Anastasia
"You've been made." Vincent began over the phone.
I slammed my cup of coffee on the table, reducing the volume of the TV as my ears trained on him.
"What do you mean made?"
"Well, I just got news from my source at pretty boy Kelvin's office and he thinks that you are still alive. You know, you diverted his funds and they're security footage captured your entry time so he's digging deep to know whether you're still alive or not."
This was not good, so not good. This could ruin a lot of plans, mostly mine. I didn't want my revenge to be for nothing and in that moment, I knew I needed to do something and fast.
"What do you think I should do Vincent?" I asked, taking a sip of the now warm beverage.
"I advise you to continue this course of action. Don't deviate as that could even be worse. Do what you've intended to do while I work on some things from my own end. Given the situation we're in now, I've realized that's the best thing to do."
"And not forgetting that Kelvin is a very smart man and it wouldn't take him any time to figure all of this out," I said.
"What about his mistress, Sarah? Do you want to meet her?"
"No! That would be my last resort but if all isn't going as I planned, then only then will I do that."
"Alright then. I'll keep you posted on any new development."
Pacing within my small living room in my apartment, I was quite surprised that Kelvin had discovered this at this early stage but in that moment, I realized that it was for the best. This made it all the more merrier as I had the opportunity to go through other means I hadn't thought of before.
Walking towards the floor to ceiling mirror, I looked at my face, really looked at it for the first time since the incident and I realized I had changed drastically. There was a difference between how i looked now and how i looked before and if i stood before Kelvin in that moment or even any of my family, they would never be able to recognize me.
"Good. I want it that way."
Turning on the TV, I realized that my family was hosting a gala event later this week. Just then, a plan began hatching in my mind. I still had every detail I needed to be let into the event and I was going to use that. I needed to get closer to them and with my newfound fame as the CEO of the nation's leading PR company, it wouldn't be a problem getting in.
I grabbed my phone again, dialing Vincent's number even as I told him of my plans. It was foolproof and I couldn't see anything that might go wrong.
"Still, you need to be careful," he said.
After the call ended, my mind went back to the mystery man I had slept with after my rebirth. Even in the heat of passion, I realized that he was a man of substance and class and I really wished I could see him again, if not for anything but to ask him who he really was. And then, there was my daughter, someone whom i hardly talked about but she was in my life now and this revenge wasn't just about me, but also to secure her future because for as long as Kelvin was alive, there is always bound to be danger.
"Enough of the pity party Ana, you need to get to work." I muttered.
I knew I needed to stop feeling sorry for myself. Kelvin and my family had done me dirty in the past but now, I wasn't about to fall for the same situation again. I was wiser now and even if I died again trying to get my revenge then so be it.
**********************
I pushed the door open and stepped into my office, the echo of my heels slicing through the silence like a blade through velvet. The scent of fresh leather and strong espresso still lingered, reminding me of the long night I had spent here yesterday finalizing numbers that no one had dared to question—because I was the one who made the rules. I didn't take meetings. I summoned them. People didn't request my time—they begged for it, waited on their knees, and I picked who was worthy. But just as I tossed my coat onto the edge of the couch and pulled my hair loose from its clip, Angela, my ever-efficient secretary, appeared beside the glass door holding a leather-bound dossier in one hand and a curious expression on her face.
"Ma'am," she said softly, her voice always precise, always calculated, "someone requested a meeting with you."
I didn't bother looking at her yet—I was too busy powering up the system on my desk. "Who dares?" I asked, my voice light with amusement but laced with warning.
"You know how this works, Angela. I don't make requests."
"Yes, I know," she said immediately, stepping forward and placing the dossier gently on the corner of my desk. "But... It's Kelvin Arnold."
I froze. Just like that. One name, and suddenly the air in the room shifted—just a little. Not because I was scared, no. Never that. But because there was a time when the name Kelvin Arnold would've turned me inside out, made my stomach twist in anxiety, made my voice waver and my hands tremble under the weight of remembered humiliation. But not anymore. I raised my eyes slowly to look at her, a smile creeping across my face—no, not a smile. A smirk. A haunted, taunting, slow-burn smirk.
"Kelvin Arnold," I repeated, letting his name roll off my tongue like something sweet and sour at the same time. I stood up and walked around my desk until I was leaning beside the dossier. "He wants to meet with me?"
Angela nodded, her brows twitching just slightly, uncertain of how I'd react.
I laughed. Loud. Deep. "Oh, how the tables have turned," I muttered, tilting my head. "He must really think I'm still that desperate little wife he used to bully, huh? The same girl he made feel invisible in rooms she was smart enough to own? Poor guy... he clearly hasn't been paying attention."
Angela looked both amused and slightly concerned. "Should I turn him down then?"
I turned toward the window, looking down at the city that now moved for me, not against me.
"No," I said slowly, "Set the meeting. Make it official. Let's see what he wants... and more importantly, let's see if he can handle the woman I've become."
She nodded once, efficiently, already tapping into her tablet. "What time works best?"
"Make him wait," I replied without hesitation. "He's used to instant access. Let him feel what it's like to earn my time."
"And the location?"
"My turf. This office. I want him to see it... feel it... taste the power he once thought I'd never possess." I paused, then added.
"Get him something bitter to drink. Like he made my memories taste."
Angela blinked, her fingers pausing over the screen for a beat before she simply nodded again.
"Noted."
As she turned to leave, I stared at the dossier still sitting on the corner of my desk. I picked it up, opened it slowly, and saw his name printed there in bold, familiar letters. It didn't sting anymore. It didn't hurt. It only lit something fierce inside me.
"Kelvin," I whispered under my breath, "You taught me how cruel this world could be... now let me return the favor."
After getting settled in my office, I dialed Vincent's number, pressing the phone to my ear, pacing the length of my office as the line rang once… twice… and then clicked. "Vincent," I said the moment I heard the faint breath on the other end, "You're not going to believe what just happened."
His voice came through a beat later, gravelly and skeptical, "You finally won the lottery?"
I scoffed. "No, even better. Kelvin wants a meeting with me. A proper one. Not a threat, not a veiled insult passed through one of his men, not a cryptic message scratched into the surface of my damn car—an actual sit-down."
There was a short pause, then a soft whistle. "That was fast," he muttered. "Didn't think he'd want you to know about him this soon. He's always been the lurking-from-the-shadows type. Damn coward, if you ask me."
"Exactly," I said, my voice low with satisfaction. "But this works in my favor, doesn't it? Now I get to look him in the eye. Now I get to show him the stuff I'm made of."
Vincent chuckled—one of those deep, amused sounds that had a hint of warning behind it. "Don't go overboard, Ana. You always talk like you're walking into a ring with a flame-thrower when all that's needed is a match."
I grinned. "That's the thing. He thinks I'm a spark, some disposable flicker of irritation. But I'm the whole damn fire, Vincent."
He snorted. "You always were dramatic."
"And you always liked it."
"Maybe," he said, then sighed. "Just keep me in the loop, alright? Don't disappear again for days without saying anything. If this goes south, I want to be three steps behind you, not ten."
"I'll keep you posted," I promised, slowing my pacing to a stop. "Every single step of the way. You'll know everything, even the stuff I don't want to admit out loud."
Vincent's voice softened. "Good. Because you know what he's capable of, Anastasia."
"Yeah," I said, my grip tightening on the phone. "And he's about to find out what I'm capable of too."
There was a pause. A shared silence that held more weight than anything we'd just said. Then I added quietly, with a dangerous calm, "By the time I was done with him, he'll really wish he had killed me the first time."
And with that, I ended the call.
I punched the receiver, calling in Angela. I had made a decision and already, the ball was rolling and I sure as hell was going to deliver.
"I want you to go ahead and set the meeting," I said, my voice sharper than I intended it to be as I looked up from the folder in my hand. Angela blinked, startled, and her brows pinched in that gentle, hesitant way she always did when she wasn't sure how far she could push me.
"With Mr. Kelvin Arnold?" she asked carefully, her fingers tightening slightly around the tablet she held against her chest like a shield.
"Yes, with Kelvin," I replied, more measured now. "Tell him I'll take the meeting. Tomorrow. First thing in the morning. Make sure it's here, my office. I don't want to step into his turf for this." She didn't move right away, which irked me more than I let on.
"Anastasia… are you absolutely sure about this?" she asked, her voice softer now, almost pleading. "You know he's not someone you can trust, and—"
"I'm a hundred percent sure," I interrupted, leaning back in my chair and folding my arms across my chest. "I've waited long enough. He wants to see me? Fine. Let him come. I'm done hiding behind time and false civility. Set the damn meeting, Angela."
She gave me a long look. A careful one. The kind that made me wonder if she had guessed the depth of what I was planning. But she nodded anyway and turned around, heels clicking softly against the polished floor as she exited my office, leaving me alone with the weight of what I'd just committed to.
I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding and turned toward the tall windows that overlooked the city. The skyline looked exactly like it always did—steel, glass, and hollow ambition stacked in neat rows, but something inside me stirred. Something cold. Something old. A memory, barely touched, but always lurking.
Kelvin.
God. That name alone was like acid in my mouth. Once, years ago, hell, in what felt like another life—I thought that man walked on water. I thought he was the one who had saved me from the chaos I'd grown up in. I thought he'd seen me, not for the broken little girl I was, but for the ruthless woman I could become. He didn't just teach me power, he taught me how to hunger for it. And then… he tried to destroy me with it.
I still remembered the night everything crumbled. The night I found out the truth. That I was just a pawn to him. That the entire empire he so generously "built" with me had my blood and sweat, but only his name engraved on it. I remembered walking into that boardroom, a trembling twenty-three-year-old who thought she was about to become partner, only to be told that I had been "relocated" to a non-executive advisory role. I remembered the smirk he gave me when I looked at him for an explanation, and how he leaned in and whispered.
"Don't take it personally, darling. This is how men clean up their messes."
I should've burned the building down that night.
But I didn't. I disappeared instead. I disappeared so I could come back stronger. And I did.
Now, all these years later, he wants a meeting. After pretending I didn't exist. After watching my new company rise out of nowhere and start snapping at his heels. He thinks he can walk into my space and sweet talk his way into some kind of merger. Or maybe he's worried now, and he wants to size me up. Either way, it doesn't matter. The moment he steps into this office, he's stepping into his grave.
"Kelvin deserves death," I whispered to myself, my voice low and deliberate. "And I'm going to give it to him."
Not with guns. Not with blood. No. That would be too easy, too satisfying for a man like him. Death, for him, had to be poetic. It had to be slow. It had to come with the realization that the woman he once thought he could shape into a loyal soldier had become the one who would erase his name from every ledger that mattered.
My phone buzzed on the table. A message from Angela.
Meeting confirmed. Tomorrow at 9AM. He agreed.
Of course he did.
I stared at the screen, and for a second, I could almost hear his voice again. That sickening calm. That charming, condescending drawl that used to make me shiver for all the wrong reasons.
But now? Now I didn't flinch. Now I smiled. Because tomorrow, he would learn something I had waited a very long time to teach him: I may have once been his pawn,
But now—I was the checkmate.