Chapter 3 - "No Aliases, No Mercy"

Just as the sun started to peek through the heavy clouds over New York City, the private plane landed.

When the wheels hit the runway, Arabella didn't flinch. Besides her sat Sophie, now four, wearing a navy blue coat and holding a stuffed fox. Her curious eyes were wide.

"Did you once reside here?" Peeking through the window, Sophie asked.

Arabella gave a small smile. “Yes, Long ago”

Like a wise child who knows more than she should, Sophie nodded in agreement.

Silent as they disembarked ,No cameras, Not a crowd. Elle Laurent was an unknown name. Nobody was aware that the woman exiting the aircraft was the fugitive bride who had been featured in gossip columns.

A man wearing a grey coat, wire-frame glasses, and an iPad was standing at the bottom of the stairs.

He said, "Miss Laurent." Greetings from New York. The car is set up by me and the security detail is already in place, and your apartment has been prepared.

Arabella gave a nod. "Philip, thank you."

He gave Sophie a soft smile. "And you must be the boss."

With her face buried in her fox plush toy, Sophie laughed.

After lifting her daughter into her arms, Arabella followed Philip towards the sleek black car that was waiting at the curb.

She entered and gazed out the window with a heavy heart but not much had changed in the city,The same rush,The same icy chaos. She wasn't the girl clinging to fame or love though this time she was returning to this world on her own terms.

"Are we heading to your office right now?" Philip Asked from the passenger seat 

"No," Arabella said calmly. "We head to Madison Tower first."

Philip paused. "Are you sure?"

She gave him a direct look. Indeed. I'd like to see it for myself.

The car swerved through Manhattan, past honking taxis and glass towers, until it came to a building with a VALE TECH logo above the entrance and sharp steel lines.

Sophie's head was nestled under her mother's chin as she slept on her shoulder.

The driver parked close to the side door. Holding Sophie with practiced ease, Arabella left without waking her.

She cocked her head back and looked around the Ten floor structure.

They were all filled with departments she had studied and people she had hoped to work with. As a college girl, she recalled creating technology that she hoped Vale Tech would eventually purchase.

"This company becomes part of you when we get married," Roman had once said to her.

He was mistaken.

She was competition now.

Arabella looked over at Philip. "Let Leave now."

—

The first official press release appeared online the following morning.

ARA Systems Purchases Japanese Contracts from Rivals—Mysterious CEO Astonishes Industry

When his secretary knocked on the door, Roman Vale was already in his office.

He hardly raised his head. "What is it?"

"I believe you ought to see this, Mr. Vale."

She placed the iPad on his desk.

Roman's jaw tightened as he looked over the article. "ARA Systems?"

"On the Kyoto project, they undercut us."

He slowly leant back. "The negotiations for that deal were locked in."

Not enough, apparently. ARA made a more incisive offer , cleaner , Additionally, they made use of a system that Vale Tech was unaware of.

Roman gave his chin a contemplative rub. "Who is the CEO?"

"No public record. They are listed in Paris under a holding group and everything’s routed through Shell companies  But, She paused. "A picture is there."

Roman raised his head.

She swiped once more, and she was there. A woman exiting an aircraft. Hair in a sleek bun, with her face partially hidden by sunglasses.

He stopped.

The rest of the world fell silent.

"Enter a closer look."

She did.

Roman gazed.

He recognised those eyes, even behind the glasses. Years before, he had committed them to memory.

Since the day he left her at the altar, he had not seen that face.

"Arabella?"

As if a ghost had entered the room, he whispered her name.

Uncomfortable, his secretary took a step back. "Should I conduct some research?"

Roman remained silent. He gripped the edge of his desk tightly.

No, It was not possible.

Arabella was no longer there. She had allegedly gone on a private retreat, according to her family. For years, her phone was turned off, which made the press become disinterested.

She had faded into quiet shame, everyone thought.

Yet here she was on the first page.

She had returned with more power and obviously became wealthy.

Roman stood, twitching his fingers.

He said, "I need her address."

"Mister?"

"I would like to know where she is staying with whom she is collaborating”. He replied with his voice calmed. “Everything”.

Despite the calmness of his voice, there was a dark undercurrent of regret, bewilderment, and a fresh fear.

Because whatever Arabella had planned...

She didn't return to share memories.

—

That night, Arabella entered her new office, a private suite under the ARA Systems brand in a high-rise co-working building overlooking the Hudson River.

It was clean, simple, and packed with technology that she had assisted in designing.

With her legs crossed and her eyes wide with amazement at all the lights, Sophie sat on a tiny couch with picture books.

Philip entered carrying a laptop"Your calendar is prepared ,He said professional. " Do you want to go over the next meetings?".

She stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, the skyline laid out like a battlefield before her. Sunlight caught the edge of her sharp cheekbones, but her expression was unreadable,frozen and distant.

Her voice came quiet but firm, "Start with Vale Tech."

Philip blinked."Well?"

A pause.

A flicker of something cold moved across her face.

“Set up a pitch meeting” , "No aliases”. “No proxies”. I would like to enter their boardroom.

Philip blinked. "Are you certain that's smart?"

"Very."

He let out a breath. "They'll know who you are."

Slowly, Arabella turned. "That's the main idea."

Without another word, Philip opened his laptop.

"Have our lawyers draft a patent claim as well," she said, her tone cool and measured but too calm to be casual.

Then, without missing a beat. 

“Does Vale Tech use that software?”

 Philip glanced at the screen “The code I published three years ago is broken by it”.

Arabella nodded once.

“Their backend breaks it,” she said with her voice not trembling, but there was something taut beneath it. “Which means they’ve built over my code… and never looked twice.”

Philip hesitated, eyes narrowing. “You want to file a lawsuit against them?”

She turned toward him now, the corner of her mouth lifting but it wasn’t a smile

"No. she said softly “I want them to perspire”.

Just the word “perspire” landed like a strike. She didn’t want revenge served hot. She wanted them unsettled, sweating beneath their polished suits, wondering just how much she knew and what she might do next.

She then faced the window once more.

The city thrummed beneath her, alive with noise, traffic, ambition .none of which could reach her up here.

Above it all she is unreachable.

Roman had lost the girl he had left.

She was now the one who could take anything he created without ever having to speak.

—

Roman didn't get any rest.

He thoroughly examined every article, picture, and hint he could come across .ARA Systems was small, but dangerous. 

Their products were cleaner and sleeker

Everything looked smarter and ran smoother.They focused on automation

And now clients were leaving Vale Tech for them One by one and Quietly But fast.

He was unable to take his eyes off of that woman.

She was the one, Arabella but now distinct, colder, Sharper. As if the gentle fire he had known had been replaced by ice.

He kept searching for evidence that something had gone wrong.

Then, however, another picture appeared. A gala for charity. Sophie holds Arabella's hand as she exits a town car.

Roman's breathing abruptly stopped.

The kid had his eyes.

His eyes, exactly.

He let the tablet fall. The screen cracked as it clattered against the floor.

From outside, his secretary called, "Sir?"

Roman remained silent.

His chest heaved as he gazed at the ground.

His daughter.

He had a kid.

Arabella was pregnant because of him. She hadn't told him either she had given him a call.

She just vanished, but now she had returned with his child and a business that could ruin him.

He lowered his head into his hands.

She had more in mind than just winning.

Her purpose was to bury him.