It started with a single, black envelope.
No name. No address. Just a wax seal stamped with a symbol Melissa had never seen before: a serpent coiled around a diamond.
She found it on her penthouse doorstep at exactly 3:03 AM. The hour demons whispered.
Inside the envelop was a card. High-quality cardstock. Matte finish. No fingerprints.
"We've been watching.Your war with Max? It's just a prelude.Come alone. 8PM. Suite 77. Eden Hotel. Bring nothing. Wear red."
A.K.
Melissa's blood turned cold.
A.K. = Avery Khumo.
The man behind over twenty hostile takeovers in Southern Africa. The man who once made a rival CEO disappear literally before the man's divorce was finalized.
Melissa had heard of him, but she hadn't realized he had heard of her. And now, she was on his radar.
EDEN HOTEL ,SUITE 77
Melissa wore red.
Again.
Only this time it wasn't silk. It was leather.
Fitted. Sleek. Unapologetic.
She entered the suite with the calm of someone who'd already written her will.
Avery sat by the fire, sipping blood-red wine. His bodyguards stood like statues behind him. One blinked,once. The other didn't at all.
"Ms. Kgomotso," he greeted, voice velvet laced with venom. "You're even more radiant in rebellion."
Melissa folded her arms. "You didn't drag me here for compliments."
He smiled. "Correct. I brought you here to offer you everything." He tapped a remote and behind him, a screen lit up. Charts. Blueprints. A business plan. Her name in the header.
PROJECT: PREGNANT EMPIRE
Powered by: Khumo Enterprises.
He continued: "We invest 10 million into your Boss Bump line. We franchise. We scale. You become the African face of maternal power. Not just influencer money dynasty money."
Melissa blinked. "What's the catch?"
Avery smiled wider. "You leave Max Botho. Publicly. Make him look weak. Unfaithful. Expose him. Humiliate him. Bury him."
Melissa's jaw tightened. "Why?"
"Because his father destroyed my family. I've waited twenty years to bury the Botho name. And you… you're the bullet I've been waiting to fire."
FLASHBACK: 2007
A dusty village road. A black car overturned. A child screaming inside and a younger Avery kneels beside his dying father, blood pouring from his mouth. The driver's license of the man responsible flutters in the wind:
Boago Botho , Max's father.
PRESENT , SUITE 77
Melissa swallowed hard. "You want revenge," she said.
"I want justice," Avery replied. "And I want you to choose. Max… or legacy."
He handed her a pen and a check.
₱10,000,000. Already signed.
"One signature," Avery said. "And we launch tomorrow."
The city howled with secrets outside. Melissa stood over the check like it was a ticking bomb. Her phone buzzed again.
Max: Where are you? Are you safe?
She didn't reply.
Instead, she opened a locked drawer. Inside was a photo,faded and cracked.
A younger Naledi the original body Melissa now inhabited smiling with a baby in her arms. No Max. Just love. Poverty. Strength.
Melissa stared at the woman who once owned this body.
And whispered:"Tell me what you would've done."The lights flickered.
Then gunshots outside her penthouse door. Melissa dropped to the floor, heart hammering. She reached into her bag, pulled out a taser, and crawled toward the panic button behind the kitchen island.
BANG!
The door exploded open as two masked men in black burst in armed. They didn't say a word.
Melissa launched the wine bottle at the first man's head, crack! He stumbled,she dove behind the bar.
CRACK! CRACK!
Glass shattered. She pressed the panic button. Alarms screamed. Security would be there in 90 seconds so she had to hold them off.
The second man lunged, Melissa flipped a stool into his path. He fell. She tased him.
Smoke grenades.
Coughing.
Then another sound of gunfire. But not from the attackers.
From Max.
In a black hoodie, pistol in hand, eyes blazing and he shot a warning round. The remaining man fled. Melissa coughed hard as smoke swallowed the room. Max rushed to her, grabbed her by the arms.
"Are you hurt? Melissa, LOOK at me!"
She gasped. "How did you know?"
"Your driver tipped me off. I've had him on payroll for weeks." She stared at him."You spy on me?"
"I protect what's mine."
Silence.
Breathless,wild and then kissed him.Not out of love or out of lust, but survival.Because the only way to live was to burn, together!
NEXT MORNING NEWS HEADLINES
BREAKING: Attempted Assassination on Max Botho's Pregnant Partner
"Sources say this attack may be linked to the mysterious mogul Avery Khumo. As tensions rise in Botswana's elite circles, all eyes are now on the woman at the center of it all:
Melissa Kgomotso."