Chapter 1
Liam Carter's mansion was perched at the top of a hill, overlooking the city he had dominated for over a decade. The large windows of his living room reflected the last rays of sunlight as luxury and opulence filled every corner of the property. The sound of wall clocks in each room, precise and firm, was the only company he had in his vast empire of silence.
Carter was a man who needed nothing and no one. His success in the business world had been forged through a series of calculated and ruthless decisions. He owned multiple companies, but his true jewel was Carter & Associates Bank, the beating heart of his financial empire. It was there that all the threads of his power intertwined, where his will was law and the voices pleading for mercy were never heard.
That afternoon, like every day, Liam walked through his private office, surrounded by dark wood panels, his perfectly fitted black suit, and a gaze as cold as steel. In his hands, the contract he had just signed represented yet another victory for him: a merger that would ensure more control over the real estate market. There was no room for compassion in his world. Competitors fell, debtors submitted, and he advanced like a machine.
In that very bank, a slightly different figure walked through the door: Edward Ainsley, a middle-aged man with a worried expression, his face somewhat gaunt from years of hardship and illness. He had worked his entire life, saved and sacrificed, but he never imagined his finances would crash so suddenly. The economy didn't forgive the weak, and Ainsley, an honorable man, now found himself on the brink of ruin.
He walked hesitantly to Carter's desk. He knew he was facing a wall, but he couldn't give up. His daughter, Victoria, was all he had left, and he couldn't allow the bank to strip him of his home, his legacy.
"Mr. Carter," he said, his voice trembling but determined, "I need a little more time. My health has taken a toll, and my business has plummeted. I can pay you, but I need you to give me a chance."
Carter looked up from his desk, his expression impassive. The years of being a man of iron had taught him not to show weakness or listen to pleas. Business was business, and in his world, compassion had no place.
"You have two hours," he replied coldly, without even bothering to stand up. "If you can't pay, your debt will be taken by the bank, and you'll be sent to jail for fraud. There's no more time. Time is money, and yours has already run out."
Ainsley, trembling, tried to make one last plea, but Carter had already dismissed him with a wave of his hand. The door slammed shut behind him. Liam returned to his contract, no longer thinking about what had just happened. In his world, other people's problems didn't concern him.
His day continued with papers to sign and calls to make, and what he had said to Mr. Ainsley faded from his mind.
Liam wasn't about to waste time with a man who, in asking for more time, used the excuse of illness. It wasn't the first time he had heard such a story to avoid paying a debt to his bank.
Meanwhile, back at his home, Edward Ainsley arrived with a broken heart. He had gone to speak to Mr. Carter hoping for a little more time, but all he received was coldness.
Sitting in his chair behind his desk, Edward placed his hands over his face and began to cry. His anguish and despair made him feel as though he had reached the end.
There was no way out, he was ruined. Looking at the photo on his desk of his wife and daughter, his two loves, he picked it up and said, "I failed you, love. I promised I'd take care of our daughter, and now I've left her in misery…"
The pain he felt in his chest from the discouragement he carried made Edward forget to take his medication. There was no place in his mind for hope or thinking about his health.
Locked in his office at home, the shadow of death visited him without giving him time to react.
Two hours after arriving home, Ainsley succumbed to a heart attack in his office. His housekeeper found him when she, worried about him, brought him a cup of tea.
Edward did not make his appointment with Mr. Carter. The news of his death came to Carter through his secretary, but it did not move him. He was too busy and had other business to attend to.
Meanwhile, in another part of the city, Ainsley's daughter, Victoria, would receive the news of her father's death from the sweet housekeeper, who could not stop crying as she delivered the terrible news to Miss Ainsley.
Victoria had known that her father was going to speak with Mr. Carter to ask for an extension. She had hoped that Carter would grant him more time, but he had refused, causing her father's death. In her mind, one word echoed: vengeance. Carter's coldness had sealed her father's fate, and now it was her turn to take the reins of a battle that would not rest until he paid for what he had done.
The pain she felt made her imagine thousands of ways to end the man who had taken the only thing she had left in this world. Her father had been everything to her. After her mother's death, her father had been her entire world.
She had refused to leave him to go to college, but her father had convinced her to follow her dreams of studying medicine. Although her father did not know, she had changed her major to study international finance.
Victoria was highly capable, and her professors never stopped praising her performance. She had planned to tell her father that she was pursuing two degrees—one in nursing, which she was about to graduate in, the one she had chosen to care for him, and the one she was truly passionate about, finance.
With the trust fund her mother had left her, Victoria paid for her studies and supported herself independently in the city, and all the money her father sent her every two weeks was saved in a separate account.
Her life had changed suddenly with the news of her beloved father's death, and a new objective began to take shape in her heart and mind.
"I'll make you regret ever meeting me, Liam Carter. I swear it... I'll make you pay for every tear my father shed because of you, you damn bastard…"
Victoria Ainsley's promise was sealed in her heart with the burning iron of pain, hatred, and vengeance.