Chapter 5 CLASH OF WILLS

The morning began with a stack of files so tall Anna thought Claire was joking.

"These are to be reviewed, summarized, and reorganized before Mr. Knight's three o'clock meeting," Claire said crisply, dropping the tower of folders onto Anna's desk with a thud. "He expects precision. No errors. And considering you're new, I wouldn't get your hopes up about leaving before midnight."

Anna stared at the pile, her heart sinking. Contracts, reports, financial statements-hundreds of pages that would normally take a team days to handle.

"This is impossible," she muttered under her breath.

Claire's sharp eyes flicked up, unimpressed. "Nothing is impossible when it comes to Mr. Knight. If you can't handle this, perhaps you don't belong here."

And with that, she walked away, her heels clicking like a metronome of doom.

Anna exhaled shakily, pushing her hair from her face. All right, fine. They wanted to drown her? She'd swim.

She rolled up her sleeves, grabbed the first file, and got to work.

---

By noon, her desk was littered with sticky notes and coffee cups. Her fingers cramped from scribbling summaries, her eyes burned from scanning endless lines of legal jargon. Every time she thought she was making progress, another assistant dropped off more files "from Mr. Knight."

It was deliberate. She knew it.

Alexander was testing her.

Part of her wanted to scream, to storm into his office and demand why he was trying to break her. But another part-stubborn, unyielding-refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her quit.

If he thought she'd crumble, he was wrong.

---

At 2:45, Anna stood outside the boardroom, clutching her neatly organized binder of summaries. She had worked like a machine, barely breathing, refusing to let herself fail.

When the doors opened, she stepped inside, nerves coiling tight.

Alexander sat at the head of the table, sharp and unreadable. His gaze flicked to her immediately, then down to the binder in her hands.

"Miss Williams," he said coolly. "Let's see if you're worth the chair you're sitting in."

Anna's pulse quickened. She placed the binder before him, her notes precise, color-coded, every page tabbed for quick reference.

He flipped through the first few pages in silence. The room was suffocatingly quiet, every executive holding their breath as the CEO's eyes scanned line after line.

Finally, Alexander looked up.

"Not bad," he said.

The executives seemed to exhale in unison. Anna's shoulders sagged with relief-until he added, "For an amateur."

Heat flushed her cheeks. "I-"

"You missed three discrepancies in the Logan file," he cut in, his tone sharp. "You caught details most wouldn't, but you overlooked the obvious. Do you know what that tells me?"

Anna swallowed. "That I need to do better."

His lips curved faintly, dangerously. "That you can do better."

Her eyes widened. That wasn't a dismissal. It was... something else.

Alexander leaned forward, his gaze locking onto hers like a predator sizing up prey. "You're not afraid of pressure. That much is clear. But pressure is only the beginning. I want to see what happens when you're cornered. When failure isn't an option."

The words sent a shiver down her spine. This wasn't just work. This was a game to him-a test of endurance, of willpower.

Anna straightened her shoulders, forcing her voice steady. "Then you'll see I don't break easily."

The faintest smirk touched his lips, though his eyes remained as sharp as steel. "We'll see, Miss Williams. We'll see."

---

After the meeting, Anna returned to her desk, her heart still pounding. The binder sat on Alexander's table, her work dissected yet not discarded.

For the first time since entering his world, she realized something chilling.

He didn't just want an assistant.

He wanted a challenger.

And whether she was ready or not, she had just become one.