Chapter 1 Prologue

It was eight at night. The work was always busy at Richmond Industries. With the last document stapled Aliza releases a huge sigh and walks to the CEO's office with the file in her hand.

When she knocked at the entrance there came a deep voice from her boss "Come in". The room was eerily dark when she opened the door. Aliza looked around the place in a panic.

Suddenly there was a spark of light through a lighter followed by a puff of smoke from his lips. He had lit a cigarette. Aliza works as a secretary cum personal assistant to the notorious businessman, the most feared mafia leader, and underworld don Charles Rodriguez, the CEO of Richmond Industries.

"Aren't you paid well here Aliza?" His voice was smooth but she knew well the menace behind those effortless words. Aliza had been working for Charles Rodriguez for the last three years. Her feat trembled in fear analyzing his possible conclusion.

"Answer me damn it! Aren't you paid here well?" His voice echoed between the silent walls of the dark room in a deathly gear. Aliza jumped on her legs in fright and trembled in her speech. "Ye....yes sir."

"Then why did you sell our quotation of dock supplies to Reymond Industries?" Aliza went pale at the lethal intonation of her boss. She gulped heavily and told him in a shivering voice. "Sir, I....it wasn't me. I did not know...."

"Then what is this?" A bunch of papers made contact with her face flying in the air and the next second he was in front of her like a fiend filled with vengeance. Aliza felt she was going to lose her consciousness in pallid after assimilation of the pernicious aura of her deleterious boss.

"Stop the babbling nonsense." He yelled in her face. His features turned redder and his eyes dropped the wild tornadoes. A shiver ran down Aliza's spine drinking in the dangerous aura of her demon boss.

Blocking her windpipe he pushed her to the wall behind and held her throat so hard that she thought she was going to die. Her eyeballs went up, almost lost consciousness when he bent his head and spoke low in her ear gritting his teeth. "I DO NOT TOLERATE DISLOYALTY, MISS STELWART AND YOU JUST INVOKED THE SLEEPING MONSTER IN ME BY SHOWING YOUR UGLY NATURE."

Kissing her neck he inhaled her scent and released her with a jerk with an ache on his features. Aliza chokes on her breath looking at the devil in trepidation and shivers in her tone. "Please believe me, sir, I'm innocent." Charles looks down at the rise and fall of her pulsating chest. "NO MATTER WHAT I CANNOT STOP LOVING YOU AND I HATE MYSELF FOR THIS."

"Do not show me your face again ever in your life. You are dismissed from the job."

***

The temperature in California had dropped to a record low this year and the feeble clothes Aliza was putting on did little justice to her trembles accompanied by the heavy downpour. A sleek black Lamborghini Urus rushed through the gateway but Aliza stood rooted to her feet. It was a do-or-die situation for her.

Aliza felt humiliated and ashamed of her helplessness. Guarding her last ounce of courage she yelled out the passenger window at the back of the car. "Sir I am not disloyal, I did not commit the breach." The car shifted its path and went away from beside her at full speed splashing the muddy flashes of water on her already wet dress.

The next moment a white van stops a few feet away from beside her and two men in blue walk toward her. "You're under arrest Miss Aliza Stelwart for committing a breach of contract in divulging secret information about The Richmond Industries to foreign firms."

Handcuffs were attached to her wrists as she thought in distress. My life is destroyed and I am caught for the pilferage I shouldn't have done. But Alas it was too late for the culpable acceptance.