*****It all began on a bright Monday morning. Dominic had shown up at her company, Sky Group... holding a massive bouquet of imported roses in both arms.But he didn’t walk in.He had knelt on the pavement, bringing with him one of the country’s top musical bands to perform a serenade that had echoed down the street.They performed there while he knelt for hours.But Grace never came out.Not one soul from the company acknowledged his presence.He was left kneeling there in the sun like a lovesick fool.But rather than being discouraged or furious, Dominic had become… thrilled.To him, it was a challenge... an interesting and irresistible one.And he loved challenges.The next day, he returned again, this time with an enormous cardboard sign that read:“I love you, Grace. Will you be the queen of my kingdom, and I be your king?”But he was ignored once again.And again.And again.But Dominic only grew

*****Outside the private dining room, a growing crowd had gathered... eight, maybe nine individuals, all dressed in luxurious designer attire and dripping with the effortless air of the rich, influential, and socially elite.Men in custom-tailored suits and women in glimmering gowns stood in various states of disbelief, their eyes wide, jaws slack, and expressions frozen in collective astonishment.They had no intention of obeying Janet’s earlier polite request to return to their booths. Who would, when real-life drama hotter than any primetime telenovela was unfolding just meters away?A husband catching his cheating wife red-handed… in a private dining suite, no less? This wasn’t just dinner and gossip anymore. This was the evening spectacle.They had clung to every muffled word, every rising shout, their ears practically plastered against the ornate woodwork. No one knew precisely who the occupants of the room were, but that didn’t matter. The imagination could fill in the bl

*****Back outside the room, the mood had shifted again… this time in the most unexpected of ways.People had heard everything.And those same men whose voices had echoed loudest before were now struck dumb, their judgment having boomeranged on them with poetic precision.Dominic was not Grace’s husband.Not her boyfriend.Not even a former lover or acquaintance.He was a persistent suitor, no doubt… but one who had slowly morphed into an obsessive shadow. A man who had interpreted his own fixation as love, whose infatuation had blinded him so thoroughly that he believed persistence equaled permission.And now… he stood exposed.The men who had made the battle personal, who had hurled insults at Grace and generalized their pain into vitriol for all women, were now under scrutiny.One woman turned quietly to her husband, staring at him… really staring at him for the first time in what felt like years. Her expression was unreadable. Th

*****Dominic stood still for a moment, then slowly… a smile broke across his face.But it wasn’t a smile of amusement.It was something crueler, something darker.A slow, venomous curl of the lips, like a man savoring the taste of someone else’s suffering.“Hahaha…” The chuckle began softly, but it didn’t stay that way.It swelled into a full-bodied laugh… a bitter, manic cackle that shook the walls and sent a chill racing down everyone’s spine. Even those eavesdropping outside the booth involuntarily stumbled back again, their faces contorted with horror.They wanted to run. Their instincts screamed at them to flee.But their feet wouldn't move.It was as if Dominic’s aura had shackled them in place.Inside, the situation was boiling over. And Grace, who had never known fear like this in her life, not even in boardrooms with ruthless billionaires… couldn’t even speak anymore.Dominic’s laugh echoed with a darkness that wasn’t

*****At this moment, Xavier was still standing behind Grace.However, unlike earlier, he no longer radiated the suffocating coldness or simmering rage that had once made the air feel like frozen steel. No, now, the storm had passed. In its place was a startling contrast: serenity. An eerie, disarming calm. A lazy, almost playful nonchalance cloaked him like a robe.His hands were tucked casually into his trouser pockets, his posture relaxed to the point of slouching, and his expression was one of mild disinterest… like a man who had simply reminded a waiter, for the second time, that his drink hadn’t arrived yet.The sharp shift in his demeanor stunned Grace. She blinked twice, unsure if she was imagining it. Her husband, who just moments ago had looked ready to tear the world apart, now resembled a bored aristocrat waiting for someone beneath his station to finish talking.Dominic, on the other hand, wasn’t able to react for a long moment. His mouth parted