No One’s Pov

"What do you mean by once again?" Dominic asked, his deep voice sending a visible shiver down the owner’s spine.

"I... uh..." The owner completely lost her words, looking at his cold face. She became deeply confused, wondering if she had somehow made a terrible mistake.

To prove her point, she hurriedly started typing on her old desktop PC. She searched through the archives and played a CCTV footage clip from exactly five months ago.

"Look here, isn’t this you, Mr. Valente?" she asked, pointing at the screen. The grainy CCTV footage clearly showed his tall, unmistakable figure entering the shop in the middle of the night.

"It is indeed you, boss," the assistant muttered from behind him, his eyes wide as he stared at the screen.

Dominic looked at the footage silently, his expression unreadable. He had absolutely no memory of ever visiting this cheap store five months ago.

"You came here back then asking all about my old staff member," the owner explained. She let out a nasty, ugly smirk. "I thought she had caused some massive trouble for you, so I fired her immediately on the day she came back! I know you came back here today to give me a reward, Mr. Valente, since you are such a generous, wealthy man..." she added, her eyes glinting with pure greed.

Dominic’s eyes became dangerously cold. "What was her name again?"

"Ugh, that lazy girl who always wears those ugly, thick glasses? Of course, her name is Vivien!" the owner scoffed loudly. She held her chin up proudly. "I taught her a very good lesson back then. She will definitely never mess with anyone important again!"

Dominic let out a freezing breath. "Interesting..."

He turned on his shoe to leave the shop, but the owner quickly chirped from behind the counter, her hands held out. "Uh, Mr. Valente... what about my reward?"

"Hmm, yeah. Your reward..." Dominic stopped. He didn’t even look back at her as he glanced coldly at his assistant. "Make sure this convenience store goes completely bankrupt by tonight." With that final order, he walked out into the street.

"Yes, boss!" the assistant replied with a broad smile. He quickly followed behind Dominic, but not before glancing back at the owner’s completely drained face.

The assistant stopped at the door and turned around, looking at the greedy woman. "You should know better than to talk shit about the girl working directly under our boss," he said, giving her a quick, mocking wink.

Every single drop of color instantly drained from the owner’s face. The poor girl she had cruelly fired few days ago... she was now working under a literal multi-billionaire? And now her own precious store was going to be completely destroyed before the sun went down? The shock was too much for her, and her eyes rolled back as she fainted onto the hard floor.

The other shop worker present in the store didn’t even bother to help their unconscious boss. They didn’t dare to look at her. Instead, they happily tossed their apron onto the counter, grabbed their bag, and walked out the door, quietly thanking Vivien in their heart for finally getting them freedom from this toxic job!

__________

Inside the quiet car, the assistant couldn’t hold his tongue any longer. He peeked through the rearview mirror, his eyes sparkling with gossip.

"Boss, did you actually know Miss Vivien from before? I mean, I checked her file, and you both went to the exact same high school! Which means... oh my god, she must be your unrequited love! That’s why, just like a classic male lead, you searched for her after all these years and visited her workplace in the middle of the night... Oh damn, this is literally a K-drama..."

Dominic shot a glare at his yapper assistant, and the man instantly shut his mouth, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

But what the assistant said wasn’t completely a lie.

Vivien was indeed someone from his past. During his high school days, Dominic was always surrounded by Amelia. Amelia was possessive, aggressively chasing away every single girl who dared to approach or confess to him. But among the crowd, there had been one specific girl. She was incredibly shy, timid, and quiet. Dominic had noticed her one day by chance, and from that moment on, his eyes would instinctively search for her in the hallways. Yet, before he could ever learn her name or speak to her, she seemed to vanish, and he could never find her again.

No wonder he felt such an intense, immediate connection toward Vivien the moment his gaze fell on her.

But what about that convenience store visit five months ago? Was his memory failing him? Is he actually forgetting a piece of his own life?

In the book it was mentioned that only Dante discovered about Viviens real life affair, it wasn’t mentioned how he knew where she lives and worked. The fact that her locations matched exactly with the description of what Dante said....

Dominic’s hands tightened into fists as his mind raced. If all that nonsense his assistant babbled about "Isekai" and web novels was actually real... then it only meant one thing.

The Villainess, Viella, was actually Vivien.

The Female Lead Alina, was Amelia.

And he... he wasn’t just Dominic Valente. He was Dante Valerio Moretti.

Soon, a chilling smirk slowly appeared on his lips. His icy eyes sparkled with unspoken glint.

If they were all real, then the mysterious Author wasn’t just a random novelist. He was someone who knew all of them in real life. Someone who was actively playing god with their destinies.

And Dante Valerio Moretti did not like being played.

Soon, a loud ringtone interrupted his dark thoughts. Dominic looked down at the glowing screen of his phone. It was his mother again.

He slid the screen to answer and placed it to his ear.

"Oh, my sweet baby! Mamma missed you soo much!" a cheerful, sweet voice echoed loudly through the speaker.

Dominic’s eyebrows furrowed deeply at the dramatic greeting. He remained completely silent, waiting for her to get to the point.

Listening to the absolute silence coming from the other side of the line, his mother immediately got offended. "Don’t tell me you no longer love your own mother! Wow, what a cold, heartless son I raised! Hmph. I am absolutely sure you even forgot my birthday this year!"

"It is on December 12th, mom," he said smoothly, his voice flat.

"No, no, no! I officially changed it to tomorrow!" she declared proudly. "I want to celebrate my birthday tomorrow, so you better start preparing for everything right now! And you absolutely must bring my dau- I mean, that girl you are currently seeing! I can’t wait a single second more, okay? Bye!"

Without even giving him a chance to utter a single word of protest, she sharply cut off the call.

Dominic let out a low chuckle, setting the phone down on his lap. Honestly, he had already been thinking about introducing Vivien to his world much sooner anyway, whether she liked it or not. She was his, after all.

And as for his mother’s "daughter-in-law"... Dominic picked his phone back up and unlocked it. He looked down at his screen, staring intensely at a hidden picture he had taken of Vivien’s softly flushed, sleeping face from the night before.

His dark eyes practically dripped with a terrifying obsession.

Up front, the assistant accidentally caught a glimpse of his boss’s expression in the rearview mirror. He swallowed hard, a cold sweat breaking out on his arms. He genuinely felt like his billionaire boss was currently possessed by a literal demon, and he quickly looked away, focusing entirely on the road ahead!

_______________

Vivien was rushing so fast toward her classroom that she suddenly bumped straight into a broad chest. Her balance gave out, and she was about to fall backward onto the hard floor, but strong hands instantly grabbed her shoulders and stabilized her. She looked up in a panic, and her eyes met Enzo’s calm gaze.

Enzo looked down at her, but his friendly smile suddenly faltered. His eyes tracked downward, locking onto the faint red marks and flushed skin on her neck. His gaze instantly became incredibly dark.

"You okay?" he asked. His voice bit cold.

"Yeah... thanks," she said, quickly taking a step back to steady herself and break his grip.

"Seems like you had a really rough sleep last night," Enzo said, his eyes still completely fixed on her skin.

Vivien’s eyebrows furrowed in deep confusion. "What on earth makes you say that?"

Enzo simply raised his hand and pointed toward her neck. Vivien’s face instantly flushed with embarrassment as she remembered the red skin she saw in the mirror. "Uh... ah, yeah. Kind of," she stammered, pulling her collar up slightly.

He looked at her tense posture, a dark amusement crossing his features. Naive girl, he thought to himself. She really has no idea what kind of monsters she is dealing with.

"Well, anyway, I deserve a proper apology today, don’t you think?" Enzo asked, tilting his head.

Vivien was completely dumbfounded. "An apology? For what?"

"For running out of my villa yesterday morning without even informing me," he said, stepping a bit closer. "You just vanished."

"Ah... yeah. Sorry about that," she said quickly, wanting nothing more than to end this conversation.

Suddenly, Enzo felt aprickle of irritation at her dismissive attitude. He leaned down, staring directly into her panicked eyes, cornering her in the hallway. "Why do I feel like you are actively avoiding me right now, Vivien? Aren’t we supposed to be friends?"

Vivien tried her best to brush it off, forcing a small smile. "Like you just said, I had a really rough sleep. I’m just exhausted, probably that’s why." With that, she turned on her shoe and began walking rapidly toward her lecture hall.

Enzo stayed behind, watching her retreating figure. He let out a low chuckle under his breath.

"You weren’t even at your own apartment last night," he muttered into the quiet hallway, his eyes narrowing. "Now I really wonder how you had such a rough sleep... Is it because of Dominic, hm, babygirl? If he’s the reason then I will be so jealous baby.... because It should be only me who ruins your sleep just like you ruined mine~

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TO BE CONTINUED