Chapter 1
The rain hammered against the penthouse windows.
Lightning flashed across the city skyline.
Far below, thousands of lights glittered like stars.
It should have been the happiest night of Olivia's life.
Hours earlier...
She had married one of the most powerful men in the country.
Billionaire entrepreneur Victor Hale.
Handsome.
Respected.
Successful.
The kind of man every magazine called a dream husband.
Yet something felt wrong.
Victor had left the suite to take a phone call.
Olivia wandered through the enormous penthouse alone.
The silence felt strange.
Heavy.
Almost suffocating.
She couldn't explain why.
Then she noticed it.
A small painting hanging slightly crooked near Victor's private office.
She had never seen it before.
Curious, she straightened the frame.
A faint click echoed behind the wall.
Olivia froze.
A hidden compartment slowly opened.
Inside...
A steel safe.
Her pulse quickened.
Victor had never mentioned a safe.
She should have walked away.
Instead...
She reached for it.
The code?
At first she had no idea.
Then she laughed softly.
Victor's favorite number.
The day they met.
0417.
The lock clicked.
The safe door swung open.
Inside were stacks of documents.
Old photographs.
Legal files.
And one yellowed envelope.
The paper looked almost ten years old.
Across the front was a name she hadn't spoken aloud in years.
Daniel Carter.
Olivia's breath caught.
Daniel.
Her first love.
The man who vanished without explanation ten years ago.
The man who disappeared two weeks before proposing.
The man she spent years searching for.
Until eventually...
She gave up.
Her fingers trembled as she opened the envelope.
A contract slid onto the floor.
She bent down and picked it up.
At the bottom...
One line made her blood run cold.
Payment: $500,000 in exchange for permanently leaving Olivia Bennett.
Olivia stared at the words.
Unable to breathe.
Unable to think.
The penthouse door opened behind her.
Victor had returned.
He stopped instantly.
His face drained of color.
Because he saw the contract in her hands.
"Olivia..."
His voice was barely a whisper.
She slowly turned toward him.
Tears already filling her eyes.
"You paid him?"
Victor said nothing.
"You paid Daniel to leave me?"
Her voice cracked.
"You told me he abandoned me."
"You told me he disappeared."
"You watched me cry for years."
Victor closed his eyes.
As though a decade of secrets had finally caught up with him.
Flashbacks exploded through Olivia's mind.
Daniel smiling beneath streetlights.
Daniel talking about their future.
Daniel secretly visiting jewelry stores.
Daniel holding her hand and saying,
"One day, I'm going to marry you."
And then...
Nothing.
No goodbye.
No explanation.
Just silence.
Victor slowly sat down.
For the first time since she'd known him...
He looked afraid.
Truly afraid.
"I loved you."
he said quietly.
Olivia laughed bitterly.
"That's not love."
Victor looked at the rain outside.
"I saw you with him."
"I saw how happy you were."
"I knew you'd never choose me."
His confession made her stomach turn.
"So you bought him?"
she whispered.
Victor lowered his head.
"I thought..."
"I thought if he was gone..."
"Eventually you'd move on."
Olivia felt sick.
Ten years.
Ten years of grief.
Ten years believing Daniel stopped loving her.
And all along...
Someone had been pulling the strings.
She threw the contract onto the marble floor.
"Get out."
Victor didn't move.
"Olivia—"
"GET OUT!"
For the first time in their relationship...
Victor obeyed.
He left without another word.
Olivia collapsed onto the sofa.
Shaking.
Crying.
Trying to process the nightmare unfolding around her.
Then she noticed something.
Inside the safe...
There was another folder.
Hidden beneath the contract.
Black.
Thicker.
Official-looking.
A red government stamp covered the front.
Olivia frowned.
Why would Victor hide police records?
She slowly pulled the file out.
Opened the cover.
And instantly froze.
One word was stamped across the first page in bold red letters.
HOMICIDE
The room spun around her.
Rain crashed against the windows.
Thunder exploded outside.
But none of it compared to the terror now rising inside her chest.
Because beneath the title...
The victim's name was written clearly.
Daniel Carter.
Her first love.
The man she believed had simply disappeared.
The man Victor claimed had taken the money and left.
Olivia's hands began to shake uncontrollably.
Because suddenly...
May you like
She realized something horrifying.
Maybe Daniel never accepted the money at all.
