FIRED IN THE RAIN: The Billionaire's True Identity

CHAPTER 1

The fluorescent lights of the Draven Group headquarters buzzed with a low, maddening frequency that seemed to vibrate directly inside my skull, amplifying the frantic rhythm of my heart. I was hunched over my desk, the air in my tiny cubicle feeling heavy and stagnant, when the sudden, sharp thwack of paper hitting the desk jolted me out of my trance.

"Sign it, Cole. My daughter is done carrying you."

I froze. Selene stood there, her designer coat draped over her shoulders like a regal shroud, her face a mask of sculpted, aristocratic disdain. Beside her, Roan paced, his eyes scanning the office floor like a predator testing the perimeter. I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks as the noise on the trading floor died down. Heads were turning. The office was falling into an unnatural, suffocating silence.

Panic flared in my chest, a cold, sharp claw dragging across my lungs. "Selene, please, stop," I whispered, my voice hitching, raw with a desperation I couldn't hide. "This is insane. Priya is on a work trip. If there’s an issue, we talk when she gets back. She can explain this to me herself."

Roan let out a jagged, mocking bark of laughter that echoed off the glass walls. He grabbed the glass of water sitting near my keyboard—the only thing I’d been able to stomach all day—and held it up to the light like a trophy. "Work trip? Sure, Cole. Let’s go with that."

Slowly, agonizingly, he tilted the glass. I watched in paralyzed horror as the water spilled, cold and unrelenting, soaking into my hair, running down my temples, and drenching my shirt. I was shivering, not from the cold, but from the raw, exposed humiliation of it all. It felt as if my entire life was being washed away, drop by agonizing drop.

"She’s doing a lot of hard work in a bed right now, if we’re being honest about it," Roan sneered.

The room tilted. The sound of the water hitting the floorboards seemed to be the only thing left in the world. My heart was hammering against my ribs, an erratic, frantic beat that threatened to choke me. The injustice of it made my vision swim; I had given this firm every ounce of my sweat for three years, and this was my reward? I was on my feet before my brain even registered the move, my chair slamming against the partition behind me with a violent thud.

"Don't talk about her like that!" My voice cracked, brittle and vulnerable. I stepped toward him, my jaw locked so tight my teeth ached, every muscle in my body coiled to snap. "She’s my wife—"

Roan didn't even flinch. His hand shot out, catching my shoulder with the force of a wrecking ball. He shoved me back down into the chair, the cheap plastic armrest groaning under the impact before snapping clean off. The sharp, jagged edge bit into my hip, but I barely felt it. My vision was blurring, swimming with a toxic cocktail of shame and desperate, blinding rage.

Roan leaned in, his face inches from mine, his eyes gleaming with a sick, triumphant cruelty. "Not for much longer, chump. Sign it."

I looked through the glass walls of my cubicle. Dozens of faces—people I’d shared coffee with, people I’d trusted—were watching. Some looked away, but most were holding their phones, their thumbs hovering over record buttons, their expressions a mix of detached curiosity and blatant malice. I felt small. I felt invisible. I felt like the bottom-tier parasite they were always whispering about. My stomach churned, a heavy, sinking weight of betrayal that threatened to bring me to my knees.

"I’m not signing," I breathed, my voice shaking with the effort of holding back tears of sheer frustration. "Not without her here. She owes me that much."

My chest felt hollow, like the floorboards were rotting away beneath me. I was a man clinging to a wreckage, waiting for a savior who hadn't called, hadn't texted, and hadn't been home for four days. Every second felt like an eternity of drowning, the oxygen in the room thinning as the crowd leaned in closer, waiting for the final, crushing blow to my spirit.

Then, the heavy glass door at the entrance of the floor swung open.

The sound was sharp, decisive—a guillotine blade falling. My breath hitched in my throat as I looked up, praying—begging, even—for Priya to walk in and end this nightmare. And she did. She moved through the office with a grace that felt like a slap in the face, her expression cool, detached, and utterly, terrifyingly unfamiliar.

But as she stepped into the light of the bullpen, the air in my lungs turned to lead. She wasn't alone.

Marcus Landry walked a half-step behind her. His stride was effortless, his suit tailored to razor-sharp perfection, but it was his hand—resting firmly, possessively on the small of her back—that shattered my world into jagged, irreparable pieces.

It was a touch that belonged to no boss, a grip that claimed ownership. He didn't look at me with the mentorship of the past; he looked at me with a terrifying, absolute indifference, as if I were nothing more than a smudge on his expensive sleeve.

The room went completely silent. Even the hum of the air conditioner seemed to cut out. Marcus walked straight toward my desk, his shadow looming over the mess of spilled water and broken plastic. He didn't look at Selene or Roan; his gaze settled on me, piercing and cold.

"Cole."

His voice was a low, melodic tremor of authority that made my skin crawl and my pulse stop dead.

"Good, you're still here," Marcus continued, his eyes devoid of any warmth, reflecting only the smug satisfaction of a man who held all the cards. "We need to talk about your position—all three of your positions, actually."