Rebecca_Becky2

"When love turns to poison, only rebirth can bring salvation."
Anita George, a formidable CEO, is brought to her knees by betrayal from the man she trusted most. As the empire she built teeters on collapse, she is forced to confront the ambition that drove her—and the wounds she refused to feel. But in the ashes of deception, a new fire ignites.
This is not just a story of survival—it's a reckoning. A transformation. A rebirth.
Can Anita rise from ruin, stronger and wiser—or will the past drag her down for good?

lies and loyalty

He paced the marble floors of his penthouse, phone in one hand, a tumbler of untouched scotch in the other. The leak was supposed to destabilize Anita's position. Instead, it had backfired—gone silent. No fallout. No chaos.

And that silence was the loudest warning.

"She's choking off my influence," he said aloud to the man on the phone—one of the last senior board members still sympathetic to his name. "I need access to the voting schedule. To the financials. Anything."

"I can try," the man said. "But if anyone smells blood on me—"

Marcus ended the call, fury tightening his jaw.

He had played this game before. Ruthless. Strategic.

But Anita… she wasn't just playing. She was rewriting the rules.

Across the city, Anita met quietly with Arjun Patel, the acting head of GNV's Innovation Division. A former skeptic. Now, a willing partner.

"Two of your leads still funnel updates to Marcus," she said, sliding a file across the table. "Quietly replace them. Promote people who aren't looking for shadows to follow."

Arjun skimmed the contents. "What do you get in return?"

She smiled. "A future that doesn't implode."

That afternoon, two internal memos went out:

One announcing the departure of "redundant consultants" aligned with Marcus.

The other introducing a "strategic oversight initiative" for all executive decision-making—reporting directly to Anita.

Those who needed to know, saw the message clearly:

The queen is not just defending the castle. She's expanding it.

Meanwhile, Marcus received a call from a burner number.

A woman's voice: clipped, urgent. "We've lost access to Innovation. Patel's gone neutral."

He ended the call and looked out the window—at the very building he once ruled.

He had underestimated Anita George once.

But the more he reached, the more the walls seemed to close in.

Anita, reviewing her strategic map of personnel, paused only once that night.

Marcus, standing beside her years ago, smiling, planning—back when she believed.

And she was no longer the woman who trusted easily.

CHAPTER 33:Shadow And Steel