Chapter 5: A Choice Wrapped in Smoke

The rooftop bar glistened like a glass jewel above the city, suspended between the fog of power and the sky of illusion. Neera stepped out of the elevator into cold air that tasted of tobacco and expensive whiskey, the combination that she once hated but later on learned to just ignore. Her heels clicked against the marble, an unspoken declaration of war in a world of velvet threats.

Kieran Renzaro was already there, seated in a booth that overlooked the skyline. A low amber light bathed his features in gold, but the rest of him remained in shadow—calm, composed, unreadable.

She didn’t walk towards him. She stalked. Like a woman with nothing left to lose but a name.

"Attorney Miller," he greeted as she stopped in front of him. His voice was smooth, with a jagged undertone — like silk caught on a blade.

"You made your point," she replied, sliding into the seat across from him. "Now make your offer to my face."

A server approached, but Keiran raised a finger and the man vanished. Silence claimed them. And then, a leather folder was placed gently on the table between them. He nudged it toward her.

"Same terms," he said. "One year. Exclusive counsel. Triple your rate. Immunity from anything you touch under my name. No interference unless invited."

Neera opened it. The same lines. The same stipulations. The same d-mn signature block.

Her fingers hovered over the pages, then curled into a fist. "Why me?"

"Because you don’t scare easily," he answered without pause. "Because you understand loyalty and performance. Because you’re not corrupt — you’re calculating. You’re what I need right now."

She let out a humorless laugh. "You need me? That’s rich."

He leaned forward. "Need, Attorney Miller, is not a weakness. It’s leverage. Always remember that."

Their eyes locked, a standoff in silence. Then her voice was low and steady, she said, "You had my brother arrested."

Kieran didn’t flinch. "No. I just didn’t stop it."

"Same difference."

He tilted his glass toward her in agreement. "Perhaps."

Neera leaned back. Her chest ached with fury, but her face remained a statue carved by vengeance.

"Let’s be clear," she said. "I’m signing this because you left me no choice. But while I’m in your world, I’ll be looking for something."

Kieran’s gaze sharpened. "Which is?"

"Proof you had my father killed."

He didn’t blink. Didn’t smirk. Just nodded once. "Then I suggest you look closely."

She signed. The pen barely trembled in her grip. Each stroke was the beginning of a war she had every intention of winning.

---

She was colder than the wind that sliced through the rooftop. Not emotionally distant—no, that would be easy. She was precise. Every blink, every breath, every silence… calculated.

He watched her read the contract like it was a blueprint for betrayal.

She didn’t ask about protection or escape clauses. She didn’t demand favors. She was here with a sword tucked behind her spine, and Kieran admired that. It wasn’t every day you watched someone walk into the lion’s den with her eyes wide open and a dagger of her own.

When she said his name as though it were a curse and a riddle, he didn’t tell her she was right to suspect him.

Because she was wrong… and right.

The man who killed her father didn’t answer to him, or his family.

Not anymore.

The Renzaros hadn’t ordered the hit. But they’d cleaned up the aftermath.

And now, he was sitting across from the only woman in the world smart enough—and recklessly enough—to make him regret that.

As she signed the paper, his pulse didn’t race.

But something shifted.

Not in fear.

But in fate.

---

Back in her apartment that night, Neera placed the signed contract on her kitchen counter like it was a loaded weapon. She poured a glass of scotch and downed it, hoping to burn the sound of Kieran’s voice from her memory.

But it clung to her. Like smoke.

One year.

One goal.

Get close. Find the truth. And then destroy him from the inside.

But what happens when the inside starts looking like a mirror?

She didn’t know yet.

Not now.

But soon she will.