"She came in younger than I expected. And with a sharper mouth than all the knives I've seen in my life."
Ana Popescu. Romanian name, clean reputation, cases won in court. She had no place in my world—and that was exactly why I wanted her. I didn't hire her directly. My old lawyer was taken out of the picture—literally. Too many questions, too many headaches. They sent Ana to me like a last card to play. But when she walked into the cell and looked at me like a human being, not like a problem… I knew something had changed.
She spoke to me coldly. Challenged me. She wasn't afraid. She was dangerously determined to get me out of there, without having any idea what she was stepping into.
To her, I'm the case of a lifetime.
To me, she's the key to getting out—and maybe something more.
I was never afraid of prison. I knew this moment would come. You can't play dirty without getting dirty. The problem isn't that I was caught—it's that they caught me without being able to tie me to anything solid. They framed me. A fake operation, fabricated documents. That shipment wasn't mine. It belonged to someone who wanted me out of the game.
And if Ana is good, she'll find him.
But if she's not… the system will swallow her whole.
When she left the cell, I was left with one thought. Not about the trial. Not about freedom. About her.
About the way she looked at me, as if she wanted to understand what was in my head. And no one does that to me. No one ever dared. Because what's in my head… can destroy.
Victor Munteanu—the ambitious prosecutor who's been tracking my every move for ten years—will use Ana. He'll see what I saw too. That she's valuable. Clean. And that she has something we don't: a conscience.
But he'll ruin her. That's what they all do.
Me, on the other hand… I don't want to ruin her. I want to control her. Keep her close. Change her, not destroy her. And if I can't have her… then no one will.
In this game, there are no rules. Only winners and the dead.
And Ana… still doesn't know which side she's on.