Page 3 of Darkest Deception

Unease and a sick need to throttle him fill me. Rage burns through my veins. Power oozes from him; though he doesn’t look like he should be here in this office. He’s not refined enough, and there is something deadly about him. I feel certain that if I were to ever cross him, the consequences would be me losing everything.

“Watch that attitude of yours. The mercy I am showing you could easily be retracted. You wouldn’t want to displease your employer now, would you?”

Everything around me stops as I try to wrap my head around this information. Everything is slowly slipping out of my grasp.

“Pick up the papers, and you will realise what you just lost.” he continues.

The office starts to spin, and a faint headache flares to life behind my eyes.

“As of two days ago, I am the new Chief Executive Officer of Glamorous Magazine, and you have been fired. Effective immediately.”

My eyes flick to the papers at my feet. There’s a picture and a headline on one of them. I bend down to grab that one. The man before me stands next to my sister’s husband at a press conference I wasn’t invited to. The headline announces him as the new CEO, placed in that position by Remo Cainn.

Helia Nashwood. The new face of Glamorous.

A line of text catches my attention. The stock price of the magazine is now expected to rise.

In the picture, he actually looks part of this charade he is putting on. He looks like he fits in, with his black suit and eyes that showcase dreams of making this company reach new heights.

Red fills my vision. This whole thing was done by Remo Cainn and this man, Helia Nashwood, behind my back. I don’t know what their agenda is, but I will figure it out. How dare he steal what is rightfully mine?

I take a deep breath.

“Is this some sick joke?” I walk over to the desk and slam the papers with his face on it on the shining surface.

When my eyes connect with his, it’s a declaration of war. A war of leaders fighting with their full power, trying to kill each other.

“I do like to think I am funny, but in this case, I haven’t thrown out a joke yet.”

I grit my teeth. He wants me to fight, and he wants to decimate me. He wants to see me lose. I can see it in the fierceness behind those eyes.

“I don’t even know you, but you think I will succumb to your little threats?” I grit out, my hands turning clammy.

He clicks his tongue as he looks to the side, the tendons in his neck throbbing. My eyes trace the line of this throat, then catch on a tattoo that peeks out from under his black dress shirt. I clench my jaw and force myself to ignore any hint of curiosity about the tattoo. I need to focus on the task at hand. I will not back away from him.

“You will quickly realise just how much of a mistake you are making by not walking away. I know how to bring people like you to their breaking point, and I’ve just happened to find myself a new little target. A fierce one with a pretty face and an ugly personality.”

My hands tighten into fists. I want to scream in his face, but I am not that stupid. I can admit just how easily he snatched all my power from me.

I am intelligent enough to know just how hard it will be to fight Helia Nashwood.

The devil with emerald eyes.

2

“I’m sorry, but the legal papers have been signed by both parties. There is nothing we can do.”

My lawyer looks down at his hands, trying to avoid eye contact with me. That is what everyone does. They never look me in the eye, but soon I will lose even that power I have over people.

“Fuck!” I swipe my arm across the table, grab the pencil holder, and throw it across the room. Papers fly everywhere. I really am losing everything.

It’s been close to a week, and I have been in meeting after meeting. Not a single person is ready or willing to help me get back what is rightfully mine. I wish I could say owning a significant number of shares in my company means something, but the reality is that the contract my father signed to hand the company over to Helia Nashwood is real. He actually signed it. The lawyer showed me the document just now, and it’s not a forged document. And that means Helia is now the owner of the shares my father once held. His shares are greater than mine.

Helia has shaken the very ground I stood on. The one thing that I was hoping could keep me sane, the one thing that belonged to me, has been snatched out of my hands and given to a devil whose eyes I am starting to hate.

Sharp eyes filled with poison. He looks like he wants to consume my world, leaving me standing in nothing but ashes of what I had. The scar running down his eye only lends credence to his look. He evokes fear in me, but I will never admit that out loud.

I was the finance manager before Dad died, before the announcement of the new CEO, but now I am uncertain about everything. It’s not that I missed going to such an important meeting; it’s that I was never told, not invited, when all active board members should have been there.

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