Chapter 1: The Return
Matthew Sinclair had built Atlas Plc from the ground up with two things: ruthless precision and an unerring instinct for weakness. Both had failed him spectacularly the day Majdouline walked back into his life.
She stood in his doorway like a memory he'd tried to burn—all elegant lines and quiet danger. Five years had passed since he'd last seen her, but time had only refined what was already lethal.
"Mr. Sinclair," she said, voice like smoke over water. "I believe you have an opening for an executive assistant."
He did. His last one had quit without notice three days ago, leaving a trail of corrupted files and missing reports that had cost him a merger worth eight figures.
"Majdouline." Her name felt like a sin in his mouth. "Last I heard, you were in Dubai."
"And now I'm here." She placed her resume on his desk with manicured fingers. No tremor. No hesitation. As if she hadn't disappeared from his company five years ago under circumstances that still kept him awake some nights.
As if the board member who'd been found dead the week after her departure had nothing to do with her at all.
"You can't possibly think I'd hire you again."
She smiled then, the kind of smile that made smart men do stupid things. "I don't think you can afford not to."
And that was the moment Matthew should have called security. Should have had her escorted from the building. Should have remembered that three men connected to Atlas had died in the last decade, and she had been close to each one.
Instead, he found himself saying, "You start Monday."
Because the truth was, Matthew Sinclair had spent five years building an empire while trying to forget the one woman who had seen through every wall he'd constructed.
And now she was back.
The question wasn't whether he could trust her.
The question was why she had returned—and who would burn when her true purpose was revealed.
