directions, But as he sat there in the quiet, he finally came to a decision,
He couldn't abandon her, not now, He picked up his phone and typed a text to Nova,
I'm in, Whatever you need..
He hit send before any hint of doubt could creep in.
.
Alone in her office, Nova stood by the window, with her arms folded tightly, The folder Dominic had given her remained unopened on the table behind her, She had read enough to know the truth, but her heart still fought against the true pressure of it.
For so long, her hatred had kept her going, For so long, Dominic had been the face of every failure and every humiliation she had felt,
But now everything was different,
She wasn't just fighting for her company anymore, She was fighting to keep herself from falling apart,
The war wasn't over, it was far from it,
But for the first time, she knew exactly who the enemy was, and she wouldn't let them win.