No One’s POV

Vivien followed him silently, her mind racing. The sleepiness had been replaced by a surge of anxiety. Who was the ’friend’ he was talking about? she wondered, racking her brain. I don’t even remember anyone sitting next to me, let alone having a friend on this campus. She was so busy with her thoughts that she didn’t realize the hallway had gone silent or that the man in front of her had come to a stop.

Thump.

She walked straight into his broad back. It was like hitting a brick wall.

Dominic had stopped on his tracks a few paces back, sensing her following him like a dazed duckling with her head down.

When she bumped into him, he didn’t move. He felt the light impact, but more than that, he felt her scent- a soft, clean fragrance that hit him like a memory from one of his blurry dreams. It was a pleasant, a feeling that momentarily cut through his irritation.

He looked down at her. From this angle, she looked small, almost cute, following him so obediently. He felt that familiar, twitchy urge in his fingers again. He wanted to reach out, brush those messy bangs aside, and toss those glasses across the hallway just to see her eyes clearly.

Instead, his hand merely flexed at his side. He turned away abruptly and started walking again without a word.

"What was that for?" Vivien muttered under her breath, rubbing her sore nose. "Does he have a sensor for when I’m deep in thought just so he can stop and make me look like an idiot?"

She hurried to catch up. They reached an iron bound door at the end of the basement corridor- the archives. It looked exactly like the kind of place where one would hide a body.

Dominic pulled out a key and unlocked the door.

"In" he commanded, stepping aside to let her pass.

As Vivien stepped into the dim, dusted room filled with high shelves of old records, she felt the door click shut behind her.

"You’re going to reorganize the student records from the last ten years," Dominic said, leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest.

Vivien stared at the mountain of dusty boxes and overflowing shelves, her jaw practically hitting the floor. "Last... ten YEARS?!!!" she shrieked, her voice echoing off the cold stone walls.

She looked at him, searching for even a hint of a prank. "You’re joking, right? This is a prank for a YouTube channel? Where’s the camera?"

Dominic didn’t even blink. He just leaned back against the door, raising a single eyebrow. The silence was his answer.

Vivien’s face fell, her expression one of pure horror. "YOU WANNA KILL THE BABY?!!!"

Dominic paused, his gaze slowly scanning the empty, dusty room. "Where exactly is this ’baby’ you speak of?"

"In front of you!" Vivien cried, pointing a dramatic finger at her own chest. "I am the baby! I’m a fragile, sleep-deprived student! I will actually die in here! The dust alone is a health hazard!"

"I’ll hold a very expensive funeral for you, don’t worry," Dominic replied, his voice dripping with dry irony. "Now, get to work before I decide that sleeping in class warrants a trip to detention instead of a ’promotion’ to my personal archive assistant."

Defeated and pouting, Vivien slumped onto a small stool. She grabbed the first folder with a look of utter betrayal, her lips moving silently as she cursed him in three different languages- Cunning, micromanaging, siren-eyed bastard, she thought, aggressively filing a paper.

Dominic didn’t leave. Instead, he pulled up a chair across the room, watching her every move. His usual cold mask had cracked just enough for a tiny satisfied lift at the corner of his lips.

He found himself mesmerized by her. Every time she reached a particularly dusty file, she’d scrunched up her nose, and her cheeks would puff out in annoyance. She looked like a frustrated little bunny, and for the first time in his life, Dominic felt a strange urge that had nothing to do with business.

He wanted to reach out, pinch those puffy cheeks, and maybe even bite them just to hear what kind of indignant squeak she’d make.

"You missed a folder," he said suddenly, his voice low.

Vivien jumped, nearly dropping the heavy file. "I’m working! Stop hovering! You’re literally the human embodiment of a laggy operating system!"

"And you," Dominic murmured, his eyes darkening as he watched her struggle with a stray strand of hair, "are the most interesting bug I’ve ever encountered."

Vivien froze, her heart doing that annoying thumping thing again. She peeked at him through her bangs. "Is that supposed to be a compliment or are you calling me a pest?"

"Depends on how fast you finish those files," he replied, though his gaze remained fixed on her face, tracing the lines he couldn’t wait to see clearly.

Should I just strangle him to death right here?

Vivien thought, eyeing his neck with murderous intent. There are no cameras in this basement. No one would ever find out.

Her memories flashed back to Viella’s time, when she took down entire mafia squads with a single blade. But then reality hit her. In real-world Vivien didn’t have a dagger or super

human reflexes, she had exactly three karate lessons from middle school.

She dropped the idea with a heavy sigh and went back to wrestling with a file from 2016.

Suddenly, her phone buzzed on the dusty table. Her heart beating fast. The unknown number again. Is it Elias? Is he calling from the ’other side’? She took a shaky breath and swiped to answer, her voice trembling. "H-hello?"

As the person on the other end spoke, Vivien’s entire posture changed. Her shoulders dropped, and a massive grin broke across her face.

"Yes! Yes, that’s me! Yes, I submitted my CV. At 3:00 PM today? Absolutely! I’ll be there for the interview. Thank you so much!"

She hung up, her exhaustion vanishing in an instant. She practically glowed with renewed energy. Finally! Something is actually going my way! Just get this job, get that paycheck, and I can buy those tickets without owing Mr. Grumpy Suit a single penny!

Dominic watched the transformation from across the room. Seeing her face light up was undeniably adorable- a spark of genuine joy that made his own chest tighten in a way he wasn’t used to. But then something caught his attention.

Interview. 3:00 PM.

Which meant she just received a job interview call.

The warmth in his eyes vanished, replaced by a sudden chill. Without saying a word, he stood up and walked out of the archives, the heavy door clicking shut behind him.

He pulled his phone and checked the information his man sent just two minutes ago and indeed he was right.

He dialed a number.

"The boutique firm on 5th Street," Dominic said, his voice dropping into bossy tone. "They just scheduled an interview with a girl named Vivien for 3:00 PM. Call the owner. Tell them if they so much as let her through the front door, I will pull every cent of Valente funding from their parent company by 3:01."

He hung up, staring at the closed door of the archives. He wasn’t going to let his "Miss Troublesome" wander off into someone else’s office. If she wanted a job, she had only one option.

And he wasn’t finished with her yet.

______________

Vivien was officially dying of hunger. It was already 11:00 AM, and between the all-nighter and the high-stakes office drama, her stomach was letting out a loud growls.

Suddenly, Dominic’s voice cut through the growling. "My throat is dry. Go to the cafeteria and bring me a black coffee and a slice of strawberry cake."

Vivien turned to look at him, her expression a mix of irritation and disbelief. Wow. Just wow. Over here, I’m literally about to faint from starvation, and he wants me to play delivery girl for his dessert cravings? But with the threat of the "detention" still looming, she obediently trudged over to him.

He reached into his wallet and pulled out a card, sliding it toward her between two fingers.

It was a Black Card.

Vivien’s eyes widened. Back in the book she only saw Dante casually threw around a black card to solve every problem, but seeing one in real life hit different. Is he seriously trying to flex on a broke college student right now? How much of a show-off can one billionaire be?

She snatched the card, a mischievous smirk dancing on her lips. "Sure, Mr. Valente. I’ll be right back."

Should I just runaway with this? she wondered, imagining herself at the airport with a one-way ticket to literally anywhere else.

As Vivien walked out of the achieve, she didn’t notice the shadow lurking near the corner.

Amelia stood frozen, watching the baggy hoodie girl walk out while casually swinging Dominic’s personal black card in her hand.

Amelia’s face fell, her complexion turning a ghostly pale before flushing with pure rage. So this is why he was ’busy’? This is the ’urgent’ matter that was more important than lunch with me? He’s letting a common student use his credit?

She felt a stinging irritation growing in her chest. The memories of past suddenly flashes before her eyes. She wasn’t letting the past repeat itself. Not in this life.

"Investigate her," Amelia commanded, her voice trembling with cold fury. "I want to know her name, her grades, her family, and exactly how she got her hands on his card."

Her assistant, still nursing a bruised ego from earlier, nodded quickly. "Right away, Miss Amelia. I’ll have a full report by this evening."

Amelia watched Vivien disappear toward the cafeteria, her eyes narrowing into slits. "You might be playing assistant today, little girl, but let’s see how long you last once I pull back the curtain."

Just as the assistant hurried off, Amelia felt a sudden, heavy presence behind her. A chill ran down her spine. She spun around, her eyes widening in genuine shock.

"What are you doing here?!" she hissed, her voice dropping to a frantic whisper. She glanced around the hallway, her heart beating fast. "Are you insane? What if someone recognizes you?!"

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TO BE CONTINUED