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Engel.

It was supposed to be a secret they shared, but he had told Shane about it.

How could she ever believe him again after the way he had betrayed her?

“Please give me a chance to make it up to you.”

She took a deep breath.

One word, and she could put an end to all of the heartbreak. One word, and she could forget him and move on. One word that would decide everything else—-

“Yes,” she heard himself whisper.

One word, and there was no turning back.

Her youth, inexperience, and the devastating pain that had afflicted Serenity since he had left made the decision for her.

She would make him fall, and she would ruin him, just like he had stolen and broken her heart.



















Chapter Six

HE CAME TO MEET HERthe next day at work. He had texted her, asking what she was doing at the corporate headquarters of Acheron Simonides instead of school, but she had chosen not to reply.

At one in the afternoon, reception told her she had a visitor at the lobby, and she asked the staff to relay the message for her visitor to be shown to waiting area. A part of her wondered if the Dutch billionaire would indeed go to such a place. After all, people like Willem de Konigh were not at all used to waiting.

But less than a minute had passed when her phone buzzed with Willem’s text message—-

Take your time. I will not impose on your schedule.

Serenity promptly deleted the message.It’s all an act, she told herself harshly.It was just an act.She was still scowling down at her iPhone when her boss strode out of his office. A tall, dark-haired, lethally built man with smoldering good looks, Acheron Simonides was a legend among his peers, having clawed his way to the top with a mixture of hard work, genius, and ruthlessness.

Scandals had always dogged his name, with rumors abounding about his connections to Greece’s criminal underworld. Although he was rich and powerful in his own right, Greek society had always avoided him. It was only when he was declared the rightful heir to the Kokinos’ empire did Acheron become fully accepted into their fold, but it was a privilege he had neither sought nor cared for.

Acheron halted in front of Serenity’s desk, curious at the battle-like expression on his normally serene intern’s face. She was an exquisitely beautiful blonde girl, and it had been one of the reasons he had hired her. His previous life had created a hunger in him for the most beautiful baubles, and originally, that was all Serenity was supposed to be.

But in the months that she had worked for him, Acheron had been pleasantly surprised to find out that there was an equally beautiful mind behind the lovely face. Just as amusing was Serenity’s mixture of shyness and aloofness, her streak of perfectionism versus her innocent, child-like reactions to the most mundane of things.