The dim glow of the laptop screen painted Amara's face in stark relief. Her fingers, still trembling from the shock of her rebirth, flew across the keyboard. The old files. Her father's last, desperate communications. Every word was a knife, twisting in a wound that had never truly healed.
Unseen forces. Irregularities. Arthur Thorne.
The name had jolted her. Arthur Thorne. Lucien Kane's direct adversary, the man gunning for his empire. In her past life, she'd dismissed him as another wealthy figurehead, a corporate rival only relevant to the elite. Now, she saw the chilling connections.
She scrolled through cryptic emails, scanned old news articles. The Sterling Group. They weren't just a financial entity; they were a web. A network of influences stretching into every major industry. Their investments often seemed to target companies already in distress, absorbing them, leaving nothing but dust. Her family's tech startup, once a beacon of innovation, had been their next meal.
They didn't just destroy us. They devoured us whole.
Victoria Thorne. The woman who had offered comfort, feigning concern as her father's health declined. Amara remembered her endless questions, her quiet observations. She wasn't just a mentor. She was a spy. A predator in disguise. Victoria had been the one to insist on the merger talks with Julian Vance's company, assuring Amara's father it was their only salvation. A lie. A calculated trap.
Amara's jaw tightened. She opened a new browser tab, typing in Lucien Kane's name. Images of him flashed across the screen: sharp suits, piercing eyes, a perpetual frown etched into his formidable face. Billionaire CEO. Ruthless. Unapproachable. Exactly what I need.
She knew about the succession clause from scattered society gossip in her original timeline. Old money families and their convoluted rules. His grandfather, Elias Kane, a titan in his own right, had been obsessed with lineage and control. The clause stipulated Lucien needed a wife by his thirtieth birthday to secure his full inheritance and prevent a hostile takeover by a specific faction of the board, led by Arthur Thorne. His thirtieth birthday was just six months away.
A perfect storm. My desperation. His obligation.
Amara began to piece together a strategy. She couldn't approach Lucien as the broken, grieving woman she had been. She needed to be an asset. Someone he couldn't dismiss. She needed to prove she understood the intricate, cutthroat world of corporate warfare. Her father's old research, dismissed as paranoia in her first life, now felt like a treasure map.
She clicked through dozens of legal documents, tracing the paper trail of the Sterling Group's acquisitions. Their methods were consistent: destabilize, acquire, strip. They targeted companies with valuable intellectual property or land holdings, discreetly draining their resources before the public caught on.
They were systematic. Patient. And they never left witnesses.
A shiver ran down her spine. If they could orchestrate her death and make it look like an accident, they were truly formidable. Elias Sterling wasn't just a businessman; he was a master puppeteer. Victoria Thorne was his most cunning marionette.
Amara spent the rest of the day hunched over her laptop, fueled by cold coffee and a burning vengeance. She analyzed financial reports, cross-referenced board members, and traced shell corporations. The more she dug, the clearer the picture became. The Sterling Group had been actively undermining her family's company for years, setting the stage for the final takeover. Julian Vance and his father were merely the final, public face of the acquisition.
They wanted everything. And they almost got it.
Her mind raced, connecting the dots. If Arthur Thorne, Lucien's rival, was also involved with the Sterling Group, then Lucien himself might be unknowingly caught in their broader scheme. It made sense. The Sterlings preferred to work in the shadows, using proxies and leveraging existing power struggles.
She found an old, grainy photo online: Elias Sterling shaking hands with Arthur Thorne at a charity gala, years ago. A seemingly innocuous image. But Amara knew better. Nothing about Elias Sterling was innocuous.
The sun began to set, casting long shadows across her room. Her eyes burned, but she couldn't stop. She needed to know everything. Every weakness. Every connection. She was building her arsenal. Knowledge was her new weapon.
She had to position herself. To become indispensable. How does one, a year out of the corporate world, gain the attention of a man like Lucien Kane? Especially one who thought he had everything under control? She needed a way in. A direct line.
Then it hit her. The old internship program. Kane Industries had a highly exclusive summer program for aspiring business minds, fiercely competitive, almost impossible to get into. In her past life, she'd been too busy with her father's ailing company to even consider it. But this time...
This time, it was her only way in.
She opened a fresh document, her fingers flying over the keyboard, drafting an application that would grab attention, an application that would hide her burning vengeance behind a façade of ambition. She would present herself as a prodigy, hungry for experience, eager to learn from the best. But her true purpose would be to get close to the man who could be her greatest ally, or her greatest obstacle.
She paused, staring at the blank line for the desired department. She knew Lucien Kane was a workaholic, rarely leaving his towering office in the Kane Industries skyscraper. If she wanted to reach him, she had to be there. In his orbit.
Her gaze hardened, a glint of dangerous determination in her eyes. The Executive Office. That was where she needed to be. Right under his nose. The thought sent a jolt of exhilaration through her. It was audacious. Reckless, even. But this time, Amara wasn't playing by their rules. She was rewriting them.