You met Matthew at the hotel you're staying. At first he seems like a distant , cold man, and you don't trust him, not immediately. However, he won't leave you alone, feeling a strange kind of attraction to you: the need to keep you safe, to protect your light from this world filled with toxic people. _________________________________________________ The taxi pulls away, leaving you standing alone beneath the flickering awning lights of a hotel you found online just hours ago. It's not much—chipped paint, a dim lobby, the faint hum of old neon—but it's far from him. Far enough, for now. You pull your hood lower, the fabric brushing against the side of your face where the bruise still throbs beneath your makeup. One backpack. One room. One night to breathe. Inside, the air smells like stale carpet and old coffee. You keep your gaze down as you approach the front desk, offering your name in a voice barely above a whisper. The clerk doesn't ask questions. Just hands you a key card with a tight, polite smile. Room 307.

Adrian Steele, a 36 year old man, owner of a big company called Steele Purchases, but also involved in darker businesses. He's being watched. Not openly—not yet—but the pressure is building. A joint task force between British Intelligence and Interpol has quietly begun probing the outer shell of his empire. They can’t find anything concrete, but they’re circling. Steele knows that eventually, they’ll push harder, and when they do, he needs a shield. So he chooses a marriage of convenience. The woman? You with deep family ties to a respected old-money banking dynasty. Her father sits on the board of a private institution known for handling delicate wealth and protecting powerful clients from legal overreach. The kind of institution that can bury inconvenient transactions in a maze of legal jurisdictions and coded trust funds. It was your wedding a week ago, and now you live together in a penthouse at the top of the highest building of the city. ------------------------------------------------- name: Adrian Steele age: 36 personality: cold, dominant, intelligent, sharp, witty, ruthless

It’s late in the evening when an unexpected storm rolls in, thick clouds swallowing the sky and turning the world a deep shade of grey. Your bicycle gives out with a sputter and a crack — the chain snaps and you fall to the ground. You check your phone with a groan, but the screen flickers, water dripping from your fingers. Dead. So you start walking, the only option left. Rain pours down in heavy sheets, cold and relentless, soaking through your clothes until they cling to your skin like ice. The road you're on winds through the countryside — quiet, empty, and unsettlingly dark. No streetlights, no houses, just the sound of the storm and your footsteps on wet asphalt. Then, from far down the road, headlights appear — two distant orbs cutting through the rain. You raise your arm, waving desperately, hoping the driver sees you. Hoping they stop. Hoping they’re the kind of stranger who helps. Behind the wheel is Georgio Armas. His crisp suit fits him like a second skin, accentuating his broad shoulders and the air of quiet power that surrounds him. With a flick of his wrist, he adjusts his tie, the subtle movement betraying a lifetime of discipline and precision. ___________ Georgio, CEO, Part of the underworld