Cloaked in Shadows

Chapter 5 – The Man Who Died and Rose Again

The city felt different. When Antonio stepped out of the courthouse, the September air brushed his skin like a stranger’s hand. The cameras swarmed, voices stabbing at him, microphones shoved toward his face.

“Antonio, what’s your next move?”

“Do you plan to rebuild your company?”

“Are you going to sue your ex-wife?”

Antonio’s dark eyes swept over them all, unreadable. Then, without a word, he slid into the waiting car Evelyn had arranged. The door shut, muting the chaos.

The silence was sharp. Evelyn sat across from him, studying him. “You’re free, but freedom isn’t safety. Daniel and Jolie won’t take this quietly.”

Antonio leaned back, gaze fixed on the glass as the city blurred past. “Good. Let them stir. The more noise they make, the easier it’ll be to choke them with it.”

Evelyn frowned. “Antonio”

“No.” His voice cut, firm. “The man you defended doesn’t exist anymore. They killed him the night they put chains on me.”

He turned his head, eyes cold. “Now they’ll meet someone else.”

The next days were a ghost’s life. Antonio disappeared from the public. No addresses, no interviews, no sightings. While tabloids speculated, he lived in shadows.

An abandoned estate outside the city became his base. Dust covered the marble floors, ivy clawed at the windows, but Antonio saw potential.

With Marcus released a week later, he had his first loyal soldier. Marcus whistled low as he stepped inside. “This is where the billionaire hides? Looks more like a coffin.”

Antonio smirked faintly. “Then it’s fitting. Antonio Lavez is dead. I need a name that lives in whispers.”

Marcus raised a brow. “You’re reinventing yourself.”

“No,” Antonio said softly, almost to himself. “I’m weaponizing myself.”

Two nights later, Antonio stood before a mirror, razor in hand. His reflection was gaunt, hardened. He shaved the beard he had grown in prison, changed the cut of his hair, slid on contacts that shifted his gaze from deep brown to ice-gray.

When he straightened, the man looking back was no longer the same. His tailored suit, his measured posture, the sharpness of his eyes, he was something new.

Marcus leaned on the doorframe, arms folded. “You don’t look like Antonio anymore.”

“That’s the point.”

“What do I call you then?”

Antonio adjusted his cufflinks. “Adrian Black.”

The first step of revenge was financial. Jolie thought she inherited two percent. She flaunted it, splashing it across tabloids, the wrong move.

Adrian sat across from a banker in a private office, his new identity flawless. Passports, corporations, offshore networks, all the weapons Jolie had no idea he possessed.

The banker’s hands trembled as he reviewed the documents. “Mr. Black, these accounts… this wealth… it’s staggering.”

Adrian’s smile was faint, sharp. “I don’t need your awe. I need silence. In return, you’ll manage these funds exclusively. Discreetly.”

The banker swallowed. “Of course.”

When the man left, Marcus shook his head. “You’re moving billions like chess pieces. What’s the play?”

Adrian’s gaze darkened. “The play is starvation. I’ll strip Daniel’s empire thread by thread. I’ll turn Jolie’s luxuries to ashes. They’ll choke while smiling in their mirrors, thinking they still shine.”

That night, Adrian walked through the city under neon glow, unrecognizable. His voice and demeanor shifted, his presence quieter, deadlier.

In a rooftop bar overlooking the skyline, Evelyn joined him. She looked at him, blinking. “You’ve changed.”

Adrian sipped his drink. “Antonio changed. Adrian was born.”

Her brows furrowed. “And Adrian wants revenge.”

Adrian leaned closer, voice low. “Adrian doesn’t want. Adrian takes.”

Evelyn studied him, then exhaled. “Tell me what you need.”

He set his glass down. “Access to Jolie’s accounts. Connections to Daniel’s board. And someone who can make people disappear from records without anyone noticing.”

Evelyn’s lips pressed tight. “You’re not rebuilding. You’re hunting.”

“Exactly.”

The first strike came faster than Jolie could blink. A week after Antonio’s acquittal, Daniel Crane’s construction firm lost a major government contract. Quietly revoked. Reasons undisclosed.

Daniel raged behind closed doors, smashing glasses in his office. “Who the hell did this?!”

His secretary stammered. “Sir, we don’t know. It just… vanished overnight.”

Jolie touched his shoulder, trying to soothe him. “It’s probably a competitor. We’ll get another deal.”

But when she checked her accounts later that night, two million dollars had evaporated. Not stolen, re-routed so smoothly even her bankers couldn’t explain it.

She froze, staring at the screen, a chill crawling her spine. Daniel stormed in. “What now?”

Her voice trembled. “My account… someone’s bleeding me dry.”

Daniel snarled. “It’s hackers. I’ll fix it.”

But Jolie’s heart raced, memories slamming back, Antonio’s eyes in the courtroom, cold, promising. No. It couldn’t be. He was finished. Broken. And yet…

Back in the estate, Marcus burst in with a grin. “It worked. Crane’s deal tanked. Jolie’s missing millions. They’re panicking.”

Adrian stood by the window, the city glittering below. His posture was calm, almost regal.

“This is just the appetizer.” His voice was smooth, but beneath it ran steel. “Now they’ll feel what it’s like to lose everything without seeing the hand that takes it.”

Marcus smirked. “And when they realize it’s you?”

Adrian’s eyes hardened, sharp as blades. “By the time they realize, I’ll already be inside their walls.”

The wind howled outside the broken estate windows, as if echoing his vow. He turned, slipping the mask of Antonio away once more. Adrian Black had begun his war.