Chapter 3 Three
Anna exhaled, eyes still fixed on Mira.
“Your choice,” she said flatly. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
She walked over to her desk, pulled open a drawer, and slid a thin file across to her.
“You’ll go under your own name,” Anna added. “Mira Voss.”
Mira took the file slowly, glancing down at it.
A beat passed.
Then she frowned slightly.
“Won’t I get caught if he starts digging?” she asked, looking up. “I work here, remember?”
Anna finally glanced at her properly.
A small, almost unreadable look crossed her face.
“We never filed your name as staff here,” she said.
Mira blinked.
“What?”
Anna ignored her. Instead, she leaned back slightly,
“Salvatore is looking to hire a PR assistant for his media team,” she continued. “There’s an interview tomorrow at 8 a.m. Be there on time.”
Mira’s grip on the file tightened.
Anna’s voice turned colder.
“One thing Corvin hates is lateness. And untidy people. He can’t stand dirt.”
Her eyes flicked over Mira once.
“So clean up.”
Mira stood still for a moment, her mind going wild on this interview … With Salvatore Corvin.
She wasn’t sure going Under her own name was a safe disguise and maybe Anna was trying to screw her up.
Her mind tried to piece it together, but Anna wasn’t done talking..
“This isn’t a game,” Anna said sharply, watching her reaction. “You walk into that building tomorrow, you’re not Mira from Truthscope. You’re not a reporter. You’re not my problem anymore.”
She stepped closer, voice lowering.
“You’re just another candidate trying to survive an interview.”
Mira finally looked up.
“So that’s it?” she asked quietly. “I walk in, normal, and get hired that’s all for now right?”
Anna’s lips pressed into a thin line.
“Normal ? … Nothing about this is normal,” she said. “You’re entering his world, even breathing wrong can cost you your life. Focus on getting the job first.”
Mira glanced down at the file again, then back up.
“And if I get the job?”
Anna gave a small, humorless smile.
“Then we go through the plans again.”
A pause.
“And you report everything back to us.”
Mira’s raised her eyes giving Anna a look.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she added quickly. “This is the deal. You wanted undercover, you got it. But understand something clearly… once you step inside Corvin’s circle, there’s no pulling you out even if you beg for it.”
Mira slowly closed the file.
“Tomorrow at 8 right?,” she repeated.
Anna nodded once.
“Yes.”
A beat of silence settled between them.
Then Mira turned slightly toward the door.
“Guess I better make sure I don’t look dirty,” she said under her breath.
Anna didn’t laugh. her eyes followed Mira as she left the office.
Mira stepped out of the office, the file still firm in her grip. Walking slowly, replaying everything in her head. All she had just heard about this stranger everyone feared
She exhaled softly.
She placed the file down carefully and took her sit.
Tomorrow at 8 a.m.
An interview with a man everyone was afraid to even say his name.
A murderer. A billionaire.
A criminal wrapped in luxury and death.
She leaned back slightly in her chair, eyes narrowing as a small, determined smile touched her lips.
“Let’s see what you really are, Salvatore Corvin,” she murmured under her breath.
The morning of the interview arrived quietly.
Mira stood in front of the mirror in her small apartment, adjusting her clothes one last time. Simple, clean, professional…. exactly what Anna had warned her about.
At exactly 7:30 a.m., she left. The drive out of town didn’t feel her usual normal commute. This was an expensive commute thankfully the company was paying for it.
The roads grew emptier the further she went, the buildings thinning out until they were replaced by long stretches of silence and tall trees.
Not the scattered kind she was used to seeing around the town… but tTall, dark green bushes lined the road like guards. The deeper she went, the more it felt like the she was stepping into a different world entirely.
Even the air felt different.
Mira leaned slightly toward the window as the car continued forward, watching the landscape shift places she had never seen or been since she got to Clatain.
No shops. No noise. No people.
Not even sounds of animals..
“Creepy.” She murmured
Slowly the drive continued… Then she saw it.
The mansion.
Massive iron gates stood at the front, black and cold, stretching high with sharp designs that looked almost like wings. Beyond them, a long driveway curved through perfectly trimmed bushes and rows of tall, ancient-looking trees.
Everything was quiet.
The mansion itself rose in the distance like something carved rather than built. Dark stone walls. Wide glass panels that reflected the pale morning sky. Balconies hidden behind layers of greenery. It wasn’t just a house… it was a fortress it was oozing wealth.
Mira stepped out of the car once it stopped at the gate.
For a moment, she just stood there.
No city noise.
No noise at all..
Just wind moving softly through the trees… and the overwhelming feeling that she had stepped into a completely different world.
A guard at the gate barely looked at her before pressing a button. The iron gates slowly opened with a heavy sound that echoed through the silence.
Mira tightened her grip on her bag and walked forward.
Each step closer made the mansion feel less like a building… and more like something that was watching her back.
She followed the long driveway forward, her heels barely making a sound on the polished stone. The closer she got, the more the mansion revealed itself… layer after layer, like it had been built to overwhelm anyone who dared to step in.
And it did.
Up close, it wasn’t just big.
It was massive.
The mansion stretched wide in both directions, built with dark, expensive stone that looked almost black in the morning light. Tall glass panels ran across the front like vertical rivers, reflecting the sky and the surrounding forest so perfectly it almost looked unreal.
Balconies jutted out at different levels, framed with black metal designs that looked like wings… sharp, elegant, dangerous. Every detail felt intentional. Nothing wasted.
The front entrance alone looked like something out of a palace.
Huge double doors made of dark wood and iron stood beneath a high archway supported by stone pillars carved with subtle patterns Mira couldn’t even make out from a distance.
Perfectly trimmed bushes lined the walkways. Tall trees surrounded the mansion in a natural barrier, their branches forming a quiet wall that cut it off from the outside world. It wasn’t just surrounded by nature… it was hidden inside for it.
Mira slowed slightly as she reached the main steps.
Even the air felt different here. Cooler. Still. Like the place didn’t belong to the rest of the world.
She glanced around once.
No noise. No movement except for a distant fountain near the side courtyard, its water falling in a steady rhythm that somehow made the silence louder.
This wasn’t just a house.
It was a kingdom and a perfect place to commit murder.
Mira climbed the steps and stopped at the massive doors.
For a second, she hesitated.. Then she straightened her shoulders, lifted her hand, and knocked.
Mira knocked once.
Then twice.
No answer.
The mansion stayed silent, as if it had swallowed her sound completely.
She waited a moment longer, still nothing
Carefully, she pushed the door open.
It wasn’t locked.
The moment she stepped inside, the world outside disappeared behind her.
The air inside was cooler, carrying a faint scent of expensive wood, polished stone, and something faintly smoky.. like a fire that had burned earlier and never fully left.
Her eyes moved slowly.
The entrance hall was enormous.
A wide open space stretched upward into a high ceiling with hanging lights that looked like floating glass drops. The floor was made of smooth marble, black and white patterns forming something almost like a broken chessboard beneath her feet.
Paintings lined the walls.
Not prints. Real art.
Expensive, heavy, and unsettling in how quietly powerful they looked.
Sculptures stood in corners like silent guards, some modern, others ancient-looking, all placed with precision like someone had designed the entire space to intimidate without saying a word.
Mira took a small step forward.
Then another.
“Hello?” she called out, her voice echoing slightly.
Nothing.
She turned her head slowly, scanning the space again.
Maybe no one was home yet.
Maybe—
“Who the hell are you and why are you standing on my art piece?”
The voice came from behind her.
Cold..
Sharp enough to cut through the silence.
“Get your feet off my rug if you still want to leave this house with both your legs intact.”
Mira froze. Slowly, she turned around.
And there he was.
Salvatore Corvin.
Anna had showed her his picture.. she had one in the file Anna gave her.
But nothing.. absolutely nothing… prepared her for the reality of him standing in front of her.
He was tall. Impossibly hot. Dressed in dark, perfectly fitted clothes that looked like they belonged to someone who didn’t just own wealth, but commanded it. His presence alone made the room feel smaller. Made her feel small.
And his face…
Damn his face.. Nobody had warned her.
Salvatore Corvin wasn’t just handsome.
It was unfairly beautiful for a man… and with just a glance he could steal your breath away