“What’d you say?!” Maria roared, her voice laced with irritation and pride. The sound echoed off the marble walls, sharp and commanding.She never liked it when anyone she sent on an errand failed to do the job the way it was supposed to be done. Every task mattered to her, and every mistake felt like betrayal.“YOU!” she barked suddenly, her eyes narrowing as she turned to her other guard.“Hand it over!” she ordered, extending her hand with cold authority.Mark, her personal guard, froze. His palms went clammy, and his legs trembled beneath him. He knew what would happen if he refused to hand her his gun and what would happen if he obeyed. Either way, someone would die tonight.Jerry, the guard who had been sent to spy on Velmoria, to gather intel on the Virellis, was standing just a few steps away, his face pale and his breathing shallow. Mark didn’t need to ask what Maria planned to do. He knew it already. If he handed over the gun, Jerry’s life would end right here, right now. An

A hundred years ago, shell companies became a defining feature of Velmoria’s economic landscape. These entities were crafted by the wealthy as a discreet means of expanding their financial empires. Individuals who possessed significant capital would establish new LLCs under holding names, companies without physical addresses, employees, or tangible products. They existed purely on paper, designed to obscure ownership and facilitate complex investment strategies.Through these companies, investors could acquire shares in other corporations anonymously. On the surface, the transactions appeared legitimate, yet the true identity of the buyer remained hidden behind layers of paperwork and corporate secrecy. It was a system that thrived on discretion, and for those who understood how to use it, it became a gateway to immense power.Mark’s fingers moved rapidly across the keyboard, the glow of his laptop screen reflecting against his tired eyes. He was following his boss’s strict command

Fifteen years ago, following her rescue from the vast ocean, after the long, lonely nights when the tides were her only company, Maria began to live with the fisherman who found her near the rocky shore. The ocean had swallowed her old life whole, and in exchange, it gave her silence.She slowly unlearned everything she once knew. The language of luxury, the rhythm of cities, the warmth of comfort, it all faded away.If someone had told her that after the plane crash, Adrian, the man she loved, the one who swore to never let her go, would give up on her so easily, she would have laughed in disbelief. She would have said love could never die that fast. Yet life had its cruel ways of proving her wrong.She still remembered how he smiled at her every morning, how he promised to love her again and again as though repetition could make it true. She remembered how she carried Lucas in her arms in the hospital, her face drenched in sweat, her body trembling after screaming her lungs out in t

“How does Paris sound to you?” Vincent asked over the phone as he turned his leather office chair toward the wide glass window, gazing at the skyline below. The view of the city stretched endlessly before him, the streets glowing like golden veins. He looked every inch the confident boss he believed himself to be.“It sounds perfect.” Maria smirked, her tone smooth and deliberate.“Where do we meet?” she asked, her voice low and calm, as though there was no reason to delay what had already been decided in her mind.***Mark opened his eyes suddenly, blinking fast. What just happened felt surreal, almost like a dream that came alive in a single blink.How could a woman he had never met before call him by mistake, pretend she was trying to reach someone else, and within minutes have him completely spellbound?He exhaled and shook his head, still trying to make sense of it. But the moment he looked at her, her confidence, her calm tone, her commanding presence, his confusion faded. He be

Maria stepped out of the car, her silver shining heels clicking against the pavement, echoing with confidence. In that single moment, the air shifted; it was as though the world itself paused to watch her.Before she even stepped out, she had imagined it. The entrance. The stares. The awe. Every second was rehearsed in her mind.Her heels, crafted with diamonds studded carefully around the straps, caught the afternoon light and exploded into brilliance. Each step she took shimmered like a flash of lightning. It was not just beauty; it was command. Even the blind, she thought, could sense her arrival.The sound of her heels striking the ground was deliberate, a rhythm that demanded attention. Passersby stopped, heads turning, their eyes widening as though they were witnessing a goddess descend from a dream.And that was exactly what Maria wanted.She wanted to be seen. To be envied. To be desired. The attention, the whispers, the jealousy, she craved every bit of it. It was not vanity;