روايات بقلم Favour Kayla

Nickie’s POVThe dress Leon had picked for me was cream colored and fitted and probably cost more than three months of my old rent. I stood in front of the mirror and barely recognized myself. I looked calm. Expensive. Put together.I was none of those things.The smile was the one I had practiced. The ring was the ten carat one that still felt wrong on my hand. And I was about to walk into a room full of people whose job was basically to find out if I was lying.I was absolutely lying.Leon was waiting when I came out. He looked at me once, the way he looked at everything, quickly and completely, and then he offered his arm and we walked to the boardroom together.The same room where I had thrown my rejection letter two days ago.Same table. Same view. Different version of me standing at the door.Five people were already seated. They all looked up when we walked in and not one of them smiled. These were the people who decided things. You could feel it just standing near them.Leon p

Nickie’s POVWhen Leon told me the board was meeting me tomorrow morning my stomach dropped straight through the floor.The cold fear from signing the contract turned into something worse. Something shaky and loud and very hard to breathe through.The next few hours were the closest thing to torture I had ever experienced. Not physical torture. The kind where someone watches you walk across a room and sighs.“Stop walking like you’re rushing to return library books,” Leon said from across the living room. He wasn’t pacing. He was just standing there, completely still, watching me like I was a problem he was trying to solve. “You are my fiancée. Walk like the floor belongs to you.”I tried again.“I’m wearing shoes that cost more than my rent, Leon. It’s hard to look like I own anything when I’m scared of scuffing the marble.”He made a sound that was not quite a sigh and not quite a groan.“It’s in your head. Control your head and the rest follows. And smile. Like you are actually hap

Leon Knight’s POVThe contract was signed.The girl with the death wish and the desperate eyes was now bound to me by twelve pages of navy leather and her own signature.She got what she came for. I got what I needed. A clean reason on paper for the next six months of financial moves that were going to look very suspicious to very dangerous people.Simple. Neat. Done.I had Miss Thorne handle the security reports before we even reached the elevator. Whatever Nickie had done to get past the lobby was going to be filed away as a classified isolated incident and never spoken of again. Reputation first. Always.The elevator ride up to the penthouse was quiet. Nickie stood straight with her eyes fixed on the steel doors like she was waiting for something to jump out of them. I watched her reflection. She was small. But the anger was still there under everything, sitting low and quiet, waiting.I was fairly sure she was calculating the price of my briefcase.The penthouse doors opened and s

Nichole's POVThe silence in Regaleon Knight’s office wasn’t the respectful kind. It was the kind that precedes an execution.“I have two questions for you, Miss Chen,” he began, his voice flat, devoid of the annoyance he’d shown moments ago. He didn’t sit behind his massive desk; he perched on the corner of it, leaning in just enough to feel intimidating. It was a performance, and I was the reluctant audience.I forced myself to sit upright in the plush chair, trying to channel the last vestiges of my fury, but desperation kept crowding in. I swallowed hard.“I applied because Knight Industries is the only place in the city that funds the kind of bio-engineering projects I specialize in,” I stated, keeping my voice level. “And I broke in because your HR department has rejected me three times, despite my thesis being directly applicable to your new Robotics Division. The first two questions are actually one question, Mr. Knight: I came here because your system is broken, and I am not.

NICKIE'S POVThe moment the hospital billing department called for the third time that morning, I felt like I was going to lose it. My dad's heart was running out of beats and my bank account was empty and the rejection letter from Knight Industries was sitting on my kitchen table like a verdict.I looked at the rejection email one last time. It was so formal and cold,a two-paragraph dismissal of five years of work and my last hope. The paper felt like a slap in the face. They said they regretted to inform me.I regretted not burning down their headquarters.This was no longer about a job; it was a war for my dad’s life…. When you're up against the most powerful man in the state the only thing to do is fight back with everything you've got.I folded the letter from Knight Industries, put it in my pocket. I told the billing lady I would call back. I hung up the phone. Left the apartment.The Knight industries tower was twelve blocks away. I walked to the tower. I do not even really re