Alina stepped out of the elevator, the soft ding echoing across the polished hallway of Arden Entertainment's seventh floor. Her dusty-blue blouse, smooth and almost cloud-like with its wide bishop sleeves, moved with her like a quiet ripple. Paired with her sharp black high-waisted trousers and a delicate gold necklace resting at her collarbone, she looked calm… poised… and dangerously composed.
But beneath that calm, she wasn't a Barista today. She had come here with a purpose. And she wasn't alone in it. There was someone else involved in the plan; Who can it be except... Ryan Bennett
Something was going on between her and Ryan, something preplanned, something stitched together in a hurried late-night phone call. Secret stitched together in whispers. Something quiet, dangerous, and sharp enough to change the course of everything. They had shared details no one else could ever know, a plan that lived only between two breaths, two minds, two people who understood that what they were doing stood against Kai in ways he would never see coming. And once it began, there was no turning back...something she couldn't do alone. Ryan had agreed to help her with her plan. No one needed to know the details.
Alina moved through the seventh floor with practised ease, greeting familiar faces, her old colleagues, one by one. They were warm, excited, and surprised, even. She had once worked here during a large exhibition as a coordinator, running around these same halls with schedules, lists, and a walkie-talkie in hand.
Now, meeting them again gave her the perfect reason to be here, a believable excuse. Because the real reason she stood on this floor was something she would never admit out loud.
This wasn't a simple reunion. This was groundwork. Her eyes were waiting for something, watching towards the particular space, and waiting for the perfect timing. Her eyes kept drifting always, inevitably toward Kai's office door.
She chatted with her old team, smiled at their jokes, nodded along as they talked about the exhibition days… but her senses were somewhere else entirely. Every sound. Every movement. Every breath outside that office door.
She was waiting...Waiting for the exact moment....Waiting for the next step of the plan she and Ryan had silently discussed. And then finally the door opened. Ryan stepped out. His eyes collided with hers.
And in that instant, everything that they had planned came to their minds as they needed to execute the plan. Everything was going smoothly till now, as they planned, now it's showtime.
He stopped at the office door of Kai. Both of them were looking at each other. There was no need for words as the air between them said everything. Ryan knew why she was here. She knew what he had to do next. And they both knew that the truth they were chasing was close… too close.
They both didn't utter any words to each other. Ryan just gave a slight nod, basically giving a signal to Alina to take the next step as per the plan. The entire seventh floor seemed to freeze around them, holding its breath. Because the next few seconds…would change everything.
Kai's office looked like a world carved out of power itself. A 270-degree glass wall wrapped around the space, giving a breathtaking view of the skyline. The warm wooden ceiling ran in sleek lines, dipped with soft golden lighting that gave the room an intimidating, masculine calm. On one side stood an entire wall of dark wooden bookshelves filled, organised, and towering, and in the centre, rich brown leather couches rested with a quiet authority, arranged around a minimalist black coffee table.
A deep, elegant rug covered the glossy marble floor, softening only a fragment of the coldness the space held. And in front of the enormous glass window, sitting like the king of this concrete empire, was his chair, the throne of Arden Entertainment.
Kai sat there, his back turned, his reflection faintly carved on the glass like a shadow of the man he had become. Then...THUD.
The office door was slammed open. Kai's chair turned sharply. Not even a muscle on his face moved when he saw who stood at the door. He didn't change his expression, not even a slight bit. Not a flicker of recognition. Not a single emotion moved across his features.
The man who once cooked for her at 2 am… The man who cleaned after her mess without complaining… The man who watched her silently, protecting her, caring for her, adoring her… That man did not exist anymore. In front of her stood someone else entirely...cold, distant, powerful, and untouchable.
He had erased every trace of the roommate she once knew. Right now, he wasn't the man living in a dark room, hiding behind a hoodie, pretending to be someone else.
Right now, the person sitting before her was Mr Kai Arden, the star the nation adored, the owner of Arden Entertainment, the untouchable bachelor every magazine worshipped, the man whose single smirk could shake half the industry, a walking storm wrapped in silence,
an aura of money, power, and danger.
He wasn't her secret roommate anymore. He had already decided whatever connected them… he would rip it out of his life, and he would not cross her path again.
But destiny? Destiny laughs at such decisions. Because if a person is written in your life,
No force can erase them.
Kai leaned back slightly, one leg crossed over the other, his polished shoe lightly bouncing with an arrogant rhythm.
''Mrs Carter?" he said, his voice dipped in cold steel
"Long time… no see."
The man in front of her was a stranger. A completely different person she knows.
His tone sharpened. "I suppose you don't know the rules. No one is allowed inside my cabin." His eyes narrowed, repeating with offensive clarity
"No one. Means. No one." He raised a brow, gaze slicing through her.
"And I think you lack basic manners. You're supposed to knock before entering a CEO's office.'' His voice held the rudest edge possible.
Alina stayed silent. Not because she was scared. Not because she wanted to be polite. But because she was letting him talk. He had absolutely no idea what volcanic truth she was hiding inside. And once it erupted… Kai Arden would have no place left to stand.
He studied her with the detached eyes of a CEO evaluating a stranger, not the woman who once cried in his arms.
"So," Kai said, voice sharp, clipped, arrogant, "Any special reason for coming here, Miss Carter?"
His tone cut like a blade. The warmth that used to be there when he talked with her had disappeared; there wasn't a place left for softness. He didn't even wait for her answer.
"You got your cheque, right?" he asked, already rising from his chair, straightening his blazer with those precise, controlled movements of a man who built walls around his heart brick by brick.
He was doing it on purpose, pushing her away, step by step, word by word. Kai Arden stood before her in full form now, cold, bold, ruthless… the industry's heart-throb, the boss everyone feared.
There was no trace of the man who held her when she collapsed. No trace of the man who whispered "it's okay" when she cried into his chest. No trace of the man who stayed awake watching over her.
Is he really the same person? She could barely recognise him. But she walked toward him anyway. Her steps were slow, steady, and dangerous. Each one made Kai's jaw clench harder.
"Actually..." Alina said, her voice even, "....there was something I needed to finish."
Kai's posture went rigid. She kept coming closer. One step. Then another. And at the last second, the man who was feared by millions turned his face away. He turned toward the massive glass window as if the skyline suddenly became fascinating.
No… that wasn't it. He couldn't look at her. If he did, something inside him would break. He feared one second of eye contact would burn straight through the armour he had built.
But Alina didn't stop. She reached him. And...She pushed him Hard. So powerful, so sudden, that Kai Arden, the man who never lost balance, fell back into his chair with a stunned thud.
"What the.." he hissed, disbelief flickering for the first time.
Before he could rise, Alina moved, and she lifted one leg and placed it down hard on the narrow space between his legs on the chair.
The impact made him sit upright instantly. His back straightened, his breath caught, and every muscle went tight. He had been lounging like a king moments ago. Now she had caged him in his own throne. His eyes finally snapped to hers. And for the first time since she entered… Kai Arden looked shaken.