Chapter 1

The first time Seraphina Voss saw Cassian Devereaux in five years, a three-hundred-million-dollar contract sat between them.

She had imagined this moment a thousand different ways over the years. Sometimes she had pictured herself crying, sometimes screaming. On one particularly bad night, she had imagined walking straight into his office, throwing a glass of whiskey in his face and demanding to know how he could sleep at night after destroying her life. She had been twenty-three then and five years had given her better manners. Now, she only smiled.

“Mr. Devereaux.”

Cassian looked up from the documents, and for a moment, neither of them said anything. Seraphina felt absolutely nothing; at least that was what she told herself.

He broke the stare first. “Ms. Voss.” His voice was deeper than she remembered, or perhaps she had forgotten what it sounded like after all these years. It had been five years since that voice was the first thing she heard in the morning, five years since he had whispered her name against her hair and promised her that everything would be fine.

It hadn’t been.

She took the seat opposite him and smoothed her skirt. “Thank you for making time for me.”

“I didn’t.” An executive beside him shifted awkwardly, but Cassian didn’t look his way. “I was told this meeting couldn’t be rescheduled.”

Her smile remained polite. “That’s a very diplomatic way of saying you didn’t want to be here.”

“I don’t.”

She almost smiled wider. Good. Cassian was still as arrogant and difficult as she remembered, which made this easier. She crossed one leg over the other and opened the leather folder in front of her.

“Then let’s make this quick.”

Cassian studied her properly for the first time, his eyes moving over her face with the same careful assessment she remembered. He had always been good at judging people, usually before they had finished introducing themselves. Seraphina let him look. He saw a woman with sleek black hair falling past her shoulders, sharp makeup, a tailored cream suit, and a diamond watch. He saw Seraphina Voss, CEO of Voss Holdings, a woman who had spent the last three years turning a struggling company into one of the strongest names in the industry.

He saw exactly what she wanted him to see.

Nothing more.

His eyes returned to hers, and for the briefest moment, something changed in his expression. His eyes narrowed slightly before his face became unreadable again.

“Three hundred million is a considerable amount of money,” he said.

“So is the amount your empire stands to lose if you pass.”

“You’re asking Devereaux Holdings to partner with a competitor we’ve been trying to crush for the last two years.”

“I’m asking you to make a profitable decision. Leave the ego out of it.”

“And if I refuse?”

Seraphina closed the folder. “Then I’ll sign the deal with your biggest rival before the sun sets.”

The executives around the table shifted in their seats, but Cassian remained still. His expression gave nothing away, yet she knew him well enough to know that he hated being cornered, especially when the other person had the advantage.

Five years ago, she would have softened her approach. She would have smiled, tried to calm him down, and done whatever she could to keep the peace. That girl was dead.

She stood. “I’ll give you forty-eight hours.”

Cassian looked up at her. “You’re incredibly confident.”

“I usually am.”

“Why?”

She held his gaze. “Because I never make offers I can’t afford to lose.”

Something changed in his eyes again, a mixture of interest and annoyance that she knew better than to acknowledge.

“Forty-eight hours,” he repeated.

“Yes.”

She gathered her things and turned toward the heavy double doors.

“Ms. Voss.”

She stopped and turned around slowly. Cassian was still watching her, his expression impossible to read.

“Have we met before?”

For the first time since she entered the room, Seraphina’s composure slipped. Her gaze dropped instinctively to his left hand. It was bare. The wedding ring he had once sworn never to take off was gone, just like the woman she had been when he last saw her.

Her fingers tightened around the handle of her leather bag, but only for a moment.

“No.”

The lie came easily. Too easily.

Cassian’s eyes remained on her face. “I didn’t think so.”

“Then why ask?”

“I don’t know.”

The answer seemed to bother him more than it did her. He looked almost irritated with himself, as though he couldn’t explain why something about her felt familiar.

“Perhaps I simply have one of those faces.”

“No.”

His answer came immediately, and Seraphina waited for him to explain.

He didn’t.

Instead, his gaze dropped back to the contract. “Good afternoon, Ms. Voss.”

She looked at him for another moment, briefly remembering how it had once felt to run her fingers through his hair. The memory was unwelcome, but she pushed it aside.

“Good afternoon.”

She walked out of the room and kept going until the doors closed behind her. Only then did she allow herself to take a deeper breath.

She walked down the corridor without slowing, her heels striking the polished marble floor as she headed for the elevator. No one followed her, and no one called her name. No one had recognized her, which was exactly what she had wanted.

When she stepped into the elevator and pressed the lobby button, the doors closed, and her reflection appeared in the mirrored metal. Her black hair framed the face she had spent years changing, the sharp cheekbones and features that would have meant nothing to the man she had once married.

She touched her diamond earring and stared at herself for a moment.

Her hands were perfectly steady. They had been steady for years.

Her phone buzzed in her palm—an unknown number.

She answered as she stepped into the corner of the elevator. “Hello?”

“Did you see him?” the voice asked without preamble.

She recognized it immediately. “Yes.”

“And?”

Seraphina looked at her reflection again. “He didn’t recognize me. Not for a second.”

There was a pause. “Are you certain?”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

The elevator doors opened onto the busy ground floor, and she stepped into the lobby with her phone still in her hand. People moved around her without giving her a second glance. That was the point of becoming someone else. Nobody knew what to look for, and nobody knew what had been taken from her or what she had survived.

Seraphina walked through the revolving doors and into the afternoon sun.

Five years ago, Cassian’s betrayal had forced her to disappear without an explanation or goodbye. She had spent those years rebuilding her life, changing her face, her identity, and everything else that could have led him back to her. Now she was finally close enough to dismantle everything he had built.

Her phone buzzed again. It was a text from the same number.

How did it feel seeing him?

She stared at the words for a moment before deleting the thread.

The truth was too humiliating to type out.

Seeing Cassian hadn’t felt like a triumph. It had felt like seeing someone she had spent years trying to forget and realizing that some part of her still remembered him perfectly.

She hated him for that.

She hated herself even more for feeling it.

Across the street, a black sedan waited at the curb. Seraphina walked toward it, chin held high. She had spent five years planning this, and she knew exactly what she wanted: Cassian’s trust, Cassian’s love, and Cassian’s empire. When she was finished, he would finally understand what it felt like to lose everything.

She opened the car door, but before getting inside, she looked back at the glass tower. Somewhere on the top floor, Cassian Devereaux was probably still staring at her contract, wondering why a woman he had never met had left him with the strange feeling that he had seen her before.

He would dismiss it eventually. He had to.

Seraphina got into the backseat and pulled the door shut. Once she was alone, she finally allowed herself to say the name she had buried five years ago.

“Cassian.”