LOGIN{Vanessa’s POV} The studio buzzed with chaos—producers waving clipboards, assistants dragging cables across the floor, cameras being adjusted for the perfect angle. My apron was tied neatly, my script in hand, but my heart raced faster than the lights flickering overhead. “All right, Chef Vanessa ,” the director said, voice brisk. “We’ll start simple. Just focus on the dish, speak naturally, look up when we cue you. Don’t worry about the cameras. Ready?” I nodded, even though my palms were damp. This wasn’t my world. I wasn’t trained for flashing lights and booming commands. But I reminded myself why I was here—I earned this. I moved behind the counter, inhaled deeply, and began. “Food isn’t just what we eat,” I said, dicing vegetables with steady hands. “It’s who we are. At Marshall Foods International, we believe every meal tells a story—one that begins at home.” The crew nodded approvingly. The camera panned closer. Then suddenly— “The CEO is on his way!” a stage man
{Vanessa’s POV}I had known him all my life… or at least, I thought I did.We grew up on the same street where autumn leaves clung stubbornly to the sidewalks and children’s laughter carried through the air like background music. Our houses weren’t far apart—just a few doors, really—but somehow, he always felt distant.Our siblings played together sometimes, running wild between porches and driveways. Me? I was usually with his cousin Diane, giggling about nothing and everything, sharing secrets that weren’t really secrets. And whenever he walked past us—books tucked under his arm, headphones snug around his ears like they were part of him—I pretended not to notice. Pretended he was invisible. Pretended he didn’t make the air shift whenever he was near.That was him. Vincent. The boy I decided not to like. Too quiet. Too unreadable. Too… everything. The kind of boy a girl like me was supposed to ignore.But then his father died.That night the neighborhood shifted. Even the air seemed
{Vanessa’s POV} Ten years. That’s how long it had been since I last saw him. Ten years since his family packed up and left, their house swallowed by silence. Ten years since Vincent — the boy down the street who once sat broken on his porch — vanished without a goodbye. In those years, life dragged me along. Graduations came and went. I worked small jobs, nursed heartbreaks I pretended were bigger than they really were. And now, at twenty-eight, I was just another boutique attendant in the city, folding dresses I couldn’t afford, smiling at customers whose lives looked shinier than mine. I told myself I’d forgotten him. That I’d buried him in the past. That even if I remembered his face, it no longer had power over me. But then the bell above the boutique door rang, and I looked up. Vincent. My chest tightened, every inch of me going still. Not the boy I remembered — no. This man was different. Taller. Broader. A black suit fit him like it had been sewn onto his body.
{Vanessa’s POV}Life had a cruel sense of humor.One week, I was folding dresses for women who would never remember my name, smiling politely while they complained about sizes and colors as if I were invisible. The next, I was standing at the gates of a mansion so big it made me feel like I had shrunk to the size of an ant.The iron gates rose like something out of a fairy tale—or a nightmare. Beyond them stretched long manicured lawns, fountains that sparkled beneath the sun, and a house so wide and tall it looked like it had swallowed the sky.I didn’t know who owned it. I didn’t care. All I knew was that the pay was more than any boutique could ever offer, and I needed it. My younger sister’s hospital bills weren’t waiting for me to figure out pride. My other sister’s school fees loomed over me like a shadow I couldn’t outrun. And then there was my father—crippled, bitter, surviving only because I made sure there was food on the table.I couldn’t afford to turn down this opportunit
{Vanessa’s POV}The first time I saw her, I almost dropped the grocery bag in my hands.A sleek black Mercedes purred to a stop in front of the mansion gates, its tinted windows flashing against the afternoon sun like polished obsidian. The driver—tall, crisp in a tailored suit—was out in a heartbeat, circling the car with trained precision. He moved with the quiet obedience of someone who had practiced this routine a hundred times before.Then the back door opened.And out she stepped—like she had walked straight off the glossy pages of a fashion magazine and into my world.Lisa.Her presence hit like a slap. Her heels struck the marble driveway in sharp, precise clicks, each one echoing power and privilege. She didn’t just walk—she owned the ground beneath her. Her black dress clung to her figure as though it had been molded around her body, every seam sculpting confidence and entitlement. Around her wrist, a diamond bracelet caught the sunlight in cruel flashes, scattering pieces o
{Vincent’s POV}Power was addictive.It coursed through my veins every time I walked into a boardroom and watched men twice my age lower their voices when I spoke. Success had carved me into steel, and money had given me a throne. But none of it silenced the emptiness that followed me wherever I went.That morning, I sat at the head of a long glass table in my company’s headquarters, overlooking the skyline. The city pulsed below like a living thing, but all I cared about were the figures on the screen in front of me. Stocks, mergers, expansion. My world was numbers, and I bent them to my will.“Mr. Vincent, if we secure the partnership with the Westin Group, your hotel branch will double its international reach within a year,” one of the executives said nervously.I nodded, my eyes cutting into him. “I don’t chase partnerships. I command them. Arrange a meeting with their chairman. If they won’t bend to our terms, we’ll make them.”The man swallowed and nodded quickly. The meeting w







