Valeria's POV
Cold water hit my face and I gasped awake.
My head pounded. My wrists hurt from the ropes. The room spun.
"Good morning, princess." Elias's voice came from somewhere in the darkness. "Sleep well?"
I blinked hard, trying to focus. The chair I was tied to sat in the middle of an empty warehouse. Windows high above showed early morning light.
"Where am I?" My voice came out rough and dry.
"Somewhere your brother will never find you." Elias walked into view, holding a water bottle. "Thirsty?"
I wanted to say no. Wanted to refuse anything from him. But my throat felt like sandpaper.
He held the bottle to my lips. I drank.
"There. See? I'm not a monster." He stepped back. "Just a businessman who got tired of being pushed around."
"You kidnapped me. That's pretty monstrous."
"I borrowed you. Big difference." He checked his watch. "In about six hours, your family will transfer fifty million dollars to me. Then I'll let you go."
"You really think they'll just give you the money?"
"They will if they want you alive." He smiled. "Your brother loves you. That makes you valuable. That makes you weak."
"Love isn't weakness."
"It is when someone can use it against you." He pulled up a chair and sat facing me. "You know what your problem is, Valeria? You care too much. About Kane. About your family. About everyone except yourself."
"And your problem is you don't care about anyone at all."
He laughed. "Fair point. But my way keeps me alive and rich. Your way got you tied to a chair."
The door burst open.
Kane stumbled in, looking panicked. "Elias, we need to talk. Now."
"Can't you see I'm busy?"
"The cops know about the offshore accounts! Someone tipped them off!" Kane ran his hands through his hair. "We need to move the money before—"
"Calm down." Elias stood slowly. "No one knows anything."
"They do! I just got a call from my lawyer. The FBI is investigating!" Kane finally noticed me. His eyes went wide. "Val? Oh God, Val, I'm so sorry. I didn't know he was going to—"
"Shut up, Kane." Elias's voice went cold. "You're going to give away the whole plan."
"What plan?" I demanded. "What's he talking about?"
Elias sighed. "Kane, you idiot. This is why I never trusted you with important jobs."
"But the FBI—"
"There is no FBI investigation." Elias pulled out his phone and showed Kane something. "I sent that message to test you. To see if you'd panic and run to the police."
Kane's face went white. "You were testing me?"
"And you failed. Again." Elias shook his head. "You know what? I'm done with you. You're too stupid to be useful anymore."
He pulled out a gun.
Kane backed toward the door. "Wait. Wait! I can still help! I can—"
The gun fired.
I screamed.
Kane dropped to the floor, clutching his leg. Blood spread across the concrete.
"Next one goes in your head," Elias said calmly. "Now get out. Crawl if you have to. But leave."
Kane dragged himself toward the door, crying and bleeding.
I felt sick. "You shot him!"
"He'll live. Probably." Elias put the gun away. "See, this is what happens when people don't follow instructions. When they panic and make mistakes."
"You're insane."
"I'm practical." He walked back to me. "Now, let's talk about what happens next. At midnight tonight, your family transfers the money. But here's the twist they don't know about yet."
He leaned close. His breath smelled like coffee and cigarettes.
"Even after they pay, you don't go home. Not right away."
My heart started racing. "You said you'd let me go!"
"I said I might let you go. Big difference." He touched my face and I jerked away. "See, fifty million is nice. But the Arden fortune is worth billions. And you, sweet Valeria, are my ticket to all of it."
"My family will never negotiate with you."
"They will when I start sending them pieces of you." He smiled at my horrified expression. "Don't worry. I'll start small. A finger. Maybe a toe. Nothing you'll miss too much."
Tears burned my eyes. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because I can. Because the world is divided into two types of people. The ones who take what they want, and the ones who sit around hoping someone will give it to them." He stood up. "Your father took everything from my family twenty years ago. He destroyed my father's business. Made him look like a fool. My dad died broke and ashamed."
"I didn't even know your father!"
"But you carry the Arden name. That makes you guilty." His eyes went dark. "Tonight at the gala, something special is going to happen. Something that will destroy your family's reputation forever. And you're going to help me do it."
"Never."
"We'll see." He walked toward the door. "I'll be back in a few hours. Think about what matters more—your pride or your life."
He left. The door slammed. A lock clicked.
I was alone in the dark warehouse, tied to a chair, with no way out.
I pulled at the ropes. They didn't budge. My wrists started bleeding.
"Think, Val. Think!" I whispered to myself.
Something sharp pressed against my back pocket. My phone? No, Elias would have taken that.
Then I remembered. The safety pin Sienna always attached to my clothes. "In case of wardrobe emergencies," she always said.
I twisted my hands, trying to reach it. The ropes cut deeper into my skin. Pain shot up my arms.
Almost there. Almost...
My fingers touched metal.
Got it.
I pulled the pin free and started working on the ropes. It took forever. My fingers cramped. Sweat dripped down my face.
Finally, one rope loosened. Then another.
My hands came free.
I quickly untied my feet and stood up. My legs almost gave out.
The door was locked. The windows were too high to reach.
But there was a small office in the corner. Maybe a phone. Maybe another way out.
I ran to it and tried the handle. Locked too.
I looked around for something to break it with. Found a metal pipe near some old equipment.
The door splintered on the third hit.
Inside the office, papers covered a desk. I shuffled through them.
Bank accounts. Money transfers. Names I recognized from business news.
And photos. Lots of photos.
Of me. Of Lucien. Of Mom.
Of Damon and Adrian.
My blood went cold.
These weren't random surveillance photos. These were planned. Targeted. Some went back years.
Elias had been watching my family for a very long time.
I grabbed as many papers as I could carry and shoved them in my pockets.
Then I saw it. A phone on the desk.
I grabbed it and dialed Lucien's number with shaking hands.
It rang once. Twice.
"Hello?" Lucien's voice.
"Lucien! It's me! I'm—"
The office door exploded inward.
Elias stood there, gun raised. "Clever girl. I wondered how long it would take you."
"Valeria? Where are you?" Lucien's voice came from the phone.
"Warehouse on—" I started to say.
Elias fired.
The phone shattered in my hand.
I dove behind the desk.
"You just made this so much worse for yourself!" Elias shouted. "I was going to be nice! Quick! Painless! But now?"
He fired again. The bullet punched through the desk, missing my head by inches.
I crawled toward the back of the office. There had to be another way out. Had to be.
A small window near the floor. Barely big enough for a person.
I smashed it with the pipe and squeezed through.
Glass cut my arms and legs. I didn't care.
I fell onto gravel outside and ran.
The warehouse sat near the docks. Shipping containers everywhere. No people.
Footsteps behind me. Close.
"You can't run forever!" Elias yelled.
I ducked between two containers. My lungs burned. My legs screamed.
A car engine roared to life.
I looked back.
A black van headed straight for me.
I ran harder. Faster.
The van gained.
Fifty feet. Forty. Thirty.
I wasn't going to make it.
Something grabbed my arm and yanked me sideways.
I fell hard, rolling between two containers.
The van roared past, missing me by inches.
I looked up at my rescuer.
Kane sat there, still bleeding from his leg, breathing hard.
"Go," he gasped. "Run. I'll slow him down."
"Kane—"
"I owe you this. For everything I did. Please. Just go!"
The van started reversing.
I ran.
Behind me, I heard Kane shout. Heard the van's brakes squeal. Heard a sickening thud.
I didn't look back.
I ran until I found a main road. Flagged down a car. A nice older woman stopped.
"Please," I begged. "Call the police. Someone's trying to kill me."
She handed me her phone with shaking hands.
I dialed Lucien.
"Val?" He answered immediately. "Thank God! Where are you?"
"I don't know. Near the docks somewhere. Lucien, Elias has been planning this for years. He has files on everyone. Photos. Bank records. Something big is happening tonight at the gala."
"We know. We found some of his computer files. Val, listen to me carefully. Kane is dead. We found his body twenty minutes ago."
My heart stopped. "What? No, I just saw him. He helped me escape. He—"
"The body was cold. He'd been dead for hours." Lucien's voice was gentle. "Whatever you saw, it wasn't Kane."
I looked back toward the warehouses.
A figure stood on a distant rooftop, watching me.
Even from far awayBlurb
Valeria lived in the shadows for love. She hid her true identity, dressed in simplicity, and devoted herself to the man she believed in. But when she discovered her husband Kane entangled with her friend Sarah, and listened to his cruel words as he threw away her worth, something inside her broke.
She walked away.
Returning to the Arden empire, Valeria rises as the powerful woman she was born to be. And as her name shakes the city, old admirers, childhood bonds, and dangerous rivals emerge to claim her attention. Alliances shift, secrets detonate, and the man who once called her useless finds himself on his knees, begging the woman he never truly saw.
But Valeria is no longer the woman who lived to support others. This time, she writes her own story., I could see his smile.
Elias waved.
Then he disappeared.
"Lucien," I whispered. "If Kane's been dead for hours, who did I just see?"