"Revenge isn't a choice... it's a promise the heart makes when it's stabbed."
🕯️ Verdale City – After Midnight
The sky was darker than sin itself. No stars. No moon. Just a hollow emptiness that mirrored her soul. Rain fell in a soft drizzle, like tears shed by the heavens for the damned city below. Cars rushed past on the main road, oblivious to what hid in the alley... where only her shadow remained.
Liana Morgan.
A name long thought buried. A woman the world presumed dead. Tonight, after five years in the shadows—five years of pain, training, and planning—she was no longer the naive girl they destroyed.
Tonight... she was the storm they never saw coming. Tonight... it begins.
---
⚡ Flashback – Five Years Ago
"You're naive, Liana."
That voice... the one she once loved. The voice she trusted more than her own heartbeat.
"Why... why, Daniel?"
Her tears mixed with the blood dripping from her forehead. Her wrists were bound; her world crumbling into darkness.
He chuckled, cold and hollow.
"Why? Because the world eats fools like you for breakfast. You were... easy prey."
A woman stepped forward, her smile wicked as she held up the contract—once in Liana's name—now signed away.
"Goodbye, Liana... no one will remember you."
Then... the gunshot.
She thought it was the end.
But it was only the beginning.
---
🔥 Present Day – Crawford Manor
Inside the mansion, luxury oozed from every corner. Chandeliers, velvet curtains, and marble floors whispered the same thing: power... and corruption.
Andre Crawford, a man in his fifties, sat behind his grand mahogany desk. Ruthless. Cunning. Wealth draped around him like armor, but it wouldn't save him tonight.
As he flipped through documents, sipping whiskey, something felt... off. A noise—soft. Out of place.
He looked up.
A shadow.
Suddenly...
The lights went out.
"Lucia? Did the power—" he snapped, hitting the emergency button. No response.
Footsteps. Slow. Deliberate.
A melody of death.
"It's been a long time... hasn't it, Andre?"
His face went pale. That voice... No. Impossible.
"Liana? No... you're... you're dead."
She emerged from the shadows like a phantom draped in midnight. A sleek black suit. A long coat flowing behind her. A dagger glinting under the sliver of moonlight that broke through the clouds.
She smirked, her voice dripping with venom:
"Funny... how the dead only stay buried when the living forget to dig."
He lunged for his desk drawer—his gun—but she was faster. A sharp kick sent the drawer flying, the gun skidding across the floor.
"Don't bother... others tried. None succeeded."
Grabbing him by the collar, she yanked him forward:
"Tell me... is Daniel still hiding behind you? Or has he finally shown his true cowardice?"
Andre trembled, desperately clinging to a facade of power.
"You... you won't do it. You can't."
Her cold laugh was enough to freeze the air.
"Your first mistake... was ever thinking I couldn't."
With one brutal shove, she knocked him to the ground. Striding to his desk, she picked up a framed photo—him and his board of co-conspirators. The same people who betrayed her.
Her eyes darkened. Then—
Crack.
The glass shattered beneath her boot.
"They'll fall... one by one. You're the first. You won't be the last."
Andre scrambled backward, reaching for the landline. But a dagger whistled through the air, piercing the phone.
"Oh no... no calls tonight. Just you, me... and the ghosts of the past."
---
đź’Ł The Breaking Point
She knelt down, staring into his panicked eyes. Her voice softened, but it was laced with fire:
"Tell me, Andre... how much did Daniel pay for my betrayal? A million? Two? Or was my life cheaper than that?"
His lips trembled.
"I... I had no choice... they forced me... please, believe me, Liana..."
Her laugh was sharper than any blade.
"Believe you? Oh, darling... you should've gone into comedy instead of crime."
She stood slowly, striking a match. Watching the tiny flame dance between her fingers, she let it fall onto his scattered papers.
Flames bloomed instantly, swallowing the contracts that once ruined her.
"Tonight... you'll watch your empire burn... just like you watched my life fall to ashes."
---
🚨 Alarms Blared
Sirens wailed as the fire spread, but she didn't flee. Standing tall amidst the growing inferno, she leaned close, whispering:
"Remember this, Andre... the shadows never forget. And sometimes... justice wears the mask of vengeance."
Then—like smoke—she was gone.
Andre sat there, coughing, staring in horror as his life's work burned to the ground. His empire crumbled before his eyes...
And he knew... the storm had only just begun.
Because Liana Morgan... is the hurricane coming for them all.
---
✔️ End of Chapter One
🩸 Next Chapter Preview:
Liana hunts her next target... but an unexpected figure from her past appears. Someone she believed had died that day... Is he an enemy? Or a surprise ally in the game of revenge?