Novels by Zari

Aiden's Pov I sat in the chair against the wall and tried to make myself invisible. The board meeting room felt too small and too hot and every person in here was staring at me like I did not belong. Maybe I did not belong anymore but Marcus said I should come so I came. Richard sat at the head of the table looking calm and in control like always. The board members filled the other seats and they all had their laptops open and their serious faces on. This was going to be bad and I could feel it. The forensic accountant stood up and started her presentation. She showed spreadsheets and transaction records and talked about offshore accounts. Every word she said made the evidence against Vivian stronger and I should have felt good about that but I just felt tired. Then Vivian walked in and everyone stopped talking. She wore a gray suit and her hair was perfect and her makeup covered the fact that she looked exhausted. She sat down across from Richard and put her briefcase on the tabl

Vivian's Pov I stood in my apartment staring at the folder on my kitchen counter and my hands would not stop shaking. The fake evidence sat inside waiting for me to use it and I had been staring at it for twenty minutes trying to convince myself this was the right thing to do. It was not the right thing and I knew that but I was out of options. My phone rang and I jumped because I had been so focused on the folder. I looked at the screen and saw Richard's name. My stomach twisted but I answered anyway. "Hello," I said and tried to sound confident. "Vivian," Richard said and his voice was cold. "The board meeting starts in one hour. You need to be there." "I know," I said. "I will be there." "Come ready to explain yourself," Richard said. "The forensic accountants have found more evidence and it does not look good for you." "I can explain everything," I said even though I could not. "You better," Richard said. "Because if you cannot then you are finished and I cannot help you

Elliot's PovI sat on my bed staring at the wall and counting the flowers on the wallpaper. There were forty three of them and I had counted them five times already because I had nothing else to do. My room felt smaller than I remembered and the air was too thick and I could not breathe right.It had been two days since James brought me back here and I had barely left this room. I ate meals alone and ignored everyone who tried to talk to me and spent most of my time looking out the window at the gates that kept me trapped.Someone knocked on the door and I did not answer because I knew who it was. The door opened anyway and Liam walked in wearing another perfect suit. He always wore suits even at home like he was ready for a business meeting at any second."Dad wants you at dinner tonight," Liam said and closed the door behind him.I kept staring at the wall. "No.""It was not a question," Liam said."I do not care," I said and finally looked at him. "I do not want to sit at that tabl

Aiden's Pov Maya finished her coffee and stood up. "I have to get to a meeting but I will let you know if I find anything." "Okay," I said. She started to walk away but then stopped and turned back. "Aiden?" "Yeah?" I said. "I am glad you came in today," Maya said. "It means you have not given up yet." I did not know how to respond to that so I just nodded. She smiled and then walked away toward the meeting rooms. I turned back to my laptop and pulled up my email again. The message from Marcus was still open and I read it one more time. Someone had sent new evidence against Vivian overnight and that evidence was helping to clear the investigation. I clicked on the attachments in the email and started looking through them. Financial documents and transaction records and emails that showed Vivian moving money from company accounts to offshore accounts. It was all very detailed and very damning. But something felt off about it. I zoomed in on one of the bank statements and stud

Aiden's Pov I stood outside Blackwood Tech at seven in the morning and stared up at the building that used to be mine. The sun was just coming up and the glass windows reflected the orange sky and it would have looked beautiful if I did not feel so hollow inside. Security should have stopped me from coming in but when I walked through the doors the guard just nodded. My name was still on the access list because nobody had bothered to remove it yet. That hurt more than it should have because it meant I was still technically part of the company but only as a ghost. I took the elevator up to the executive floor and when the doors opened everything looked the same but felt different. A few early employees were already at their desks and they all stared at me when I walked past. Some of them looked away quickly and others whispered to each other and I knew they were all talking about me. The disgraced CEO who lost everything. I walked toward my old office but stopped when I got close.

Vivian's Pov I got to the café thirty minutes early because I wanted to see who this person was before they saw me. I sat in my car across the street and watched people go in and out and tried to figure out which one sent me that text. My hands shook a little when I gripped the steering wheel and I hated that I was nervous. I had not slept at all last night thinking about the embezzlement investigation and how fast it was moving. The forensic accountants were finding everything and it was only a matter of time before they connected all the dots back to me. I needed help and this mystery person said they could give it to me. At exactly eight o'clock I got out of my car and walked across the street. I wore sunglasses even though the sun was barely up because my eyes were red and tired and I did not want anyone to see that I had been crying. The café was small and quiet with only a few people inside. I looked around and saw a man in a dark suit sitting at a corner table in the back.