The elevator moved up the high tower, with Daniel Carter in it, into the kind of world he had only seen in his imagination. The highest floor of Aldridge & Co. was said to be a battlefield of brilliance—where strategies were formed, where deals were created, and where reputations were both grown and destroyed He arranged the front of his suit as he stepped into the office trying to avoid looking new or confused, stories were whispered of this very enterprise of how people were easily let go as though they weren't needed and also of the owner and manager of this great enterprise, Victoria Aldridge. Stories about her were told like legend: sharp as a blade, beautiful as sin, impossible to impress. The sounds of the office hit him first. Phones ringing, printers spitting, voices rising and falling in hurried cadence. Sleek glass divided the space, every surface was shining with polish. People moved with precision, each walking with the confidence of someone who worked here. Daniel swallowed hard, adjusting his tie multiple times. And then he saw her. Victoria Aldridge stood at the far end of the office,she stood so firm and upright like she was a queen who ruled over a large kingdom,her self pride could be seen from the way she walked to the way she spoke. She was listening as a junior executive going through a presentation. Her gaze—sharp,it was enough to make the poor man sweat like he ran a marathon. She didn’t interrupt, but when he made a mistake, she raised a single brow, and that was enough to reduce him to silence. Daniel froze in place, his pulse stuttering. Admiration wasn’t strong enough a word; it was awe. She wasn’t just beautiful—she was commanding. She carried the room like gravity itself, pulling everything into her orbit. “Mr. Carter?” A voice jolted him back to earth. He turned to see Maya, the HR coordinator, smiling politely. “Welcome to your first day. Come with me, I’ll show you to your desk.” But as Daniel followed, his eyes—against his own will—found Victoria once more. For the shortest moment, as if feeling the gaze of someone, she turned her head. Their eyes met across the room. Her stare was unreadable, a flicker of curiosity perhaps, before she returned to the poor junior’s slides. It was nothing. It meant nothing. Yet Daniel carried that glance with him all morning, a spark tucked away like contraband in his chest. --- The hours unfolded with documents , polite introductions, and a crash course in the firm’s sprawling campaigns. His new team, though courteous, seemed too busy to offer more than clipped smiles. Everyone here moved fast, thought faster. By lunch, Daniel’s head buzzed with acronyms and client names, but his attention was drown again and again to the woman he had earlier seen. He watched her without meaning to: the way she bent over a draft with her red pen poised like a scalpel, the way she stood at the window between meetings, her shoulders perfectly still, as though she carried a private weight invisible to the rest of them. Admiration was normal, he told himself. Everyone admired her. But admiration didn’t explain why his heart leaped for joy when she said a single word to him and when she made a little contact with him , close enough for the faintest trace of jasmine to linger in the air. It didn’t explain why the sound of her low, measured voice stayed with him long after meetings ended. And it certainly didn’t explain why, that night, in his small apartment, he found himself thinking about every detail of her in his mind—the precise contact they made that day, the rare sound of her laugh as she corrected someone gently but firmly, the subtle curve of her smile when she approved an idea. He should have been revising notes, preparing himself to prove worthy of this place. Instead, he was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, captivated by a woman who was untouchable. His boss. The thought was both intoxicating and impossible. Daniel turned over, pressing his face into the pillow with a groan. This was ridiculous. Dangerous, even. She was out of reach, far above his world. What he felt wasn’t love—it couldn’t be. Infatuation, maybe fascination. A passing spark. And yet… as the hours stretched into restless silence, the spark refused to fade. --- By the end of the week, Daniel had already earned a reputation for diligence. He stayed late, revised slides until his eyes burned, and volunteered for tasks others shrugged off. He told himself it was ambition, nothing more. He wanted to prove he belonged here. But in quieter moments, he admitted another truth: he wanted her to notice. And sometimes, impossibly, she did. When she paused after a meeting to ask his opinion. When she gave a small approving nod as he presented a detail others missed. When her eyes, sharp and searching, landed on him just a fraction longer than anyone else in the room. Each of those moments was a thread. Thin, fragile, but weaving into something larger. Something he could no longer deny. Daniel Carter was falling in love with Victoria Aldridge. And even though he didn't know it yet this love he grew was an impossible one, one which will test heart of a man and raise questions --- End of Chapter One