Few month later

Nora’s POV

The gym smelled of metal, sweat, and rubber sharp and clean, like discipline. The clanking of weights echoed like distant thunder, steady and unrelenting. I stood in front of the mirror, staring at the woman reflected back at me.

Sunken cheeks. Dark circles. Collarbones sharper than I remembered. There were bruises beneath my skin that no amount of healing had erased some you could see, most you couldn’t.

Derek stood behind me close enough to anchor me, far enough to let me breathe. He always knew how much space I needed. And he gave it.

“You don’t have to do it all today,” he said softly, his voice a balm I hadn’t known I needed.

But I did.

I needed to feel the ache in my muscles. The burn in my lungs. I needed to sweat out the fear the grave dirt I still imagined beneath my fingernails. I needed to remember that I was alive.

I wrapped my hands around the barbell. The metal was cold. My grip trembled. I lifted

One rep. Two. Breathe. Pain. Fire in my shoulders. Still, I didn’t stop.

Every movement was a rebellion. A reclaiming. They had tried to bury me. Strip me. Erase me.

But I was still here.

When my arms finally gave out, the weights crashed to the mat. My lungs burned. My body shook. Derek was there instantly, handing me a towel his hand grazing mine.

“You’re stronger than you think, Nora,” he murmured.

I didn’t respond. But I met his gaze in the mirror and for the first time in a long time… I believed him.

I hated how that made me want to cry.

But I didn’t.

Not here.

That became our routine early mornings, late evenings. Gym. Walks. Books. Silence. And sometimes… laughter.

I had forgotten what laughter felt like in my throat how it stretched the ribs, how it caught you off guard like sunlight through a window you thought was closed.

And slowly, day by day, the broken pieces of me stopped cutting so deep.

That evening, after dinner, I went to bed early. My muscles ached from the workout, my mind weighed down by too many thoughts I hadn’t dared speak. I just wanted peace. Quiet. Rest.

But peace didn’t come.

The nightmares did.

I was back in the grave cold, wet sand filling my mouth, pressing against my chest, choking me. I couldn’t scream. Couldn’t breathe. Carson’s voice echoed, cruel and distant. Tina’s laughter cracked above me like thunder. I clawed at the earth, nails breaking, hands bleeding, and my baby

Sobbing.

“Stop! Please no! Don’t leave me!”

I jolted awake, drenched in sweat, heart pounding like a war drum. My breath came in short, frantic gasps.

Derek was already sitting beside me, a bottle of pills in one hand, water in the other. He had seen this before. Too many times.

I launched into his arms, trembling. “Derek… I’m scared,” I whispered, my voice breaking as tears slipped down my cheeks.

He held me tight, one hand gently stroking my hair. “I know,” he said softly. “It’s okay now. I’m here.”

I leaned into his warmth, breathing in the clean scent of his shirt, grounding myself in his steadiness.

Then he pulled back slightly, tilting my chin. “You didn’t take your meds. And you didn’t finish the task I gave you before bed.”

I stared at him, blinking. My throat tightened. “I was tired, Derek. I had that nightmare again. And now you're talking about tasks? Don’t you care about me at all?”

He didn’t flinch. “Of course I care,” he said, voice low but firm. “But I also care about the mission. About you. Revenge isn’t just fire it’s discipline. Control. I’m not letting you fall apart now.”

He handed me the pills and the glass of water. I took them silently, fingers trembling, and swallowed hard.

Then he stood and went toward his study.

I groaned. “Mentor, indeed,” I muttered under my breath as I followed him out of the bedroom, my bare feet soft against the hardwood floors, the house silent except for the ticking clock.

Derek introduced me to his world gently.

There was a quiet power in him something unspoken. He wasn’t loud or flashy, but when he spoke, people listened. Investors leaned in. Boardrooms went still. He carried the kind of authority that didn’t need to announce itself.

But what stunned me most… was that he made space for me. Not as a woman broken by betrayal, but as someone capable. Someone who had once built something of worth and could do it again.

“I have something for you,” he said one evening, guiding me into his study.

The room smelled of aged leather and cedarwood. Warm lamplight flickered across shelves lined with old books and sharp ambition. He handed me a folder sleek, thick, important.

I opened it.

My breath caught.

It was my company.

The one I had registered under layers of dummy corporations and legal structure, hidden from Carson, hidden from the world. I hadn’t looked at it in years. I wasn’t even sure it still existed.

But Derek… he had found it.

He smiled softly. “It’s yours. You built this. I just kept it breathing. I think you’re ready to take it back. And until you feel steady, my company will be your backbone. Quietly. Fiercely.”

My eyes widened as tears spilled before I could stop them. “Derek… why?” My voice broke. “Why would you do this for me?”

He stepped closer. “Because you deserve it. And because… I see you. The way you fight. The way you refuse to give up. You’re strong. You’re beautiful. And honestly…” he chuckled nervously “you’re someone I trust with my life.”

I looked away, my chest tightening. “I thought… one day you’d send me away. That I wasn’t your type. That I didn’t belong in your world.”

He gently tilted my chin until my eyes met his. “Who told you that lie?”

I tried to answer, but nothing came.

Then, after a beat, he spoke again. Softer this time. “I know you’ve been hurt. And I know trust doesn’t come easy. So if you don’t feel the same way”

“I trust you,” I whispered, cutting him off. My voice was shaky but sure. “I trust you, Derek.”

Elon Derek’s POV

I froze the moment she said the word trust.

I had waited months to hear that from her lips. She had always kept a wall between us, not out of rudeness, but protection. Emotional attachment terrified her. And I understood.

But hearing that word…

It melted something in me.

I pulled her into a tight hug, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Congratulations,” I whispered. “On taking back your company. Now it’s time to build it into one of the fastest-growing corporations out there. I believe in you.”

Her eyes filled with tears, shimmering like glass.

“Thank you,” she choked out, voice trembling. “You’re the first person who’s ever said that to me.”

Then she broke silent sobs shaking her frame as she buried her face in my chest. I held her, steady.

“You’ve got this,” I said softly.

As I turned to leave, her arms suddenly wrapped around me from behind. Her touch light, uncertain, but desperate.

“Please,” she whispered. “Stay with me tonight. Sing me one of those lullabies you used to when I couldn’t sleep… back when the nightmares were worse. I’m scared they’ll come back.”

I turned to face her, surprised by the vulnerability in her voice. I smiled gently.

“So you trust me now?” I teased. “Not scared I’ll break your heart? Betray you?”

She gave a soft, tear-streaked laugh. “You wouldn’t dare. Not after tearing down all my walls.”

I pulled her close again, holding her like she was something sacred. Because to me she was.

Nora’s POV

The next day was a formal business dinner one of those high-stakes networking events filled with men in tailored suits and women with polished heels and sharper smiles. Derek had invited me, but I hadn’t expected much.

I wore a simple black dress the one he picked out with a quiet smile and a nod that said, “You’ll look powerful in this.”

But nothing could’ve prepared me for what I was walking into.

The moment we stepped through the doors, heads turned.

Glasses paused mid-air.

Murmurs floated around the room like smoke.

My chest tightened.

My breathing grew shallow.

Just like that I was back in the past.

The last time I entered a business gala, I was humiliated publicly, cruelly.

Laughed at. Dismissed.

That night had branded itself into my bones.

The trauma rose, sharp and sudden. I instinctively squeezed Derek’s hand.

“I can’t go in,” I whispered, voice tight. “I—I can’t.”

He turned to me, eyes steady. “You are beautiful,” he said. “Listen to them.”

And then… I did.

“Who is she?”

“She looks like a goddess.”

“Absolutely stunning…”

Their words soft, stunned, awestruck washed over me.

I exhaled.

Then… I smiled.

Men watched me with thinly veiled desire. Women looked twice, curious. I held my head higher. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was owning the room.

Maybe not all my dreams had come true yet, I thought. But this… this was a beginning.

Derek placed a guiding hand on my back steady, grounding and led me toward the front. Our table was positioned near the top executives, the kind of placement reserved for the powerful.

Some glanced at me curiously, others with veiled judgment. But no one dared speak until Derek did.

He cleared his throat, then said in that calm, commanding tone that made people listen:

“This is Nora,” he said. “My partner.”

My heart skipped.

Not friend.

Not guest.

Not colleague.

Partner.

Someone raised a brow. “You mean… in business?”

Derek’s lips curved. “In life.”

Heat bloomed in my cheeks. I hadn’t expected that not here, not like this.

But the pride in his voice… it stirred something deep inside me.

He wasn’t hiding me.

He wasn’t ashamed of the woman who had once been discarded, buried, forgotten.

He was claiming me in front of the very world that once crushed me.

He turned to the table, his voice rich with certainty.

“I love her,” he said. “And you all should get to know her, network with her because very soon, she’ll be scarce. If you want an investment in your company, you won’t meet her in person again. And not through me either.”

The room fell into stunned silence.

My eyes welled with tears. The way he spoke about me… the pride, the admiration, the unwavering belief even though I hadn’t yet reclaimed everything I’d lost it was overwhelming. I squeezed his hand, grounding myself in his warmth.

Later, when we stepped out onto the cool balcony, the city lights glittered below us like a thousand tiny stars. I turned to him, my voice soft and trembling.

“You didn’t have to say that,” I whispered.

He looked down at me, eyes dark and sincere. “I meant every word.”

A lump rose in my throat. “Do you know what that meant to me?”

“Yes.” He stepped closer, his hand cupping my cheek. “I love you.”

Then he leaned in, his lips brushing against mine. Soft. Intentional. Unrushed.

And I didn’t resist. I melted into him into safety, into warmth, into a love I never expected to find again.

And just like that…

I became his fiancée.