STOLEN MEMORIES

When Selene, a brilliant intern with a buried past, enters the empire of ruthless billionaire Darius Vane, everything unravels. But she's not just there to learn - she's there to destroy. As secrets surface and a forgotten brother reappears, Selene must choose between revenge and redemption before the truth erases them all.

Chapters

Chapter 3

Selene stood in the doorway of Darius Vane's office, the morning sun slicing through the floor-to-ceiling windows like a spotlight on a stage. She didn't knock. She didn't need to.

She dropped the flash drive on his desk.

"Tell me about Project Ember."

Darius looked up from his laptop slowly, his expression unreadable. But something flickered in his eyes - not surprise. Not anger.

Fear.

He closed the laptop with a soft click. "Where did you hear that name?"

"You tell me."

He leaned back in his chair, his fingers pressed together in thought.That's not something you just stumble across."

"I didn't stumble. Someone sent me a message."

"Who?"

"I don't know."

He studied her. "And you believed them?"

"I believe what I just saw in your eyes."

He stood, walked to the window, and stared out at the skyline. "Project Ember was never supposed to exist. It was a contingency. A firewall."

"For what?"

"For people like your mother."

Selene's breath caught. "What does that mean?"

He turned. "It means she wasn't the only one who tried to take me down. Ember was designed to protect the company - and me - from internal threats."

"By doing what?"

"By exposing them. Quietly. Legally. Strategically."

"You mean destroying them."

He didn't deny it.

"She was your friend," Selene said. "I saw the photo. She trusted you."

"She did. Until she didn't."

Selene crossed her arms. "So you used Ember to ruin her."

"I gave her a choice. She made hers."

"You keep saying that like it absolves you."

"It doesn't. But it explains me."

She shook her head. "You're not a man. You're a machine."

He stepped closer. "And yet you're still here."

"I'm here for the truth."

"Then you'd better be ready for it."

He walked to a cabinet and pulled out another file. This one was thicker, older. He handed it to her.

"Read it. Then decide if I'm the villain."

She opened it. The first page was a contract. Her mother's signature. Dated six months before the collapse.

The second page was a memo - from her mother to a board member. It outlined a plan to sell proprietary tech to a foreign investor. Off the books. Illegal.

Selene's stomach turned.

"No," she whispered. "She wouldn't-"

"She did," Darius said. "She was desperate. She thought she could fix everything before anyone noticed."

Selene flipped through the pages. Emails. Bank transfers. Meeting notes. All pointing to the same thing.

Her mother had betrayed the company.

And Darius had found out.

"She came to me," he said. "Begged me to keep it quiet. Said she'd walk away if I didn't press charges."

"And you agreed?"

"I agreed to bury it. In exchange for her silence."

Selene's hands trembled. "Why are you showing me this?"

"Because I need you to stop seeing me as your enemy."

She looked up. "You think this makes you a hero?"

"No. But maybe it makes me human."

She closed the file. "You still destroyed her."

"She destroyed herself. I just didn't save her."

Silence fell between them.

Then he said, "You remind me of her."

Selene flinched. "Don't."

"She was brilliant. Stubborn. Brave."

"She was my mother."

"I know."

He sat down again. "You're not here to intern. You're here to finish what she started."

Selene didn't answer.

"I don't blame you," he said. "But you should know - you're not the only one with secrets."

She narrowed her eyes. "What does that mean?"

He opened a drawer and pulled out a photo. It was grainy, black and white. A woman - younger, sharper - standing beside a man in a lab coat.

"That's your mother," he said. "And that's my father."

Selene stared at the image. "What is this?"

"They worked together. Before any of this. Before the companies. Before the war."

"What war?"

"The one that never made the news."

He stood, walked to the window again. "They were part of a government project. Something big. Something dangerous. Ember wasn't just a company protocol. It was a continuation."

Selene's mind reeled. "You're saying my mother was part of this?"

"She helped build it."

"Why would she-"

"Because she believed in control. In order. In protecting what mattered."

Selene stepped back. "No. She was kind. She believed in people."

"She believed in power," Darius said. "Just like you."

She turned to leave.

"Selene," he said.

She paused.

"If you really want the truth, you'll have to dig deeper." And it won't be clean."

She didn't look back.

Outside, the city felt colder. The sky had darkened, clouds rolling in like a warning.

Her phone buzzed.

Another message.

"He's lying. Meet me. Midnight. Pier 19. Come alone."

She stared at the screen.

The sender was anonymous.

But the timing was perfect.

Too perfect.

She looked back at the building.

Then at the message.

Two men. Two stories.

And a truth buried somewhere between them.

Continue to next part

Amara Daniels doesn't believe in destiny or happy endings; having survived from the dark shadows of her past, her life no longer has room for mistakes or attractive billionaires like Ethan Cole. Ethan enters her life with his charming persistence, and she becomes worried after he meets her four-year-old son, her past that she has carefully buried. He is her dangerous distraction. But their chemistry conceals shocking secrets and connecting fates - that might either bring them together or set them apart forever. In a game where hearts and careers collide, can she have it all or will passion cost her everything?

Action Billionaire Modern

7.2

Her Icy Comeback: A Vengeful Heiress

7.2

Five years ago, my guardian, Fitzgerald Kirk, sent me a video of my childhood horse being led to a slaughterhouse. Then he cast me out, broken and penniless. Tonight, I returned to his family' s annual gala, no longer a helpless ward but a powerful woman ready for my revenge. But he and his fiancée, Cassondra, still saw me as the trash they threw away. She taunted me, asking if I' d run out of money, before "tripping" and drenching my white silk gown in red wine. She looked at me with glee, expecting the broken girl from five years ago to cry. Fitzgerald just watched, a bored smirk on his face as he told me to crawl back to whatever gutter I came from. They wanted a reaction. They wanted the hysterical girl they had destroyed. They had no idea that the memory of my horse' s death had frozen everything inside me, fueling a cold rage that had simmered for half a decade. I didn' t even glance at the stain. Instead, I calmly picked up a full bottle of champagne from a passing waiter' s tray. "Don' t worry," I said, my voice dangerously soft. "Accidents happen." Then I swung the bottle and smashed it against her head.

Action Billionaire Modern

7.7

I'm Pregnant, And It Isn't My Husband's

7.7

Olivia Pearson is just a pawn – a wife bought to rescue her father's ailing business. Her husband, Sebastian, maintains his icy grip over her life and escape feels like a pipe dream. But when Olivia uncovers the secrets of his empire filled with lies and illicit dealings, she decides to take control. The more she tries to figure things out, the more she realizes that the only person who can assist her might be Ethan Blackwood, Sebastian's brother, and the man who has captured her heart. Now Olivia is sandwiched between two brothers. The choice to make is simple but painfully difficult; the husband who owns her or the difficult, yet enticing lover who comes with freedom. It remains to be seen what is more perilous: that decision, or the consequences that follow. THIS IS A SIZZLING NEW ROMANCE – NO HANDS!

Action Modern Romance

7.8

Married To The Vulture Of Wall Street

7.8

I had exactly forty-five minutes to get married, or I would lose the voting shares needed to stop my father from laundering millions through our family foundation. Everything was riding on this one legal signature at the City Clerk’s office. But just as I reached the front of the line, my phone buzzed with a high-definition photo of my fiancé, Preston, tangled in sheets with a junior associate at a SoHo hotel. The man I was about to tie my life to was a fraud, and my deadline was ticking toward zero. When I shoved the evidence in his face, he didn't even flinch. Instead, he gripped my wrist until the bone ground together, whispering that I was just a "junkie" fresh out of a Swiss clinic and that no one else would ever marry a liability with a personality disorder. My father was already standing by with a fraudulent medical affidavit, ready to force me into a conservatorship and strip me of my freedom the moment the clock hit 5 PM. They had spent years using my fake "instability" as a leash, treating me like a broken doll while they bled the company dry. I was the only one with the evidence to take them down, yet I was being discarded like a sunk cost by the very men who were supposed to protect me. I looked at Preston’s smug face and realized I didn't need a husband; I needed a predator. I scanned the room and spotted Dominik Mack, the "Vulture of Wall Street," a man who specialized in hostile takeovers and stripping men like my father of everything they owned. I walked straight up to the most dangerous man in New York and offered him a business transaction. "Do you want to get married?" I asked. He looked at my trembling hands, then at the man chasing me, and adjusted his collar with clinical detachment. "Deal," he said. I didn't just find a groom; I found an accomplice. This wasn't a wedding anymore—it was a declaration of war.

Action Modern Romance

7.4

My Love Was Gone

7.4

My husband, Rodger Hayes, was a renowned chief negotiator, famous for his integrity and firmness within the circle. When my son and I were kidnapped, with three hostages at the scene, the kidnappers agreed to release only one. Among the women and the boy, Rodger should have chosen to save the boy first. Yet, I heard him saying in Spanish fluently, "Release the woman in white." His first love, Jolene Chapman, was freed, while my son, Jacob Hayes, died from a gunfire. Later, Rodger explained the situation flatly. "The kidnappers chose to release Jolene." I cradled Jacob's ashes and smiled sadly. Rodger didn't know that I was fluent in Spanish, as I had been a special forces member. His lies crumbled before me. My phone vibrated, and I confirmed the encrypted message. "Falcon returns to base."

Action Modern Romance

8.2

The Architect's Vengeance: Empire Falls

8.2

My husband, Caden, was a real estate mogul who built his empire on our love story. The world swooned when he named his latest skyscraper the "Allisson Tower," calling it a modern-day Taj Mahal. But it was my design, and his grand gestures were just a cover for a grander theft. I discovered he wasn't just cheating with his pregnant mistress. He had stolen my architectural blueprints-the very foundation of his celebrated career. He' d bring me to the same restaurant where he' d just entertained her, recycling his romantic gestures. I watched him smile genuinely at her livestream while holding my hand, sending her virtual gifts with the message, "My princess deserves all this and more. You' re the only one for me." The man who swore "absolute honesty" on our wedding day had built our entire life on a mountain of lies. He didn't just break his vows; he pulverized them, turning our love into a public spectacle. So I planned my escape. I signed the divorce papers, packaged them with irrefutable proof of his plagiarism inside a model of the first building he stole, and handed it to him as an "anniversary gift." "You can't open it for two weeks," I told him. He had no idea that in two weeks, his wife would be a ghost and his empire would be ashes.

Action Modern Romance

STOLEN MEMORIES

Chapter 3

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