I'm staring at the woman who ruined my life, and she's smiling like she doesn't even remember me. "Mr. Chen." Vivienne Hart extends her hand across the mahogany conference table, her perfectly manicured nails catching the light. "I've heard so much about you." My jaw clenches so hard I'm surprised my teeth don't crack. Five years. Five years since she obliterated my first company, scattered my team to the winds, and left me with nothing but debt and a burning need to prove myself. And now she stands here in her designer suit, acting like we're strangers about to discuss a friendly merger. I don't take her hand. "Ms. Hart." My voice comes out cold enough to frost the windows of this twentieth-floor boardroom. "Let's skip the pleasantries. Why are you really here?" Something flickers in her emerald eyes—surprise, maybe, or recognition. But it's gone before I can identify it. She withdraws her hand smoothly, not a hint of embarrassment on her flawless face. "Direct. I like that." She settles into the chair opposite me, crossing her legs with deliberate grace. "I'm here because Hart Industries is interested in acquiring NovaTech. Your AI security platform would complement our existing portfolio beautifully." I laugh. Actually laugh. "You want to buy my company?" "For a very generous price." She slides a folder across the table. "Twelve billion dollars. Cash offer. You'd retain a position as Chief Innovation Officer, of course. We value your expertise." I don't touch the folder. "Not interested." "You haven't even looked at the terms." "I don't need to." I lean back, studying her. She's changed since that boardroom five years ago. Her dark hair is shorter now, cut in a sleek bob that emphasizes her sharp cheekbones. She's older, more polished, more dangerous. "Tell me something, Ms. Hart. Do you remember Prometheus Solutions?" The question lands like a grenade. I watch her face carefully, searching for any sign of guilt, remorse, anything human. Her expression doesn't change, but her fingers still on the folder. "The startup that collapsed in 2019? I'm aware of it." "You're aware of it." I repeat her words slowly, tasting the bitterness. "That's one way to describe what you did. Another would be corporate sabotage, poaching key personnel, and strategic market manipulation designed to destroy a competitor." Now I have her attention. She sits up straighter, and I see the predator beneath the polished exterior. "That's a serious accusation, Mr. Chen." "It's the truth." I stand, planting my hands on the table. "I was the founder of Prometheus Solutions. The twenty-four-year-old kid you crushed without a second thought. Did you even remember? Or was it just another Tuesday for you?" Recognition finally dawns in her eyes, and with it, something that might be regret. But it's quickly replaced by steel. "Business is business." Her voice is ice. "If your company couldn't compete—" "Couldn't compete?" I cut her off. "We had the better product. We had the market advantage. What we didn't have was your bottomless resources and complete lack of ethics." She rises to face me, and despite her six-inch heels, I still have several inches on her. "I built Hart Industries from nothing. I don't apologize for being good at what I do." "Good?" I move around the table, closing the distance between us. "Is that what you call it? Stealing proprietary technology? Offering my entire engineering team double their salaries to jump ship two weeks before our Series B funding round? That's not good business, Vivienne. That's warfare." "Then you should have fought harder." Her chin tilts up defiantly. "The fact that you're here now, that you've built NovaTech into a six-billion-dollar company, proves you had what it takes all along." The audacity steals my breath. "You think you did me a favor?" "I think I taught you a valuable lesson." She doesn't back down, even though we're now close enough that I can smell her perfume—something expensive and intoxicating. "Clearly, you learned it well." "Oh, I learned." I smile, and it's not friendly. "I learned that in this world, nice guys finish last. I learned that mercy is for the weak. And I learned that someday, somehow, I'd make you pay for what you did." "Is that a threat?" "It's a promise." I reach past her, so close our shoulders almost touch, and pick up her folder. Then I tear it in half. "NovaTech isn't for sale. Not to you. Not for any price." Vivienne's eyes flash with anger, and for a moment, I see something raw beneath her carefully constructed armor. "You're making a mistake." "No." I drop the torn papers on the table. "The mistake was yours, five years ago. You made an enemy when you could have had a partner. Now you'll have to live with the consequences." "And what exactly do you think you can do to me, Mr. Chen?" She steps closer, invading my space with the confidence of someone who's never lost a battle. "Hart Industries is worth forty-two billion dollars. We have operations in sixty-three countries. You're a talented entrepreneur with one successful company. This vendetta of yours is—" "Just getting started." I finish for her. "You wanted NovaTech? Well, now I want Hart Industries. All of it." She laughs, actually laughs. "You can't be serious." "Deadly serious." I pull out my phone and show her the screen. "See this? That's a twenty-three percent stake in Hart Industries stock. I've been quietly acquiring it for the past eighteen months. I'm now your second-largest shareholder." The color drains from her face. "That's impossible." "Shell companies. Offshore accounts. Private sales from disgruntled investors." I pocket the phone. "You taught me well, remember? I learned from the best." "What do you want?" Her voice is barely above a whisper. "I want you to know what it feels like." I move past her toward the door. "I want you to lie awake at night wondering when I'll strike. I want you to question every business decision, every ally, every deal. I want you to feel the ground crumbling beneath your feet, just like I did." I'm at the door when her voice stops me. "This isn't over." I look back at her, this beautiful, ruthless woman who destroyed me once and would do it again without hesitation. "No," I agree. "It's just beginning."