No One’s Pov

Vivien looked down at the book. A sudden thought struck her-

She flipped it over, checking the back cover for some hint. There it was, printed in a clean font: "E.Z"

"Damn it, he’s using a pen name," Vivien muttered, the frustration bubbling up. She needed answers, and she needed them now.

Her eyes scanned the room until they landed on her phone, sitting beside the bedstand.

"Damn, it feels so good to see my phone finally," she breathed, reaching for it. "Who knows how long I’ve been without it." She gripped the device, pressing the power button but the screen remained hollow black. It was dead.

"Ugh!" She felt the irritation peak and threw the phone aside. It landed with a dull thud on the mattress.

Giving up for now, she laid back on the bed.

I guess I’m just worrying too much, she tried to tell herself, her heart rate slowly evening out.

What’s gone is gone. It’s not like Elias can do anything to me anymore. This is a real world... Not his book where he can do as he please.

The thought of the real world brought a different kind of ache. "And Dante..."

Vivien stayed silent for a long moment. A shadow of grief crossed her face. "He’s gone too," she whispered to the empty space.

Her eyes drifted back to the book resting beside her. Almost unconsciously, her finger reached out, tracing the ink of Dante’s Name. She caressed the letters slowly, over and over, until the lines blurred and her eyelids grew heavy.

With the book still tucked under her hand, she finally dozed off.

In her sleep, Vivien felt a heavy suffocating presence, like a someones shadow falling over her frame. Someone was watching her- standing right beside her bedstand, motionless, for a long time.

She could feel a faint hot breath against her cheek, making her skin crawl. Her brows furrowed as she shifted in her sleep, trying to escape the odd sensation.

Then, suddenly, a hand reached out.

The moment the fingers tapped her shoulder, Vivien jolted awake with a gasp. Her heart jumping out, panting, her eyes darting around the room to see who was in front of her.

"Oh, honey, did I scare you? I am sorry," her mom said gently, withdrawing her hand.

Vivien let out a long breath, clutching the blanket to her chest. "No, Mom... just a scary nightmare, I guess." She wiped a bead of cold sweat from her forehead, then looked more closely at her mother.

She was dressed for travel, holding her bag. "Where are you going?"

Her mother stayed silent for a bit, her expression unreadable, before she finally spoke. "Me and your dad have to go back. Something happened, so... but don’t worry about us, okay?"

Vivien’s face fell. She felt a sudden pang of loneliness, the reality of being truly back in her own life finally sinking in. But she forced a small nod anyway. "Okay. Stay safe."

After freshening up and splashing cold water on her face, she bade them goodbye at the door.

The apartment felt strangely empty the moment they left. Finally, her eyes fell over the clock on the wall.

It was 10:00 AM.

"Oh shit! Don’t I have a job?!"

Panic surged through her. She hadn’t worked in five months- she was probably lucky if her boss hadn’t deleted her from the payroll entirely.

She scrambled through her closet, pulling out the first decent thing she could find. She hurriedly changed into a white mini dress, cinching the waist and smoothing the fabric over her hips

She looked in the mirror and let out a small tired sigh. She wasn’t nearly as striking as Viella. Her face had more of a softness to it, with round, chubby cheeks and ordinary black hair that didn’t fall in perfect waves. Her eyes were a simple light brown, and her skin was pale- not that soft smooth like Viella but the kind of white that came from lying in a hospital bed for months.

"Where are my glasses?!" she hissed. She finally spotted them on the nightstand, shoved them onto her face, slipped into her shoes, and ran off.

The streets of the city were buzzing, a chaotic sound of honking cars and bustling crowds. She wove through the people, her lungs burning, until she finally reached her old place of work

A brightly lit convenience store on the corner.

The moment she pushed through the glass doors, the chime overhead rang out, and her coworkers froze. They stared at her in an uncomfortable silence.

Vivien felt a wave of awkwardness wash over her. "Um... hey? I’m back?"

Before anyone could respond, a sharp clicking of heels approached. A middle aged woman with a tight bun and a fierce scowl rounded the corner.

"Who allowed her in here? Didn’t I say that if she ever showed her face again, you were to tell her to leave?"

Vivien’s heart sank. "Boss..."

"I don’t want to hear a single word out of your mouth!" the woman shouted, her face reddening. "You ditched this store for five months! Do you have any idea how much trouble you caused us?"

Vivien tried to step forward, her voice trembling. "I didn’t ditch you! It’s because I was in the hospital! I was in a coma, I-"

"I don’t care if you were on the moon!" the boss screamed, pointing a finger at the door. "Five months is five months. We’ve already replaced you. Now leave!"

With a rough shove, the woman practically kicked Vivien out onto the sidewalk. The door slammed shut, the chime ringing one last time like a mocking goodbye.

Vivien looked through the glass, seeing her former coworkers give her one last pitiful look before they lowered their heads and went back to stocking shelves.

She stood there on the busy road, her white dress fluttering in the wind, feeling smaller than she ever had in the Moretti mansion. In the book, she was a villainess people feared. Here, she was just a girl who couldn’t even keep a job at a convenience store.

"Great," she whispered, her throat tightening. "Back to reality, and I’m already unemployed and extra broke"

Vivien cursed under her breath, kicking a stray pebble across the pavement. "No wonder I hate the wealthy. Look at that woman! What did she expect? Did she want me to roll up to my shift dragging a saline bottle and an IV pole? ’Welcome to the store, would you like a side of my medical debt with those chips?’ Honestly, some people act like a coma is just a really long nap."

She was so busy grumbling and roasting her ex-boss that she didn’t realize she had wandered right into the middle of the street.

Suddenly, a blinding flash of light hit her eyes, accompanied by the screech of tires.

SCREEEEEECH!

Vivien froze. Her heart thumping loudly. The grill of a massive polished black car was inches from her knees.

She stood paralyzed, her eyes wide behind her glasses.

The driver’s door flew open, and a man stepped out, his face red with fury. "Are you blind or what?! You have a death wish? I almost turned you into a pancake!"

Vivien stayed in a daze, her mouth hanging open, unable to even find a witty comeback.

Suddenly, a window at the back of the car rolled down just an inch. A cold, low voice from inside commanded, "Shut up and get in. I don’t have any time to waste."

The driver instantly fell silent, his anger replaced by a look of terror. He bowed his head and scrambled back into the car before glaring at her one last time.

A moment later, the passenger door opened, and a man in a professional suit- clearly an assistant- stepped out. He walked toward her with a polite but cautious expression. "Miss, are you okay? Are you injured?"

Vivien snapped out of her trance, nodding frantically. "I- I’m so sorry! I wasn’t looking. I’m fine, really. I apologize for the trouble."

The assistant gave her a brief, searching look before nodding and getting back into the car.

As the door closed, Vivien caught a fleeting glimpse of the man sitting in the back. Even through the tinted glass, she could see a sharp jawline and his slender body. He was undeniably handsome.

Who was that? I don’t know anyone like that around here, she thought, her brow furrowed.

The engine started, and the car pulled away, followed immediately by two other identical black SUVs.

"Seems like a powerful someone," she muttered, watching the cars disappear into the city traffic.

Shaking off the near-death experience, she turned toward the direction of her home.

Between losing her job and almost getting flattened by a billionaire’s convoy, she just wanted to crawl into her bed and hide.

Meanwhile -

The man in the back seat remained motionless, his eyes locked onto the rearview mirror. He watched Vivien’s retreating small figure until she faded into the distance of the city streets.

His focus was absolutely cold that made the air inside the car feel heavy.

His assistant, sitting in the passenger seat, shifted uncomfortably.

He had worked for this man for years and had seen him navigate boardroom wars and hostile takeovers without blinking. But he had never seen his boss show a flicker of concern for a stranger, let alone a girl wandering aimlessly into traffic. Normally he would despite such vulnerable girls.

"Ahem... Boss..." the assistant started, clearing his throat nervously. "Do you, by any chance, know that girl?"

The man didn’t answer. Instead, he slowly shifted his gaze from the mirror to the back of the assistant’s head. It was a glare so sharp and icy that the assistant felt the temperature in the car drop ten degrees.

He immediately snapped his mouth shut and stared straight ahead at the dashboard.

"I guess you don’t..." the assistant muttered under his breath, looking up at the car’s ceiling as if seeking divine protection from his boss’s temper.

Without acknowledging the comment or offering a single word of explanation, the man reached for his laptop. He opened it with a click, the blue light of the screen reflecting in his dark siren eyes.

His long fingers began work across the keys, his mind seemingly returning to the world of power plays. A small smirk played on his lips as if finding something interesting after a long time.

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To Be Continued