August 6th, 2025
Near the Tachibana-Kawasaki Global Headquarters, Tokyo - 8:05 PM
The Tokyo skyline blurred behind tinted windows as the black Mercedes-Benz S-Class coursed through the city like a ghost with purpose. Inside, tension sat heavier than the leather seats.
Ruth Tachibana-Kawasaki, CEO, heiress, and queen of her empire, sat with cold elegance in the back.
Tablet in hand, fingers tapping at glowing files, she didn't spare a single glance toward her husband. She had already forgotten he was there.
Leo kept one hand on the wheel, the other resting on the gear. He stole side glances at her through the mirror - searching for softness that never came.
"We're cutting it close," Leo said, trying to keep it light. "Plane won't wait forever."
"No," Ruth said flatly. "We're going to HQ first."
Leo blinked. "What? Why?"
"I left something." Her tone was more command than explanation. "Important files. From the Kawasaki-Mitsui merger. I need them before we fly."
Leo gave a weak chuckle. "You could've sent someone. Hell, you have five assistants - "
"I trust no one else to find it right now. Go to the top floor. Printing room or my office. I don't care. Just bring it."
"…Seriously?" He glanced back, laughing nervously. "What am I? Your errand boy?"
Her eyes finally met his - cold and unblinking.
"Yes."
Tachibana-Kawasaki Global Headquarters
A monolith of glass and steel, untouched by time or emotion.
Leo stepped out of the car, cursing under his breath. Ruth stayed inside, unbothered, checking her schedule like a queen on a throne.
Inside the building, everything smelled of money and power. He took the private elevator to the top floor, the ride silent, air thick.
He searched the stock room first - nothing but archived mess and dust.
Next, the secretary'soffice - no files.
Then Ruth'sprivateCEOoffice - empty. Cold. Spotless.
"Jesus," Leo muttered. "Where the hell did she leave it?"
The printingroom was his final stop.
And there, carelessly left on top of a humming Xerox machine, were the files. Important, sensitive documents... just sitting there.
Leo rolled his eyes. "She's lucky no one else found these."
He turned to leave - but paused.
Something pulled him.
A whisper in his brain, a claw in his gut.
He walked back to the CEOoffice.
This time, slower.
He stepped inside and shut the door behind him.
And there it was - herscent.
Her hypnotic, sweet, and alluring scent.
That rich, floral perfume. Equal parts elegance and sin.
The air was thick with Ruth.
His breath hitched. He smiled crookedly, eyes closing for a second.
"Even if you don't treat me like a husband," he whispered, "at least I got you. At least I won."
"I married you. You married me."
"You're mine forever, Ruth."
"I fucking won."
He whispered like an obsessive maniac.
He moved to her desk like it was holy ground. His fingers brushed over the smooth glass top. His eyes landed on the photo frame.
Him and Ruth, smiling.
She looked nice in that photo.
But something about the smile - it was hollow. Practiced.
He picked up the frame. The glass was crooked.
"Huh…"
He turned it slightly, trying to fix it - then it slipped.
CRACK.
Glass shattered, falling to the polished floor in glinting fragments.
"Shit," Leo hissed.
He bent down to clean the mess - but then he noticed it.
Anotherphoto.
Tucked beneath the top one. Hidden.
He picked it up slowly.
His breath stopped.
It was Ruth - but not the version he knew.
She wasn't cold. She wasn't distant.
She was alive.
Her eyes were glowing. Her face open and soft. She was huggingaman - tight, intimate, close. Her head against his chest. Her smile was nothing like the one she gave to Leo.
She looked free. Happy. Inlove.
The man was -
Ian.
Leo's mouth went dry.
He couldn't move. Couldn't think. Couldn't breathe.
She said Ian was just a collegefriend. Just someone from a class or two. A nobody.
But this?
This was not a nobody.
This was real.
This was history.
This was a lie.
He stared at the photo for a long time. The sound of the city vanished. All he could hear was the quiet, mocking thud of his own heartbeat.
"…You lied to me," he whispered.
His mind reeled.
She hid this photo. Beneath their own. Like a secret that refused to die. Like a wound she couldn't let go of.
And suddenly, the pieces fell into place.
Her strange reactions whenever Ian's name came up. Her refusal to ever talk about her college days. The emotional wall she always had with Leo.
Now he knew why.
She never got over Ian.
And now?
Now Ian was back.
Ding.
His phone buzzed.
Ruth.
"What's taking you so long? If you don't hurry up, I'm leaving you behind."
No heart. No smiley. Just venom disguised as indifference.
The nerve.
His grip tightened.
He looked at the photo again.
Ruth, glowing. Ruth, happy. Ruth, with someone else.
And not just anyone.
Ian.
He crushed the photo slowly, the sound of paper twisting like bones breaking. He tossed it into the wastebasket with the broken glass.
His heart ached.
Then it burned.
Then it hardened.
He stood up. His jaw clenched.
His eyes - once soft - now sharp and dark.
He wasn't going to let this go.
Not now.
Not ever.
He stormed out of the room, boots echoing like war drums down the marble corridor.
The office sat silent.
In the wastebasket, beneath broken glass and shards of trust, lay the crumpled photo.
A memory someone tried to bury.
But the truth always finds a way back to the surface.