Chapter 2

Hazel’s POV

The bright white lights hurt my eyes. I squeezed them shut twice before I could open them properly. Everything felt fuzzy at first. My head throbbed, and my body ached like I had been in a fight. When my vision cleared, I saw him.

The man who saved me was still in the room.

He sat perfectly still in a chair beside my bed, holding a file in his hands. His face was cold and handsome, like it was carved from stone. A woman in a nurse’s uniform stood quietly near the door. Behind him, another man — probably his assistant — waited without moving.

I slowly pushed myself up and sat properly on the hospital bed. The sheets were soft and clean. Machines beeped softly beside me. I was really in a hospital.

My eyes went back to the man. Blood stains marked his expensive white shirt — my blood. He must have carried me here.

“Thank you so much, sir,” I said, my voice weak but sincere. “You saved my life. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been there. I promise I will save up money and pay you back every single cent for the hospital bill. I swear.”

He said nothing.

I thought maybe he didn’t hear me, so I repeated softly, “I really mean it. I will pay you back.”

Still nothing. He just looked at me with those icy gray eyes. Then the corner of his mouth twitched — almost like he found it funny. But his face stayed cold.

He opened the file and started reading quietly.

I waited, feeling nervous. Who was this man? Why did he help me?

As he read, I watched his expression. It didn’t change much, but I saw his eyes move across the pages. The file had everything about me. My real name — Hazel Lett. How my biological parents dumped me as a baby because I was always sick and they couldn’t afford the hospital bills. How an old woman found me and raised me like her own grandchild until she died two years ago. Now I was completely alone with a mountain of debts — medical bills from my childhood illnesses, student loans, rent, and money I borrowed just to survive.

It said I went to a small community high school and then community college. I was always at the top of my class, but the other students bullied me because I was poor and had no family. I worked four part-time jobs every day — waitress, cleaner, data entry, and sometimes night shifts at a convenience store. I was twenty years old now, still struggling to breathe under all the debt.

Cassian read every line without saying a word.

When he finally closed the file and looked straight at me, I froze.

Something about his face… those steel-gray eyes… the sharp jaw… it hit me like ice water.

I had seen pictures of him before. Everyone in the city knew that face.

My heart started beating so fast I thought it would explode. My hands began to shake.

With a small, trembling voice I asked, “Who… who are you, sir?”

He didn’t hide it. His voice was deep and calm, like he was stating a simple fact.

“I am Cassian Hale. CEO of Hale Dynamics, the AI and tech conglomerate.”

The name hit me like a slap.

Cassian Hale.

The Ice King of Germany.

The richest and most ruthless man in the business world. The man my mother — Marie — had told me about in whispers filled with pure hate for twenty years. The man who destroyed her life when she was only sixteen.

I jumped out of the bed so fast that the IV line in my arm tore out. Pain shot through my hand, but I didn’t care. Blood dripped from the needle site onto the white floor.

I fell to my knees in front of him and bowed my head low, my whole body trembling badly.

“Please spare me!” I begged, my voice cracking. “I didn’t know it was you, Mr. Hale. I swear I didn’t know! Please… I’m so sorry for troubling you. Please don’t hurt me. I’ll disappear. I won’t tell anyone. Just please let me go.”

Tears ran down my cheeks. My shoulders shook so hard I could barely stay upright.

Cassian looked surprised for a second. Even he seemed at a loss for words. The cold mask on his face cracked just a little.

He stood up slowly and stepped closer. “You don’t need to do that. Get up.”

But I stayed on the floor, still bowing. “I really didn’t know… I’m just a nobody. Please forgive me for wasting your time.”

He sighed softly — the first real sound of emotion I had heard from him. Then he bent down, slid one arm under my knees and the other behind my back, and lifted me gently like I was made of glass.

“Stop shaking,” he said quietly. “You’re hurt. Focus on recovering. Don’t worry about anything else right now.”

He placed me back on the hospital bed carefully and pulled the blanket over me. His touch was surprisingly gentle for someone with such a cold reputation. He even took a clean cloth from the side table and pressed it lightly against the bleeding spot on my hand until the nurse came over to fix the IV.

“I’ll have the doctor check on you again,” he said. Then he turned to his assistant. “Victor, let’s go.”

As soon as the door closed behind them, everything changed.

The innocent, scared, trembling girl disappeared in an instant.

I sat up straight in the bed. The tears dried up. My face became calm — cold even. The soft, fragile look I had worn vanished completely. My eyes sharpened, and a small, bitter smile touched my lips.

So this was him.

Cassian Hale.

The monster who raped my mother, posted the video that destroyed her family, and drove her to attempt suicide. The man who left her crippled, scarred, and broken for life. The man she had raised me to hate with every breath.

And now… he had saved me.

Life really had a cruel sense of humor.

I looked at the blood stains on the chair where he had been sitting. My blood on the Ice King’s shirt. How perfect.

I leaned back against the pillows and stared at the ceiling. My mind was racing.

He felt sorry for me. I could see it in the way he carried me, in the way he told me not to worry. The great Cassian Hale, who hated bullying because of his dead sister, had shown a tiny crack of pity.

Good.

That pity was exactly what I needed.

I would use my pitiful life — the debts, the orphan story, the fragile girl act — to enter his world. Slowly. Carefully.

I would get close to him. Make him trust me. Make him want me.

Then I would destroy everything he loved.

His wife, Hanna. His friends Darren and Hans. His perfect empire.

Just like he destroyed my mother twenty years ago.

Marie had prepared me for this moment since I was a child. She told me the whole story again and again while sitting in her wheelchair, her scarred face hidden behind a veil. She had lost her legs and her beauty because of him. She had lost her parents. She had lost everything.

And now it was my turn to make him pay.

I touched the bandage on my head and smiled softly to myself.

“Thank you for saving me, Mr. Hale,” I whispered to the empty room. “You have no idea what you just brought into your life.”