Elena felt her entire body go cold. She stood frozen in front of Alex's desk, her hands clenched so tightly into fists that her nails bit into her palms.
Trapped. He wanted her trapped inside his office, right under his eyes, every single day.
"You can't be serious," she whispered, her voice shaking with pure rage. "You want me to move my desk in here? In your personal room?"
Alex didn't blink. He sat back in his chair, a slow, dangerous smile spreading across his face. He looked completely calm, like a king who had just won a major battle. "I am very serious, Ms. Vane. You can't focus outside. You like to waste time in the cafeteria. So, from now on, you work where I can see you."
Elena wanted to scream. She wanted to grab her tea cup and throw it right at his smug face. But she forced herself to breathe. She tilted her chin up, looking down at him with fire in her eyes.
"But— ," Elena said, tried to protest but he interrupted in between " No buts. This is my orde" He exhaled making her sigh in defeat. " Fine ." Her voice came out in low whisper.
She turned sharply on her heel and marched out of the office to grab her things.
Ten minutes later, two office workmen walked into Alex's office. They were carrying Elena's wooden desk, her rolling chair, and her laptop.
Alex didn't even look up from his computer. He just casually pointed his finger toward the empty space directly opposite his desk. It was only three feet away. If she sat there, they would be staring straight at each other all day. There was nowhere to hide.
The workers set the desk down, gave Elena a sympathetic look, and quickly left the room.
Elena stood by her new workspace, her heart hammering with anger. She looked at Alex, then she looked at the floor. Suddenly, she reached into her bag and pulled out a thick, black marker she used for writing on boards.
She dropped to one knee. With a swift, aggressive movement, she drew a straight, thick black line right down the middle of the floor, splitting the office exactly in half.
The sound of the marker made Alex look up. He raised an eyebrow, watching her stand back up and dust off her suit.
"What is that?" Alex asked, in his Usual mocking tone.
Elena's eyes flashed with fury. "Don't you have eyes? Can't you see?" Elena desperately wanted to scream those words right into his face. But with the heavy weight of saving the entire board staffs , her voice completely failed her. Her tongue slipped, and instead of anger, the words came out in a way she never could have imagined in her wildest dreams. She actually sounded polite. It was a soft, respectful tone she had never used with him before, and it made her stomach turn.
" This is a boundary, Mr. Valois," Elena said, pointing her marker at the floor. "This side is my space. That side is your space. If your shoes cross this black line, or if you even lean over it,then ..."
"Then what Ms. Vane ?? You gonna cry ?? " Alex questioned her , staring deep into her soul.
"Cry my foot. I am packing my bags and leaving this building. I don't care about your shares." She said as she finally lost her calm .
Alex let out a short, low laugh. It was a sound of pure amusement. He stood up from his chair, walking slowly towards her. He stopped just an inch away from the black line, leaning forward slightly.
"You are very funny, Elena," he whispered, his deep voice sending a tiny shiver down her spine. "You think a black line can stop me? You forget something very simple. I bought this entire company. That means I own the floor under your marker, too. If I want to cross it, I will."
"Try it," Elena challenged, her eyes flashing with fire as she stepped closer to the line herself. "See what happens to your precious shipping lines if I walk out that door."
They stood there for a long moment, nose to nose, separated only by a black streak on the wood floor. The tension in the air was so thick it felt like a storm was about to hit. Finally, Elena turned away, slamming her laptop open on her desk.
The afternoon was pure torture.
The executive office was completely quiet. The only sounds were the soft clicking of Elena's keyboard and the occasional beep of Alex's phone. But the silence wasn't peaceful. It was suffocating.
Every single time Elena looked up from her screen, she froze. Alex was staring at her. He wasn't even trying to hide it. He had his chin resting in his hand, his dark eyes locked onto her face like a hawk watching its prey.
Elena tried to ignore it. She forced her eyes back to her files, but she could feel his gaze burning through her skin. Her face was growing hot, and her hands were trembling with annoyance. She made three mistakes in her typing because she was so distracted.
Finally, after two hours of total silence, Elena couldn't take it anymore. She slammed her laptop screen shut with a loud bang.
"Do you have a problem, Alex?" she snapped, using his first name because she was too angry to be formal. "Do you have absolutely no work to do? Why are you staring at me like a freak?"
Alex didn't get angry. His smirk only widened, his eyes full of playful amusement. "I'm just doing my job, PA Vane. I am monitoring my employee. And I must say, it's very entertaining."
"There is nothing entertaining about this shit," she hissed.
"Oh, there is," Alex murmured, leaning forward over his desk. "Your face turns a very bright shade of red when you are mad. It's much more interesting than that fake, icy expression you usually wear. But to be real are you really mad because I'm watching you, or.... are you mad because you're still thinking about how tightly you held onto me in the elevator last night?"
Elena's breath hitched. Her heart did a dangerous flip against her ribs. He was doing it again—using her moment of weakness to bait her, to make her lose her mind.
"I told you, that was a medical issue," Elena said, her voice dropping to a deadly, cold whisper. "If you mention that elevator again, I will make sure your morning coffee contains something that will keep you in the hospital for a week."
Alex laughed out loud, a rich, deep sound that filled the room. "There she is. The angry viper. I prefer this side of you, Elena. Keep working. You have a lot of files to finish."
By 4:00 PM, Elena's luck ran out.
small beep came from her laptop, and a warning flashed on her screen: Battery low. 5% remaining.
Elena frowned and reached into her bag to grab her charger. She unwrapped the long black cord and looked around her desk for an outlet. Her eyes widened in annoyance. Because Alex had forced her desk to be placed right in the middle of the room, her cord couldn't reach the wall outlets behind her.
She uncoiled the charger to its full length, but it was still too short by at least two feet.
There was only one outlet close enough. It was located directly under Alex's massive wooden desk, right near his feet. Desperate, Elena rummaged through her bottom desk drawer until her fingers wrapped around a heavy-duty extension cord. She snapped her laptop charger into the extension socket, giving herself the extra length she needed, but the main plug still had to go into the wall.
Elena gripped the pronged end of the extension cord, her face twisting in disgust. She absolutely did not want to beg him for help. She didn't want to say, "Mr. Valois, can you plug this in for me?" Her pride would never allow it.
So, she decided to do it herself. She stood up, trailing the thick wire behind her, and walked around her desk. She crossed her own black marker line and stepped into his territory.
Alex stopped typing. He tilted his head, watching her approach his side of the room with a curious look in his eyes.
Elena didn't look at him. She crouched down, dropping to her knees right next to his expensive leather boots. The scent of his strong perfume—a scent of rich amber and crisp raspberry—hit her nose instantly, making her chest feel tight. She reached under his desk, searching for the plastic outlet in the dim space under the wood.
She found it and shoved the extension plug firmly into the wall.
"What are you doing down there, Elena?" Alex's voice rumbled from right above her. It sounded deeper, louder, because she was so close to him.
"My laptop is dying," she grumbled, her voice muffled as she tried to pull the slack of the wire back to her side. But as she yanked it, the heavy extension cable got stuck. It was wrapped tightly around the heel of Alex's right leather boot.
Elena gave it a hard tug. "Move your foot, Alex."
"No," he said simply.
Elena snapped her head up, her spine stiffening. Because she was crouching near his knees and he had leaned down from his chair to look down at her, their faces were suddenly inches apart. She didn't see romantic flecks in his eyes; she saw the cold, calculating satisfaction of a man who loved having people beneath him.
"Move your foot," she said, her voice dropping into a low, dangerous threat. "The cord is trapped."
Alex didn't shift. He looked down at her like she was an lioness whom he had successfully cornered. "Move it yourself," he commanded, his voice a quiet, mocking challenge. "Or does bending a little lower damage your pathetic pride?"
Elena's jaw clenched so hard her teeth ached. "I don't have time for your mind games, Alex."
She reached out, her fingers intentionally shoving against the heavy leather of his boot to yank the wire free. But before she could detangle it, Alex's boot shifted deliberately, trapping her fingers against the floor under the weight of his shoe. It wasn't enough to crush her bones, but the heavy, unyielding pressure was a clear show of force.
"You're in my space, Elena," Alex murmured, leaning in closer, his shadow completely blocking out the light.
" A moment ago you were the one threating me not to cross the boundary , now look who did it first. But to be honest ..... You really look good ... right under my feet. The exact place where you belong to."
Elena didn't tremble from fear; she shook from pure, unadulterated fury. With a sudden, violent surge of adrenaline, she slammed her free palm against his lower leg using the opportunity to rip her trapped hand and the cord out from under his boot. The cord yanked tight, almost ripping apart.
She stood up in one fluid, aggressive motion, kicking his desk as she stepped back across her black line.
"Try a stunt like that again, Alex, and I'll ensure the next thing under your boot is your own teeth," she hissed, her chest heaving as she glared down at him from her side of the room.
Alex didn't smile with warmth. His lips curled into a cold, humorless smirk as he slowly leaned back in his chair, his eyes locked on her like a predator waiting for the next round. "I'd love to see you try."
At evening, the atmosphere in the office changed completely. The playful teasing vanished, replaced by a cold, heavy dread.
The clock on the wall of the grand hall showed exactly 6:00 PM. The room was packed with reporters, cameras, and bright lights. Alex sat on a stage in a comfortable leather chair, looking rich, powerful, and completely relaxed. He was being interviewed live on TV.
Elena stood just a few feet away from the stage. Until last week, she was basically the boss of this entire company. She ran everything, made all the big decisions, and everyone respected her. But Alex was so incredibly wealthy that he bought her entire company just to ruin her life. To humiliate her, he forced her into a new contract that she had to be his personal assistant (PA).
Seeing him sit in the very chair that used to be hers—a position she had earned with hard work and truly deserved—made her blood boil with pure anger. But at the end of the day, the real game was all about money. And when money talks, everyone else has to shut up and listen.
So yeah , here she is standing beside Alex in front of hundreds of people, holding his notebook and a bottle of water, pretending to be a good, obedient employee.
The interviewer smiled at Alex. "Mr. Valois, you just bought one of the biggest firms in the city. How do you plan to manage it all while being the president of your very own empire?"
Alex leaned back, a fake, charming smile on his face. His eyes shifted toward Elena. "I have a wonderful team. In fact, my new personal assistant, Elena, is the one who used to run this place. She is helping me adjust."
The interviewer looked surprised and turned to Elena. "Wow, really? That must be a big change."
All the cameras turned toward Elena. She felt a wave of pure anger, but she forced a polite, fake smile onto her face. She kept her voice calm and professional. "Yes. It is an honor to assist Mr. Valois. I am just doing my job."
Alex's smile grew wider. He loved seeing her struggle to stay polite. He decided to push her even further just to annoy her.
Actually," Alex said into his microphone, his voice smooth but mocking, "Elena is so good at her job. She is the one who keeps track of my entire life now. She knows my exact schedule, where all my files are, and handles every single piece of my personal information. I don't have to worry about a thing. Right Ms. Vane " He asked her with a clear intention to annoy her more as she had to agree with whatever he says, which was usually rare .
" Umm Elena, I'm a bit thirsty. Could you pour me a glass of water right now? My throat is dry from all this talking."Alex said.
It was a completely unnecessary demand. The water bottle was right next to him on a small table. He just wanted to make her serve him in front of the whole world.
Elena's hands tightened around the notebook. She wanted nothing more than to throw the water in his face. But with the cameras watching her every move, she couldn't break character.
She walked onto the stage, her high heels clicking loudly against the floor. She picked up the bottle, poured the water into a glass, and handed it to him.
"Here is your water, sir," she said, putting a heavy emphasis on the word sir.
As Alex took the glass from her, his fingers brushed against hers on purpose. He looked straight into her eyes, fully enjoying the absolute fury hidden behind her fake smile.
"Thank you, Elena," Alex whispered just loud enough for her to hear. "Make sure you stay close. I'm going to need a lot of things tonight."
Elena turned around and walked back to her spot, her teeth clenched so hard they ached. She swore to herself that she would make him pay for this.
As soon as the interview ended, the cameras turned off, and the crowd began to move away. Elena was so furious she could barely breathe. She marched straight toward Alex, ready to tell him exactly what she thought of his little game.
But just as she reached him, her phone started vibrating violently in her pocket.
She pulled it out and looked at the screen. Her heart skipped a beat. It was an urgent call about a massive, secret transfer of money. She had just moved billions from her hidden Mafia Syndicate banks straight into her legal business accounts. If anyone found out about this, it would ruin everything.
Elena looked at Alex, trying to keep her face completely blank. "Agahh...Excuse me. I need to take this call in private."
She turned to walk away, but Alex stepped right in front of her, blocking her path. A cold, mocking smile played on his lips.
"Where do you think you're going?" Alex asked, his voice smooth and demanding. "You are my personal assistant, remember? Answer it right here, right in front of me, on speaker. Or don't answer it at all."
Elena froze. Her hand tightened around the phone as it kept ringing. She absolutely could not answer it here. She didn't know that Alex already knew everything about her secret Mafia money. In her mind, she thought her secret was perfectly safe, and she was terrified of him finding out.
If he heard this call, he would use it to destroy her. He would go straight to the company's board members and show them that the professional, hardworking Elena was just a fake mask to hide a dangerous women.
Alex watched her hesitation, thoroughly enjoying her sudden panic, though he didn't drop a single hint that he already knew her secret.
Elena stared at him, her eyes burning with hatred. Slow and deliberate, she pressed the button on her screen and declined the call, letting the screen go black.
"It wasn't important, sir," she lied through her teeth, forcing herself to stand tall.
Elena put her phone back in her pocket, believing she had successfully saved her secret for another day. She was doing everything she could to hide her little secret from him. But she had absolutely no idea that her hard work was completely useless. She didn't know that Alex already knew her secret, and her biggest fear was going to come true very, very soon.