LOGINThat night, drunk and heartbroken after her fiancé’s betrayal, Celeste accidentally sent her masturbation video to her boss, Lazarrus Walkez V, the ruthless billionaire who lives in permanent numbness. The next morning, a single text arrived, “Come to my office, Little doe.” From that moment…he offered her a dirty deal, and she became the only one who could awaken the monster that had been dead inside him. Revenge turned into obsession. Obsession turned into love.
View MoreLAZARUS The boardroom was silent. Fifteen men and women sat around the long mahogany table, their eyes fixed on me. The quarterly reports were spread across the polished surface. Projections. Acquisitions. The usual noise that filled my days before Celeste. I was barely listening. My phone buzzed in my jacket pocket. I ignored it. The meeting was important. A merger worth three hundred million. Every person in this room was counting on me to make the final decision. It buzzed again. Then again. Something cold settled in my chest. "Excuse me," I said, standing. The executives exchanged glances. I never took calls during meetings. Never. I stepped into the hallway and pressed the phone to my ear. "Report." Davis's voice was strained. Almost panicked. I had never heard him panic before. "Sir. Miss Celeste. She's gone." The world narrowed. "What do you mean, gone?" "We were at the plaza. She was shopping. A van pulled up. Five men, maybe six. They took her. Marcus is down.
CELESTE "Fuck you!" I screamed to his face. He looked happy. The warehouse smelled of rust and decay. They had dragged me inside after the van stopped. Rough hands on my arms, my shoulders, my hair. I stumbled on the uneven concrete floor, my bound ankles making it impossible to walk. So they carried me. Like I was nothing. Like I was garbage. They threw me onto a wooden chair. The legs scraped against the floor, a sound that echoed off the high ceiling and the corrugated metal walls. I looked around. The space was enormous. Abandoned. Broken windows lined the upper walls, letting in slivers of moonlight that cut across the darkness like knives. Old machinery loomed in the corners, rusted and forgotten. The air was cold and damp and smelled of mold. And in front of me, leaning against a metal table with his arms crossed, stood Leon. He was smiling. Not the sad, broken smile from the café. Not the desperate, crying expression I had seen when he confessed about Sarah
CELESTE The afternoon sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows across the pavement. I stepped out of the boutique with three shopping bags hanging from my arms. The silk scarves inside were for my mother. The leather journal was for Lily, who had started writing again. The small velvet box contained a pair of sapphire earrings I had bought for myself, because Lazarus had looked at me that morning and said, "Buy something that makes you happy. Not for me. For you." So I had. The security guards, Marcus and Davis, followed at a respectful distance. They had been trailing me all week. Ever since the gala. Ever since Leon showed up at the mansion gates, drunk and shouting, demanding to see me. Lazarus had handled it. He always handled everything. But he had also doubled the security detail and told me never to leave the mansion alone. I didn't argue. After what happened at the gala, after Leon's hands on my wrist, I didn't want to be alone. But today, walking through the
CELESTEThe next morning, Anne was back.I was in the garden again, because I refused to hide in my room like a frightened animal. I was pruning roses—badly, with clumsy hands and a pair of garden shears that were probably worth more than my old car."You're still here," Anne said.I didn't turn around. "So are you."She walked around the rose bush until she was standing in front of me. Today she wore pale pink, a soft color that made her look innocent. I knew better now."I spoke to Lazarus last night," she said.I kept pruning. "Good for you.""He told me to leave. He said there was nothing between us anymore."I looked up then. "Then why are you here?"Anne's composure cracked. Just a little. I saw something raw in her eyes—anger, maybe, or grief."Because I don't believe him," she said. "The Lazarus I knew would never have chosen someone like you over someone like me.""Someone like me?""You know what I mean." She gestured at me, at my simple clothes, my unmanicured hands, my hai
CELESTEProperty? I was shocked, my breath stopped. Property was like an object. Like something he owned completely. I opened my mouth to ask, but before the words came out, my phone vibrated hard in my bag. I glanced at the screen. The debt collector again. The same number that threatened to sei
CELESTE Well, I had no other choice, so I went back to him. I stood in front of the door to Lazarrus’s private office on the top floor of Walkez Tower. The clock showed seven in the evening. The office building was almost empty, and the corridor lights were only half on. I took a deep breath, the
CELESTEI swallowed hard.My voice came out small, almost a whisper. "What kind of dirty deal, Sir?"He did not answer right away. Instead, he gave a thin smile, the kind that made my stomach twist. His eyes looked at me for a long time, from head to toe, as if he was judging every inch of my body.
LAZARRUS I sat in my black leather chair behind the large ebony wood desk. I stared at my phone screen, which still showed the message I had just sent. "Come to my office, Little Doe." I read the sentence again. Then I opened the employee profile linked to that phone number. Her name was Celest












Welcome to GoodNovel world of fiction. If you like this novel, or you are an idealist hoping to explore a perfect world, and also want to become an original novel author online to increase income, you can join our family to read or create various types of books, such as romance novel, epic reading, werewolf novel, fantasy novel, history novel and so on. If you are a reader, high quality novels can be selected here. If you are an author, you can obtain more inspiration from others to create more brilliant works, what's more, your works on our platform will catch more attention and win more admiration from readers.