Empire of Hate (Empire, #3)

by Rina Kent

Everyone in school loves me. The teachers, because I’m a good girl and smart. The kids, because I’m popular. Not Daniel, though. He’s never spoken to me. Never even looked my way. As if I were invisible.

I’ve been over the moon ever since I learned that he’d be coming over with his mum. I didn’t know why at first, until I learned what “unhealthy obsession” meant last night. I think I have one for him.

“Do you always hide to eat peaches after being mean?” I swallow the contents of my mouth and my lips burn as if I’ve kissed fire. But that doesn’t matter. Because I think Daniel just spoke to me. For the first time in weeks, he sees me.

“I can be mean, too.” He starts to move and I stand up abruptly.

Maybe if I share my favorite toys with him, he’ll like me. Maybe he’ll also see the beautiful girl trapped in the snow and think about how he can get her out without breaking her world apart.

He stares at the side. “Whatever.” My heart falls and something stings in my eyes. Ah. Even sharing one of the last things I have of Papa didn’t work.

He might have talked to me and held me, but I’m still invisible to Daniel.

From now on, I won’t have to live on the run from his father. From now on, I’ll have the means to fight back.

It is him. The man who ruined my life as much as I ruined his. Daniel Sterling.

The last time I saw him, we were only eighteen, but he’s older now, more masculine. All man.

Besides, there’s no flash of recognition on his features, so maybe he forgot about me.

Maybe he erased everything that happened between us and he’s now a new man who couldn’t give a damn about the past.

I want to scream and ask him if he’ll really pretend he doesn’t know me. He must’ve seen my résumé. He knows it’s me. I doubt he’s known many Nicole Adlers in his life. But why does it matter?

In fact, I should be happy that it’s impersonal. That way, I can pretend this is only work that I’m using to keep a roof over my and Jay’s heads.

“No, sir. Now, say it.” There’s a challenge in his tone, coupled with a strange gleam in his eyes. It’s nothing bright or shiny like the Daniel I know. This one is sadistic, glinting with only one intention. Humiliating me. But screw him.

If he thinks my pride will stop me from stooping low, then he doesn’t know how much of a thick skin I’ve grown over the years.

It doesn’t matter how many years pass or how old she gets, Nicole was and always will be beautiful. The provocative type. The type I want to snuff out and shove down her slender throat.

It’s been eleven years. Eleven fucking years since I last saw her, but that one glimpse was enough to provoke the raging monster inside me.

So I gave HR her name and asked what she was doing here when she’s supposed to be in fucking London where I bloody left her.

Turns out, Nicole was applying for an assistant position in the firm. As the bitch karma would have it, I recently let go of my one hundredth assistant, so Nicole was the perfect fit to fill in the role.

She’ll be my target for these couple of weeks and then she’ll beg me to let her go. Little Miss Bitch will wish she’d turned around and r...

Her pride comes before everything. Even when she fell from grace and her mother was no longer in the picture, she never lowered her head or acted like a victim. Never.

So the fact that she’s been keeping up with my ludicrous commands and harsh treatment is strange, to say the least.

I assume you’re still holding a grudge? It’s been, what?” His hazel eyes twinkle with amusement as he starts counting with his fingers. “Eleven fucking years, no? Normal people would’ve moved on by now.”

The girl who was on a mission to destroy everything pretty I held of her. Everything…innocent.

It’s a fucking game.” Like the one she used to play back in the day. This time, I’ll win.

That day, I couldn’t tell Mum that I ate peaches on my own or else she would’ve been the one who killed me instead of the allergic reaction. So she assumed Daniel gave them to me, went to his mother about it, and he was grounded.

but she just had to get close to Daniel. She had to be friends with him in one freaking day while I’ve been hopelessly trying for seven years.

Why do you have to be a bitch?” Because he only sees me when I’m being one.

Daniel has never seen me during all the years I’ve been a good girl. Hell, he hated me for it, so maybe that’s not the answer. Maybe all I need is to become so bad that he’ll only look at me. Even if it’s with disapproval and glares. That way, he’s at least looking at me.

He’s laid-back, welcoming, charming. To everyone but me.

Only, she has more issues now. And they all start with him. Daniel.

“And that’s any of your business because…?” Yeah, so I usually sound like this. Snobbish, mean, and completely detached. It’s a defense mechanism.

“You could be the last man on earth and I wouldn’t come near you, even if humanity’s destiny depended on us.” “Is that so?” His permanent smirk falls. “And who would you choose? The one you’re taking those shots to?”

Maybe it’s time I finally give up. So why does the mere thought fill my eyes with tears?

Unlike her flashy, seductive stepsister. That’s where I’m going right now—after Nicole.

I shouldn’t give a fuck what Nicole is up to. In fact, I made it my mission not to focus on her, not to get pulled into her manipulative web, where she lures her victims, then sucks their souls like the blood countess sucked young girls’ blood to remain beautiful and ageless. That shit is real. Look it up.

She’s been different today. Talkative, though still venomous. Dressed in a fuck-me dress and heels as if she was out to get some. And why the fuck am I getting so bloody hot that I want to set my own clothes on fire?

He said that the next time she eats a peach, she’ll stop breathing. She’ll drop dead. There will be no more Nicole and her fake smiles and dainty dresses.

I wanted her to explain if liking something was enough of an excuse to push herself to the brink of death.

Nicole, however, breathes that life. The prim and proper side of it. The arrogance that comes with it. The extravagance that coats it like honey. And she has the looks that go with it. She’s a bombshell with legs that go for miles and hair so blonde, it’s more blinding than the sun and just as burning. Her body is slender, with curves that are made for grabbing onto while I fuck her senseless.

“Fine, promise. Now, tell me what the kink is.” She gets on her knees and inches closer, bringing the sheets with her until she’s eye level with me, then whispers, “You.” And I know, I just know I’m not only going to fuck Nicole Adler, but I’ll also enjoy and regret every second of it.

But no one knows the Daniel I know. The heartless, merciless jerk with control freak tendencies and egomaniac issues.

I quit my addiction to him a long time ago—I’m eleven years sober—so how come one hit is enough to make me backpedal into bad habits?

It’s been years since I was in this position. No, over a decade. It’s crazy how much the passage of time can change someone’s perspective about everything.

Because of him, I hid in toilets and cried where no one could see the proud Nicole being weak. And because of him, my life took a sharp dive for the worst.

I even wish I’d never met him again. I wish our ill-fated connection had died the day he metaphorically killed me eleven years ago.

Because the way he’s watching me? It’s nothing short of domineering. His square jaw is set and his nostrils are flaring and those eyes that I once found solace in? They’re now judging me, worse than a criminal who’s being prosecuted in court.

Daniel is no different than them. If anything, he should be offered the leadership of my anti-fan club. Yes, he’s a man now, but he’s still the boy who punched my heart and stomped all over it as if my feelings meant nothing.

He’s still the boy who gave me malevolent butterflies and caused my heart to be dangerously wild by merely existing. He’s still the one person I can’t forget, no matter how much I attempt to.