PROLOGUE
Alexander Novak II was named after his father. They adopted him when he was two weeks old. Nameless and new to life. His other siblings were taken in at a much older age.
When his mother found out she could never carry children of her own, she cried for a week straight. Her dream to have a big family was dead and the heir to his father’s fortune now nonexistent. Alexander’s father threw himself into his business while his mother struggled to find purpose.
Alexander was the first to win his mother’s heart. The oldest and his father’s new heir and namesake. He was five years old when four and a half year old Olive was adopted into their family. She was wide-eyed and scared, but Alexander loved her. Liam became his first brother and the two of them were inseparable. Then came Kai who was different from them all with dark hair and double-lidded eyes, but he fit in their family well. Olive was ecstatic the day the youngest of them all, Ellie, came home. A new sister for them to cherish. Not long after that, the last of them, Atticus, came. He was ten by the time they adopted him. He was the most troubled of them all.
Alexander loved his big family. He loved his siblings and his parents. They gave him anything he ever wanted, including sending him to a prestigious college, and securing him a spot at Novak. Novak was founded by Alexander’s great great grandfather. A successful newspaper company that has outsold other newspapers such as The New York Times, making them the most popular newspaper, and mass media coverage outlet, in the United States.
Alexander had a bright future ahead of him, everything was fitting into place, straight A’s, early college scholarships, captain of his baseball team, girls falling all over him. He was happy, he had it all—including a job at his family company waiting for him after college.
Then Ellie died.
Ellie died and Alexander lost his mind. Unable to cope with the grief of his losing his baby sister, his social life started to slack, then his grades went down, he stopped showing up to sports practice until he stopped trying all together. His family was able to move on but Alexander couldn’t. His heart broken and his mind unable to process the reason for why Ellie had to die so young.
After contemplating giving up all together, he found a new purpose to keep him going. A new obsession to get back his scholarships, work hard to earn his own money to hire a private investigator. Because there was only one thing on his mind; finding the man responsible for the hit and run car accident that killed his sister. From that day on Alexander was fueled by one thing and one thing only...
Revenge.
***
CHAPTER ONE
Scarlett rushes to find her pantyhose in her messy two bedroom, one bathroom apartment in one of New York City’s not-so-finest apartment complexes.
Her roommate Josephine, who everyone calls Jo, is the disorganized of the two. Usually Scarlett is punctual and neat and is normally very anal about where things go. Jo had set off a bomb in her room this morning looking for something to wear on a date. Scarlett let her look while she was in the shower.
Big mistake.
Now she can’t find her pantyhose on the first day of her new job which she desperately needs. Her urge to clean is not ignored as her concentration shifts to the mess and she re-organizes everything while looking for the missing hosiery.
She finds them halfway through cleaning, but she can’t stop. She doesn’t stop until her room is spotless and exactly the way it was before Jo detonated.
Her watch tells her she is an hour and a half late. The city traffic tells her she’ll be close to two and a half hours late. She slaps her palm against her forehead cursing herself. This job is one step closer to her dream job as a journalist. She’s just a secretary for Novak but if she could make friends and make herself known to the bosses, maybe they’ll see her potential and let her write for the paper.
She takes the subway to get everywhere, it wasn’t the best option with her distracted mind as she nearly missed her stop. Rushing down the tunnel and walking up the stairs, the sun above blinds her. The Novak building is just a few blocks away as she follows the crowd across the street. As she approaches the Novak building she is intimidated by its height, her neck strains trying to look at the top.
The lobby is elegant and filled with men in expensive suits and women in designer dresses. Rushing to the elevator the people inside give her a frantic look closing it just inches before she can get on. Sighing, she wants to cry. She’s lost this job, she just knows it.
And now she has no way to get home.
The elevator opens and she presses the 75th floor with her elbow. Her legs shake anxious wishing the elevator would go faster. Becoming hyper aware of her watch ticking and her lateness growing with every passing second, she begins to panic.
If she loses this job she’ll have to move back with her father and that is the last thing she wants.
The elevator doors open and sitting at the desk that is supposed to be hers right outside Mr. Alexander Novak’s office is no one. No one to take his calls or order his lunch or make his appointments or even remind him for his meetings. No one.
Taking a deep breath she knocks on his office door.
“Come in,” the deep voice calls back.
She creaks the door open, her legs shaking, her heart beating and her teeth chewing the skin at her lip until it’s bleeding.
“Hello, uhm,” she shuts the door behind her. “I’m Scarlett, your new assistant.”
The beautiful man sitting behind his large oak desk scratches the five o’clock shadow on his chin. “Are you? You see I had an assistant about two hours ago. She never showed up, so I no longer have one.”
Her heart drops to her stomach. “Please, Mr. Novak, I’m terribly sorry. Traffic was horrible—”
He holds up his hand, stopping her. “Let me guess, you’re new to New York?”
She nods her head.
“Obviously,” he guffaws. “Everyone here knows to leave much earlier to be on time.”
“I did,” she pleads. “There was an incident with my roommate.”
“What was the incident?” He crosses his arms.
“What?” She wasn’t expecting that.
Alexander gets up from his chair and walks around his desk to stand in front of her. He is well over a foot taller than her five foot four. “I want to know what incident made you two and a half hours late on your first day.”
“S-she,” how can she explain what really happened? The truth to the incident is a ridiculous one. He would never forgive her tardiness because her pantyhose were missing and she had to clean her entire room. “She was throwing up. Vomit everywhere. She must have had too much to drink. Alcohol poison probably. I had to take her to the hospital and traffic from there to here was unbelievable.”
“I have a meeting I have to get to in...” he checks the Rolex watch on his wrist that costs more than her entire apartment and everything in it combined, “...five minutes. When I come back, my office better be organized and your desk better have a calendar full of dates of when and where my project are, reminders for my meetings, due dates, flight and hotel details for conferences booked. I want it all on your desk. I want you to prove to me in the hour I’ll be gone that you can handle this job.”
Her smile grows. “I can!” Enthusiasm and determination fill her tone.