SECOND LIFE: CEO's shadow

tiful. That should hav

up here, forty stories high, the cars looked like tiny glowing bugs and the people didn't exist at all.

e faint, muffled thrum of the orchestra playing a waltz. They were all there for me, drinking my father's vi

een stone that felt heavy and cold against my skin. My father gave it to me before he pas

my birthd

perfectly pushed back, and his blue eyes seemed to sparkle under the moonlight. I loved him so much it hurt. I had spent

ward him. "I thought you were going

was smooth, but there was a strange edge to it. He didn't reach out t

hat do you m

silk dress. It was Sienna. My best friend. My assistant. The girl I had treated like a sis

hrough his. She didn't look like a friend anymore. She looked like a predator who had finally cornered

sound. "Sienna, stop. That's not funn

. "She isn't lying, Clara. Those 'charity' papers you signed this morning? They weren't for a hospital. They w

felt like it was cutting through my skin. "But... I trusted

ike Marcus could ever be satisfied with a girl as boring as you? You're soft, Clara. You're weak. You spen

d since the month you hired me. Every time you thought he was working late at the office? He was

es stinging with tears. "

h, looking bored. "What matters is that the Vane family line ends tonight. If you stay al

, backing away. My heels clicked a

goodbye,"

e didn't want the blood on his

put her hands on my shoulders. I saw the moonlight hi

next life, Cla

she

the solid ground. My stomach dropped into my throat. I reached out, m

ching me fall like I was nothing more than a piece of trash they had thrown

ng by-floor after floor of the building my father had built. I thought of my dad. I thought of how

promise. If I could go back, I thought, the air screaming in my ears, I would burn

s a sound like

I felt like I was being crushed, like every bone in my body was turning

I felt s

f blood or the cold wind of the roof. It was t

something soft. My lungs burned as I took in a sharp, gasping breath. I choked

as warm. My n

ay? You look like you'r

to the chest. It was a voice from the

ed my e

en booth at a small cafe called The Golden Bean. I knew this p

he table. Marcus

expensive watch or the designer suit yet. He was wearing a chea

was inside it. It was the Seed Capital Agreement. This was the day he asked me

feel it in my teeth. I wasn't dead.

arcus asked, reaching acros

as I fell was still there, bubbling under my skin like lava. I looked at him-reall

d. My voice was rasp

ed to sign away my life. I picked it up, feeling the weight of it in my

d I thought it might snap. I looked Marcus Reed dead in th

ing this, Mar

d this time, I was the o