NATHAN CROSS STRIKE BACK..

The top floor of the Grand Creston Hotel had a private room that rich people rented for deals they did not want anyone to know about.

Tonight it was being used for something uglier than business.

Nathan Cross was on his knees on the cold floor.

His hands were tied behind his back. His shirt was torn and soaked with blood. His left eye was swollen and almost shut. Across the room his wife stood at the window.

“Serena Cross.”

She was dressed beautifully. Hair perfect. Makeup perfect. A glass of red wine in her hand and a small smile on her face like she was watching something mildly entertaining on television.

She was pressed against another man's side.

“Derek Holt.”

Tall. Expensive suit. Gray at his temples. The kind of man who had so much money he had stopped caring what people thought of him a long time ago. 

He was among the most powerful businessmen in Creston City. He owned companies, buildings, judges, and politicians.

And apparently he owned Nathan's wife too.

Nathan looked at Serena, she looked back at him without any guilt at all.

That was the thing that cut deepest. Not the beating. Not the betrayal.

Her eyes. Completely calm. Like he was already in the past.

“Serena.” His voice came out steady despite everything. 

“Look at me properly. Eight years. We were together for eight years. You remember where we started? That one room apartment? I was working three jobs. You told me you believed in me.”

“I did believe in you,” she said. “Back then.”

“Your family was broken when we met. Your father's business was failing. I stepped in. I used my own money. I fixed it.” His jaw tightened. 

“Your mother needed a heart operation three years ago. I paid for everything. I never once asked for anything back.”

“I know what you did,” Serena said simply.

“Then how?” His voice cracked slightly on that one word.

“How do you stand there like this?”

Serena set her wine glass down at the table in front of her, and walked toward him slowly. She stopped just in front of him and looked down at his face.

Her expression was not mean. It was worse than mean.

“Nathan,” she said quietly. 

“You are genuinely brilliant. What you built with NeuroGen, the research, the formula is remarkable. I mean that.”

 She paused. 

“But brilliant men who fight for everything inch by inch tire me out. Derek already has everything. I do not want to spend my best years watching you struggle.” She glanced back at Derek. 

“I want to enjoy my life now. Not in twenty years.”

“So I was just a bridge,” Nathan said. 

“Something you walked across to get somewhere better.”

She did not deny it, she just walked back to Derek's side.

Derek stepped forward now. He was relaxed. Comfortable. The way a man is comfortable when he has never once felt threatened in any room.

“Here is the situation,” Derek said. His voice was businesslike and calm. 

“Your NeuroGen formula has been filed under Holt Empire's patent. The paperwork is clean and it goes back three years. Your former partner Jason provided everything we needed.” He paused to let that land. 

“The Sterling Foundation has agreed to co-develop NeuroGen with us. That deal closes this Friday.”

Nathan felt his stomach drop.

The Sterling Foundation.

That deal was supposed to be his. He had spent two years building toward that partnership. It was going to change everything not just for his company but for millions of patients who needed what NeuroGen could do.

“That formula is mine,” Nathan said. His voice was very quiet. 

“I built it. Four years of my life.”

“Was yours, but now mine,” Derek said pleasantly.

“My colleagues,” Nathan said. “What happened to them?”

“Most of them made smart decisions,” Derek said. 

“They joined the Holt Empire. Good salaries. Good offices. Jason is now my Senior VP of Research.” He tilted his head. “Which brings me to my offer.”

At that moment he walked slowly around Nathan like he was inspecting something he was thinking about buying.

“You are the best in your field. Genuinely. I am not flattering you it is just a fact. I could use a mind like yours.” Derek stopped in front of him. 

“Come work for me. Not as a partner. Not as an equal. You will work under my direction, developing what I tell you to develop. You will be paid well. Two hundred thousand dollars a month, You will have a lab, resources, and a team.” He paused. 

“You will never own anything. You will never get credit for anything. But you will be comfortable. You will eat well. You will have a roof.” A thin smile. 

“Think of it as a very well paid cage.”

The room was silent, everyone was waiting.

Then Nathan looked up at Derek, then he laughed.

It was not a happy laugh. It was the laugh of a man who had just heard something so insulting that the only response was disbelief.

“Two hundred thousand you say,” Nathan repeated slowly.

“It is a generous offer,” Derek said.

“You stole a formula worth billions,” Nathan said. 

“You destroyed everything I built. You turned my own wife against me. You framed me as a criminal.” His eyes moved to Serena. 

“And you are offering me two hundred thousand dollars a month to sit in your basement and make you richer.”

He looked back at Derek.

“No.”

Derek's expression did not change. “That is your answer.”

“That is my answer.”

Derek nodded slowly like he had expected this and was not particularly bothered by it.

Serena made a small sound a short, sharp exhale through her nose.

“Unbelievable,” she said. She stepped away from Derek's side and looked at Nathan with something that was almost  not quite, but almost anger. 

“Do you understand what he just offered you? Two hundred thousand dollars. Real money. A real life.” She shook her head. 

“I wasted eight years on you. Eight years sitting next to you at boring dinners talking to boring people about boring science while you built something that you have now lost completely.” She looked at Derek. “Honestly. I deserve to be paid back for the time I wasted.”

Derek smiled. “Name your price, darling.”

“Take me shopping tomorrow,” she said. 

“Somewhere expensive. I want to forget this whole evening., and also I want the two hundred thousand dollars you're offering him to be mine”

“Done,” Derek said. He put his arm around her and kissed her temple.

They stood there together looking down at Nathan like he was a minor inconvenience they were almost finished with.

At that moment Nathan stared at his wife.

He stared at her for a long time.

When he spoke his voice was very low. Very controlled. The kind of quiet that is more frightening than shouting.

“Serena.” He said her name like he was writing it down somewhere permanent. 

“Derek.” He said that name the same way. 

“I want you both to look at me right now. Remember exactly how I look. On my knees. Bleeding. Finished.” A pause. 

“Because I promise you  both of you  I will make you pay for every single thing you have done tonight. Every cent. Every bruise. Every humiliation.” His eyes moved to Serena's face and stayed there. “Especially you.”

Serena stared at him.

For just one half second something moved across her face. Something that might have been fear.

Then it was gone.

She turned to Derek. 

“I can tell he is going to be a problem.”