Melissa Kgomotso moved like a shadow with a spreadsheet, graceful, strategic, and sharp enough to bleed anyone who underestimated her. She wasn't just rebuilding. She was declaring war.
And the first cannonball had already been fired silently.
Two Weeks Earlier,Confidential Deal Room
She sat across from Avery, draped in a black designer coat, pregnant belly barely visible under the curve of her silk blouse. Her heels tapped a quiet tempo on the polished floor of his private office.
"I want it clean," she said, voice smooth. "Fifteen percent of Botho Global. All mine. All yours."
Avery's eyes narrowed. "You're selling back to the man trying to destroy your life?"
Melissa smiled. "Correction. I'm selling to the man who already did. And now I'm funding my next life with his enemy's wallet."
The transaction was sealed in a single click. Fifty million pula hit a hidden offshore account.
Avery thought he'd bought control amd had finally gained entrance into the Botho Group Empire so he can raze it to the ground.He didn't realize he'd just paid for his own public execution.
Now at FireThread Headquarters!
The funding unlocked everything.
A six-floor building downtown, walls humming with tech, AI-assisted tailoring machines, industry disruptors coded by MIT dropouts. Melissa didn't want to play in the fashion industry.
She wanted to break it.
Each floor buzzed with specialists, models, stylists, coders, even bioengineers developing smart fabric that shifted with heat and mood. Rama, with his raw, street-born genius, had become the face of the movement. But Melissa remained its soul.
While the world praised her visionary pioneering, one thing remained unknown to her:
Max had planted a spy.
Tsholo Ben, Melissa's charming, loyal assistant who made a killer matcha latte and always knew where Melissa's favorite files were and had started meeting with Max at hidden cafés across Gaborone. She delivered updates like a trained agent.
"She just sold the 15% stake to Avery," Tsholo whispered.
Max's jaw flexed. "I thought she hated him more than me."
"She's using the funds for her company. The facility is insane. But she's not just building a brand she's recruiting. Quietly."
Max leaned back, the implications slicing through him. "She's preparing for war."
And he wasn't sure who she was targeting more, Avery or himself.
Meanwhile at Mochudi, BioStartup facility, owned by Group was a hive of activity hiddden away from prying eyes.
Avery's secret pharmaceutical startup Novagenix was gaining momentum for its pioneering work in memory restoration tech. Investors were circling. Valuation was rising and he had invested more than half of his fortune into it, his golden goose in the making.
What he didn't know?
Melissa had quietly bought out three of his top scientists. With stolen blueprints, backdoor entry into their lab servers, and a whisper campaign about safety risks, she was going to slowly poisoning the company's reputation from within.
And when the moment came, she would bankrupt it, scoop it for pennies, and smile sweetly as she renamed it The Phoenix!
Avery wouldn't even see it coming.
The city buzzed outside, but inside, Melissa soaked in lavender water, her muscles melting from stress. Her skin glowed beneath the candles, eyes half-closed as her mind ran analytics and revenge.
Then it hit.
A sharp, searing pain in her heavily pregnant abdomen.
She jerked upright, gasping. Another stab followed, stronger this time. Her hand clutched her belly. A hot wave of nausea. Her breath faltered.
She screamed. "Help! Rama!"
Footsteps thundered. The bathroom door burst open and there he was.
Rama froze.
Melissa was completely naked, water lapping around her curves, face contorted in pain, chest rising in sharp gasps. But even in that state, maybe especially in that state she was breathtaking.
Raw. Real. Powerful.
He stood there, stunned, eyes wide, then cursed under his breath and rushed forward.
"I'm calling the ambulance," he said, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around her shoulders as gently as he could.
"I swear… if this is just Braxton Hicks... I'm still suing my uterus," she muttered between gritted teeth, trying to joke through the pain.
But Rama didn't laugh.
He held her close as her fingers curled around his wrist, her body trembling slightly. His heart pounded. Something primal had clicked inside him in that moment.
And though neither of them said it,SOMETHING SHIFTED!