Day 3
When the third day of the training program arrived, Ronan was just as ruthlessly cold toward Liora as he had been over the last forty-eight hours. It was blindingly obvious to everyone in the department that Liora was the most dedicated, hardest-working intern among the ten trainees. Even the senior managers noticed her flawless work ethic.
Because of this, the management team was utterly baffled by the CEO's relentless hostility. Ronan had developed a bizarre, infuriating habit of aggressively reprimanding Liora for even the most microscopic mistakes, errors that were frequently made by the managers themselves. These tense interactions were compressed into the brief, agonizing moments when Ronan made his mandatory daily rounds to inspect the trainees. Aside from that single, suffocating hour, Liora and the other interns never caught a glimpse of him.
Today, after enduring another one of Ronan's harsh, unmerited outbursts, Liora felt hot tears sting her eyes. Yet, she clamped her jaw shut and forced them back down. She endured the biting humiliation with a quiet, fierce resilience. She was determined to hold her ground until Ronan finally cracked and took the first step toward explaining himself.
Meanwhile, a dark, malevolent presence, hidden completely in a flawless human disguise, silently observed Ronan's brutal treatment of the girl from across the corporate floor.
The entity clenched its fists in absolute panic. "No, no, no! Are these two actually on the verge of breaking up?!" the evil force rasped under its breath, its eyes flashing with fury. "They are completely destroying all my carefully laid plans! If their bond shatters, their powers won't merge! No! I cannot let this happen!!"
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Later that afternoon, Mia happily made her way up to the executive floor, clutching a stack of corporate files that Miss Daisy had ordered her to deliver for the CEO's signature. But the exact moment she pushed open the heavy mahogany doors to Ronan's office, she froze in absolute astonishment.
Ronan was standing completely still by the floor-to-ceiling glass window. His usual cold, terrifying expression had entirely vanished, replaced by a soft, wistful smile that completely transformed his handsome features.
Curiosity gripped Mia as she peeked in from the doorway, wondering what could possibly be out there in the city skyline to make the ruthless billionaire look so incredibly gentle. Realizing that Ronan was too deeply absorbed to notice her presence, she took a quiet moment to simply admire his striking, magnetic figure.
Mia softly cleared her throat, attempting to pull the CEO back down to earth. Ronan didn't even blink, his eyes locked entirely on the view below. Rolling her eyes playfully, Mia cleared her throat a second time, much louder and sharper than before.
The sudden noise snapped Ronan completely back to reality, his private thoughts instantly exposed. Startled, his eyes widened as he rapidly spun around, scrambling back to sit in his leather swivel chair.
"A-Ah!" Ronan stammered, his voice laced with uncharacteristic fluster as he smoothed down his suit jacket. "What on earth are you doing just standing there in the dark? Can't you speak up when you enter a room?"
"I am so sorry, sir." Mia replied politely, keeping her composure to avoid fueling his sudden embarrassment. "Miss Daisy sent me up with these urgent documents. They require your personal signature before the end of the day."
"Fine. Hand them over." Ronan clipped out, trying to reclaim his authoritative mask.
Mia walked around the massive executive desk to hand him the files. As she did, she realized the specific window pane Ronan had been peering through was now directly to her left. While Ronan aggressively flipped through the paperwork to verify the data, Mia seized the golden opportunity.
Leaning over slightly, she parted the window blinds by a few inches and peered down at the courtyard below.
Down in the lower plaza, Liora was diligently organizing inventory alongside a senior manager. Mia's eyes widened to the size of saucers as the pieces instantly clicked together. She looked back at Ronan, her mind completely reeling with confusion as she realized the terrifying CEO was secretly spending his days watching over Liora from above.
Day 6
Six agonizing, monotonous days crawled by, and Liora felt completely miserable. Less than a week ago, she had genuinely believed she was the luckiest person alive on the face of the earth. When Ronan had desperately held her hands by the river and asked her to be his girlfriend, Liora had smiled, fully believing that all the sorrow in her life was permanently behind her.
But now, swallowed by a suffocating silence, she didn't even know if the title held any meaning anymore. It felt as though Ronan had asked her to be his partner in name only, abandoning her the very next morning.
The emotional toll had completely ravaged Liora's physical appearance. Dark, heavy circles had bloomed beneath her eyes from spending her nights pacing her apartment, crying herself to sleep.
Yet, as she looked closely at Ronan during her daily rounds, Liora realized the man looked equally devastated. Ronan had been completely avoiding the company dining rooms, and his tailored suits now hung loosely off a worryingly thin, lanky frame.
Furthermore, Liora had picked up on a vital, incredibly strange detail: whenever Ronan raised his voice or yelled at her in front of the department, the CEO would nervously scan the room, completely refusing to lock eyes with Liora.
Liora couldn't comprehend the cosmic danger Ronan was trying to protect her from, but she couldn't bear to see the man she loved wasting away into a ghost. Despite the public cruelty, Liora's profound love for Ronan hadn't wavered by a single fraction. She had tried multiple times to corner him after hours to demand answers, but the corporate security team always kept them apart. Left with no other choice, she resolved to wait patiently until Ronan himself finally took a step toward her.
To cope with the stress, Liora had developed a daily ritual. Every morning before her shift began, she would stand quietly in front of the massive, framed photograph of the mysterious couple mounted in the Vante lobby.
She stared intensely at the man's elegant face. Even though she had absolutely no record of this couple in her memory, a profound, unexplainable wave of familiarity, warmth, and maternal closeness washed over her soul every time she looked at them. Letting out a heavy, sorrowful sigh, she turned away from the glass frame and headed off to begin her grueling shift.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
By two o'clock in the afternoon, the cafeteria had mostly cleared out. Even though her stomach was tied in anxious knots, Liora forced herself to sit down at a secluded corner table with a light meal.
As she began to eat, her attention was drawn to an elderly employee she had never seen before. The fragile old man was desperately struggling to haul a massive, overflowing dustbin toward the disposal area. Suddenly, the weight became too much; the man lost his footing and crashed heavily onto the marble floor, the garbage spilling around him.
Without a second thought, Liora bolted from her chair, sprinting across the cafeteria to kneel beside him.
"Oh my god, are you okay?" Liora asked gently, carefully wrapping her arms around the elderly man to guide him back to his feet.
"I think so, young lady." the employee wheezed, awkwardly patting Liora's arm as he stabilized himself. He offered a fragile, grateful smile. "Thank you so much. My body isn't as strong as it used to be."
"Don't worry about the trash right now. Come over to my table and sit down to have something warm to eat." Liora insisted, her heart aching at the man's frail state. "You look completely exhausted."
She carefully guided the elderly worker to her table, pulling out a chair for him before rushing over to the counter to purchase a fresh, hot meal for the man.
"You possess an incredibly kind soul, young lady." the worker murmured softly as Liora set the food down in front of him.
Liora offered a warm smile, her signature bunny teeth making a rare appearance. "It's really nothing. I'm Liora, by the way. What should I call you, uncle?"
"Oh, just call me Marcus, Daughter." the old man replied, eagerly taking his first bite of the warm food.
"So, Uncle Marcus, are you new to the Vante building?" Liora asked curiously, confident she would have noticed him around the halls earlier.
Marcus let out a scratchy, deep laugh at the question. "Actually, daughter... I am the absolute oldest living employee in this entire infrastructure."
Liora's eyes blinked wide in surprise. "Oh, really? I haven't seen you around since my training started last week, so I just assumed you were a new hire."
"Ah, I see why you'd think that, daughter." Marcus explained, chewing thoughtfully. "Truth be told, I was supposed to be here to greet your training group on day one, but I fell violently ill with a terrible fever for weeks. Today is my very first day back on the floor after finally clearing it out of my system."
"How long have you actually worked in this building?" Liora asked, leaning forward.
"Mmm... let's see. I've been here since the literal day the foundation stones were laid in the ground. Way back in the 1900s,1992, to be exact. I was just a man in my early forties back then."
Hearing the dates, a lightbulb violently flashed inside Liora's mind. She gripped the edge of the table, her heart hammering with a sudden, desperate hope for answers.
"Uncle Marcus... if you've been here that long, do you happen to know who the couple is in the massive framed picture down in the lobby? What exactly is their connection to Vante?"
Marcus's expression instantly softened, a nostalgic smile playing on his lips. "Ah, young lady... you must be referring to the master and mistress from The Heirs."
Liora's brow furrowed in utter bewilderment. "The Heirs? What do you mean?"
"Yes, daughter. The very building you are sitting in right now was constructed years ago under the corporate banner of The Heirs. This entire empire was the beautiful result of decades of brutal, agonizing hard work by Mrs. Emily and Mr. William." Marcus looked up, his eyes tracing the architectural lines of the ceiling with deep reverence.
"R-Really?" Liora muttered, her voice dropping into a breathless whisper.
"Indeed, daughter. The Heirs was a business built out of pure sacrifice, love, and tears. It was an empire that every single citizen in this country respected with their entire hearts. But everything was violently ruined in a single, catastrophic night." Marcus lowered his head, staring at the floor with profound sorrow.
"What on earth happened to them?" Liora begged, her fingers trembling against her lap. "Do you remember the details? Please, Uncle Marcus... tell me everything from the very beginning."
"How could I ever forget it, daughter?" Marcus sighed heavily, his eyes clouding over as his mind traveled back into the dark depths of the past. "Even though the rest of the world has buried the memory, it plays in my mind as if it happened yesterday."
Liora held her breath, completely focused, preparing herself to hear the tragic history she had been searching for.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
"It was 2nd September in 1997." Marcus began, his voice dropping into a solemn cadence. "I arrived at the building in the freezing hours of the early morning to clean the executive suites. There were other janitors, of course, but Mr. William was incredibly particular, he refused to let anyone touch his private office except for me. So, I swept the floors, polished the mahogany desk, and waited for the master to arrive. Usually, the mistress would walk right beside him, but since a precious new member of their family was due to arrive any day, the master had strictly ordered her to stay home and rest."
Liora's heart gave a violent thud. "S-She was pregnant?"
"Yes, daughter. Eight months along." Marcus whispered sadly. "They were expecting a beautiful baby girl. If that horrific incident hadn't stolen them that day, they would be growing old right now, surrounded by their beautiful child. But the tragedy completely consumed that innocent, unborn soul as well."
Marcus paused, looking up to scan Liora's features. A sudden look of pure shock washed over the old man's face, his breath catching in his throat.
"Oh my goodness... you know, look at that. The moment my eyes landed on you across the cafeteria today, daughter... the very first person I thought of was Mrs. Emily."
Liora gasped, her cheeks flushing warm. "Huh? What do you mean?"
"If Mrs. Emily's tragic daughter had somehow survived that horrific night and were alive in our world today... she would be the exact same age as you are right now. And she would look precisely like you."
Liora's face burned a furious shade of crimson, a strange, electric chill running down her spine. "O-Oh... really?"
"Yes," Marcus murmured softly, his eyes full of a bittersweet warmth. "But if she were here, she wouldn't be wearing an intern badge and wiping down tables. She would be sitting directly on the throne where Mr. Ronan Brown sits today."
Liora nodded slowly, her mind completely chaotic as she struggled to process the gravity of the words. "Please... please tell me the rest of the story, Uncle Marcus."
Marcus cleared his throat and continued. "So, no matter how many hours I waited in that office that morning, Mr. William never walked through those doors. By midday, the devastating news finally broke through the radio wires."
Marcus stared down at his wrinkled hands, his voice cracking. "The night before, the master and mistress had traveled to the town of Oakham, far outside the city limits, to attend an intimate anniversary party for a close friend. On their drive back through the midnight fog, their car vanished. They were eventually discovered deep within the heart of a thick, forbidden forest."
Marcus took a shaky breath. "To this very day, not a soul in the human world knows how the master and mistress actually died. The forensic police were entirely baffled. Their bodies were completely preserved, but their life force was entirely drained. Most shockingly of all... there wasn't a single drop of blood anywhere on the scene. Neither of them sustained a single fatal injury or broken bone. There were a few bruises across their skin, but they were entirely minor."
Liora's brow furrowed tightly, the supernatural weight of the story crashing down on her. No blood. No fatal wounds. "That... that sounds incredibly strange. It's completely unnatural."
"It truly was, daughter." Marcus agreed, shaking his head.
"But... what about the baby?" Liora asked, her voice cracking into a desperate sob as an unexplainable, agonizing grief gripped her chest. "The baby wouldn't just vanish into thin air, right?"
"That is the most harrowing mystery of all." Marcus whispered, his eyes filling with tears. "The autopsy reports confirmed that before the mistress drew her final breath, the child was successfully born right there on the forest floor. But when the search parties arrived the following morning, the infant was completely gone.
After all, how could a tiny, innocent creature survive in the wild? That forest is crawling with predatory wolves and wild animals. The only reason the parents' bodies weren't touched was because there was no scent of blood to draw them in. It's a cruel impossibility to think a newborn could survive a night in those woods alone. And since she was born prematurely at eight months, her chances of survival were practically zero anyway."
The moment the words left Marcus's mouth, a dam violently broke inside Liora's chest. She burst into heavy, uncontrollable, hysterical tears. Her entire frame shook with a raw, agonizing sorrow that felt completely ancient, her hands flying up to cover her face as her chest heaved.
"Oh dear, what's wrong, my girl?" Marcus asked, completely alarmed as he quickly reached across the table to pat Liora's trembling shoulder.
"I-I don't know..." Liora choked out hysterically, her voice breaking as she desperately tried to catch her breath. "I just... I feel so incredibly sad. My heart hurts so much."
"Oh, sweet girl... if I had known your soul was this sensitive, I never would have shared such a heavy burden with you." Marcus apologized profusely, handing her a clean napkin. "It's a horrific tragedy, not a story meant for a gentle heart to carry."
Liora took a deep, shuddering breath, actively forcing her tears to stop as she wiped her damp cheeks clean. "I'm okay... I'm sorry for breaking down like that, uncle. Please, what happened to the company after they passed?"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"The empire fell into absolute, instantaneous bankruptcy." Marcus explained grimly. "The master and mistress had no living relatives; they were orphan souls who built their kingdom entirely on their own from the mud. There was no remaining heir to claim the lineage. Because of the dark, supernatural rumors surrounding their deaths, no other corporate businessmen wanted to touch the property. This very building sat abandoned, dark, and completely boarded up for eighteen long years."
Marcus's eyes suddenly ignited with a profound sense of awe. "But after eighteen years of rot, Mr. Ronan Brown arrived like a literal god to resurrect this dead empire. At the time, he was just a young student studying on the university. Even back then, balancing his studies, he launched this business entirely on his own from a tiny, freezing basement apartment, facing immense financial hardships."
Marcus smiled proudly. "The exact moment he secured his university degree, he began rebuilding this infrastructure piece by piece through tireless, sleepless nights of pure labor. After two or three years of unrelenting grit, his business exploded across the global market. Just look at where he stands today."
Liora's heart swelled with a fierce, burning pride, her tears completely forgotten.
"He officially changed the name of the corporation to Vante because he wanted to launch his vision from absolute scratch." Marcus continued. "But that magnificent man refused to alter a single brick of this historical building.
Daughter, the public and the media call him a ruthless, heartless tyrant. They claim he is a man without a soul or a chest. But I know the truth, Mr. Brown possesses an incredibly pure, golden heart. I hold an immense amount of respect for him. Do you know why? Because he went out of his way to preserve every single archive and memory of Mrs. Emily and Mr. William."
Liora's breath caught. "Really? He did that?"
"Yes, daughter. The complete historical records and ledgers of The Heirs are safely locked away in a private archive room directly inside Mr. Ronan's personal executive suite. He even salvaged the couple's personal belongings from the wreckage. In short, this building was their home, and after they were taken, he ensured their spirits were respected. Mr. Ronan holds a deep, sacred respect for pioneers who build themselves up through hard work, because he walked that exact same burning path." Marcus concluded, letting out a soft sigh as he finished his story.
A beautiful, radiant smile broke across Liora's face. A soft chuckle escaped her lips. She had known it from the very first second she met him, Ronan's cold corporate armor was nothing more than a mask designed to shield a deeply gentle, protective soul.
"Thank you so much for sharing that history with me, Uncle Marcus." Liora said warmly, her eyes glowing with newfound determination. "You have completely cured all the curiosity that was burning inside me."
"Oh, don't mention it, daughter." Marcus smiled, reaching over to gently cup Liora's cheek in a grandfatherly gesture. "I must thank you for your rare kindness today. You truly carry the exact same aura as Mrs, Emily. You possess her spirit."
Liora's cheeks flushed a sweet shade of pink. "A-Ah, Uncle... I'm just a normal person, I'm just like her daughter would have been."
Marcus let out a joyous laugh at the sweet response.
Once they finished their food, Liora stood up and helped Marcus gather the remaining garbage bags, carrying the heavy loads out to the disposal bays for him. Once the task was complete, Liora walked back out into the main lobby, her legs carrying her right back to the massive framed photograph.
Standing beneath the warm spotlight, Liora stared into the eyes of the painted couple, fresh, silent tears tracing down her cheeks. She pressed her hand against the glass, a profound sense of destiny settling over her chest.
From across the grand marble lobby, Marcus stood quietly by the pillars, watching the beautiful, tearful girl stand in perfect alignment with the portrait of the dead king.
A heavy, knowing thought echoed through the old man's mind as a chill ran down his spine:
"This cannot be a mere coincidence. The bloodline has returned."