The Dark Secret of the CEO by Sofia de Orellana

He remains quiet for a long while, simply staring at me. As always, his thoughts remain a complete mystery to me behind those icy eyes of his. I can barely keep looking him in the eye, and I’m well aware that’s only because he tolerates it. I can feel the stares of the others, Benedict and Swithin behind me, Cata and Bart on the doorstep.

“…Alright.”

Alright? That’s it? I don’t know what I expected, but certainly not for him to agree to my madness so casually. I feel like a child with her parent agreeing to her tantrum. As usual, he’s not displaying any emotion that could cue me in either. I exchange a quick glance with Bart and Cata behind him, but they seem just as confused.Daily Latest update www.noveljar.com

“You can get your revenge,” he resumes. “I have no compassion for those who harmed my daughter. My only request is that you do not go back overseas.”

I can’t fly back to the US? How am I supposed to rip that bastard’s throat out with my bare hands then? I want to protest, but before I open my mouth, Swithin subtly clears his throat.

“If you do want to investigate this,” he says. “You will need to do it under your new identity, Hera Heartgraves. No one can know what you are, of course, nor that you once were June Starr. I’m already working on building your new identity, you will have all your papers ready within the week. The essential ones, I mean.”

“You mean official documents?”

“Of course. Passport, birth certificate and so on. It’s our usual procedure. If you’re going to live as Hera Heartgraves, especially in this day and age and if you’re planning to go after your ex, you’ll need to have a rock-solid new identity. I can provide anything else you’ll need if you let me know.”Daily Latest update www.noveljar.com

Wow, they can even give me fake identity papers? Or are they real ones, somehow? I can’t imagine that vampires get arrested while traveling for possessing fake papers, so I do want to believe him on the rock-solid part…

“She still can’t just go ahead like that,” frowns Bart. “We just saw the bastard’s still in the US, and Hera can’t go. How do we get to him, then?”

A smirk appears on Swithin’s lips.

“Her non-existent will. Technically, June Starr is a British citizen, she was born on this continent. I can pull a few strings and make sure they think she had more assets here. If he’s in this for the money, it should be enough to have him come here and see what’s to win. Since she didn’t leave a will, and she was quite wealthy, her inheritance will take a little while for the lawyers and all to get it sorted anyway.”

“So we can lure him with the money, then what?” Frowns Bart. “Hera, what’s your goal?”

My goal?

I take a second to think about it. If they do manage to bring Charles here, what could I do? Of course, there’s the easy solution. Isolate him in some deserted alley, and rip him apart. For sure, that would bring me some satisfaction. Just thinking about it, my thirst for blood sparks up like a flame in the dark. However, it would be far too easy, far too lenient for that bastard. I want to make him pay for all of it. Just a second of pain before a quick death will not make up for the weeks, the months of torture he put me through. I want more.

So, what would hurt him like he hurt me? I don’t care about that chick he brought with him to my funeral. Even if he slept around with her, he probably doesn’t care anymore about her than he did about me anyway. That’s of no good to me…

“…Let’s start with his company,” I mutter.Daily Latest update www.noveljar.com

“His company?” Benedict frowns.

I nod.

“Charles’ very proud of it. He came from a humble background, and he worked hard until he became his own CEO. He never fails to mention how working hard under my father was such a huge opportunity for him, but now he’s branched out and he owns a wealthy enterprise.”

the tablet from Swithin’s hands to pull up a quick search. After a few seconds,

If he started like you said he did, he got surprisingly

successful, even,” I nod. “He convinced me to break my contract with my former agency, and opened his

represent all sorts of celebrities. Actors, Models, Athletes, Musicians and Singers, Entertainers, all sorts of them. He used your and your father’s name to

know,” I sigh. “I hate to admit it now, but I helped him promote his agency when he launched it. My…

company and your father’s name, it’s easy to get rid of pretty much any small upcoming rival… How do you want to

if I’m going to do this, I want to do it myself. I don’t want to use Richard’s money, or my other new vampire siblings to

want to uncover all of his misdeeds. I’m sure there’s a lot more, my death is only the tip of the iceberg. I had… heard things, while I was still under his agency. He kept a lot from me but I know there were some things going on that just can’t be normal. I want to expose him. If we just try to crush him from the outside, he’ll put on a show again and just start over. I want to dig up every single bit

unaware of all that was going on,

a handful of actors to represent, and none of them more successful than June was. His company grew really fast, even while receiving some external support,

Father?”

“Who knows?”

never cared enough that I would be bothered to spare him. Even if his empire crumbled tomorrow, I

visibly worried for me. “…What if you’re wrong about your fiancé? What if this is all a mistake, he wasn’t the

left. I try to replay the scenes in my mind, but the more I think about it, the more obvious it is to me that

takes out a different phone from the one he’s

remember

him. We all wait while Swithin dials

voice answers

at me, basically to get

polite voice. “May

would be me.

First, on behalf of my associate and myself, we’d like to give you our deepest condolences, Sir. We were actually looking to get in touch with her next of kin regarding an asset of hers that was left under our supervision, but an associate of her Father’s suggested we reach out to you first, as Mr. Starr is

immediately. “We have withheld the information from the general public, but I need to inform you that uh, June and I were actually married. That’s probably why her f- I mean, my Father-in-law’s secretary redirected you to me.

so confidently claim we were married to a perfect stranger! That fucker! There’s no

then I’m even more sorry for your loss, Sir,” says Swithin, his voice perfectly hiding

indeed…” Sighs Charles, as if just remembering he’s supposed to act sad. “There’s uh… Quite a lot going on now, so may I ask what is

fian-

June did? …Are

Sir. Our records show she bought this property a while ago, but since she hadn’t come to England in a long while, it was left for us

Oh, he meant when could I have purchased an apartment here without Charles

“…In 2015, Sir.”

Charles mutters,

my first on-screen success. I had received quite a lot of money from the movie’s success, and I had just reached an age where I could have

the flat be rented while she wasn’t using it, but a recent audit has shown that the value of the property has risen quite significantly amongst the London Market. I was very saddened to hear of Miss Starr’s passing while trying to reach