SECRET BEHIND THE GLASS

💎 CHAPTER FIVE — SECRETS BEHIND THE GLASS

The elevator hummed softly as it descended, but the silence between them felt heavier than steel. Amara stood beside Dante, trying to steady her breathing, while he watched the glowing numbers count down with an unreadable expression.

They were going *below* the building.

Not up. Not to another office floor. But deep under the headquarters.

A place no normal assistant would ever need to go.

Her voice trembled despite her effort to control it. “Dante… where exactly are we going?”

His gaze remained forward. “To see the foundation of everything I run.”

“That sounds… ominous.”

He finally looked at her, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly. “Good. You’re learning.”

The elevator stopped with a soft chime. But the doors didn’t open immediately — instead, red scanners swept across Dante’s face, then Amara’s, making her flinch.

Only when the system confirmed him did the doors slide open.

And Amara froze.

### **The Hidden Floor**

What lay beyond was nothing like she expected.

No offices. No desks. No computers.

Instead, the hallway was lined with reinforced glass walls, each revealing a different high-tech room inside.

Men and women in tactical uniforms trained with weapons. Others studied maps marked with circles and coded signals. Screens flashed with surveillance footage from cities she didn’t recognize.

This wasn’t a company.

It was an operation.

Her throat tightened. “Dante… is this military?”

“No.”

“But it’s not normal.”

“No,” he agreed without hesitation. “This is my private intelligence network. We monitor threats, track movements, protect assets, and prevent attacks before they reach my door.”

She swallowed. “Is this about the attack yesterday?”

“Yes.”

“And the meeting?”

“Yes.”

“So… you’re saying you’re in danger all the time?”

His steps slowed ever so slightly. “Yes.”

Amara’s pulse quickened. She suddenly felt small — like she’d stepped into something far bigger than she could understand.

And then she whispered the question she feared most.

“Why did you hire *me*?”

Dante stopped walking.

He turned to face her fully.

“You think I chose you by accident?” His voice was low, deadly calm. “Nothing in my world happens by accident.”

She frowned. “But I’m nobody. I lost my job… I was desperate. Why me?”

He reached out and gently tapped her forehead. “Because you see things. You observe. You think even when you’re scared.”

She blinked. “How would you know that? You barely knew me.”

“I saw enough.”

Before she could ask what he meant, he turned and continued walking, forcing her to follow.

### **The Files They Shouldn’t See**

They entered a large room filled with transparent screens and glowing blue projections. Engineers and analysts worked silently, focused on encrypted data.

Dante walked to a central table where holographic files hovered in midair.

He waved his hand, and a document expanded to full size.

Amara covered her mouth.

It was a dossier.

Her dossier.

A picture of her. Her address. Her school records. Her job history. And even more unsettling… details she’d never told anyone, not even her mother.

Her childhood hospital records. Her psychological assessment from her job application. Her bank account balance — the embarrassing, nearly empty one.

“Dante!” She gasped. “Why do you have all this?”

He didn’t look away from the file. “Because I don’t let anyone into my life without understanding exactly who they are.”

“That’s invasive.”

“That’s necessary.”

Her voice trembled. “Did you… did you investigate me *before* we met? Or after?”

He finally turned to her.

“Before.”

Her breath caught.

Before the SUV incident. Before he pulled her into his car. Before she even walked past his building that morning.

He already knew her.

She didn’t know whether to be terrified… or something else she didn’t want to name.

“Why?” she whispered.

Dante stepped closer, his eyes fixed on hers.

“Because you crossed into my territory two weeks ago.”

“I— what?”

“You passed the perimeter of a surveillance zone,” he said. “You didn’t know it, of course. Most people don’t. But you walked into a restricted area, and the system flagged you.”

She blinked rapidly. “I was just walking home from work—”

“Yes,” he said. “And you stopped in front of the building. You stared at it for three minutes.”

She flushed. She did remember that day — she was exhausted, her feet hurt, and she had paused to admire the massive structure because she’d never seen something so expensive-looking.

“That was enough,” Dante murmured.

“Enough for what?”

“To make the system notice you. To make *me* notice you.”

Her heart thudded painfully. “So all this is because I stood in front of your building?”

“No,” he said softly. “All this is because, out of thousands of people, you were the only one who looked at the building like it meant something.”

Her lips parted. “I don’t understand.”

Dante leaned in slightly, his voice barely above a whisper.

“You’re not ordinary, Amara.”

She stepped back, overwhelmed. “You don’t even know me.”

“I know enough.”

### **The Unspoken Truth**

Dante closed the file with a swipe, and the hologram dissolved.

“You needed to know,” he said. “If you are going to work with me — if you are going to stay close — you have to understand the risks.”

“And what risks are those?” she asked softly.

He turned away, staring at the massive digital map on the wall — a map showing red markers blinking across multiple countries.

“There are people who want to destroy everything I’ve built. People who don’t fight in boardrooms — they use bullets.”

“So they want to kill you.”

“Yes.”

“And you brought *me* here?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Dante exhaled, and for once, he looked troubled — a crack in his perfect control.

“Because they think you matter to me.”

Her heart twisted painfully. “But I don’t.”

He turned sharply.

His eyes held something raw. Something he hid from the world.

“Amara… they think you matter to me because—”

Suddenly alarms blared.

Red lights flashed through the entire underground lab.

Analysts jumped to their feet.

A guard ran toward Dante. “Sir! We have a breach at the east exit. Someone tried to force the secondary gate.”

Dante’s expression hardened instantly. The softness vanished like it never existed.

He became someone else — colder, sharper, lethal.

He grabbed Amara’s hand.

“Stay with me. Don’t let go.”

Her heart pounded as he pulled her through the chaos.

“Dante!” she shouted. “What’s happening?”

He didn’t look back.

“Someone found out about you.”

Her blood turned to ice.

“Someone?”

“Yes.”

He squeezed her hand harder.

“They’re coming for you.”