Introduction

For five years, I lived for Marcus, my boss-a phantom in the shadows, cleaning up his messes, raising his son, Leo, and silently loving him.

I secretly nursed a fragile hope, even as he brushed off my unspoken feelings with a dismissive, "You're too young, Ava. Don't get tied down with an old man like me." Yet, in the next breath, he' d ask me to pick up Leo from school.

Then came the corporate espionage, a mission that went sideways fast, and Marcus was captured.

The rival CEO, a ruthless man named Victor Thorne, contacted me, demanding my deadliest secret-a vulnerability I' d found in his company's system.

I gave it up without a second thought; Marcus' s life was worth any cost.

He came back shaken but unharmed, and I felt hollowed out, used.

The next day, I heard him talking to our PR manager, Celeste. "She always tried to get me to commit. Never met such a desperate woman!"

Celeste purred, "You have to admit, she's useful."

"Useful?" Marcus scoffed. "If she wasn't so good at digging up dirt, I would have fired her years ago! Her puppy-dog eyes are exhausting."

My world shattered. Every sacrifice, every late night, every ounce of love I' d poured into him, into his son-it was all a joke, a convenience.

I was just...useful.

My heart didn' t just break; it disintegrated.

I realized I' d mistaken a job for a home, a boss for a savior.

Later that week, everything fell apart even more.

A routine operation turned into an ambush, and gunfire erupted.

A bullet tore through my shoulder. Another grazed my side. Pain exploded through me.

The last thing I heard before darkness consumed me was Marcus' s frantic cry over the comms system: "Ava! No! Please, God, please, bring her back to me..."

Too little, too late.