My right hand was still gripping the edge of the folder containing the monthly meeting report, my fingers cold despite the cool, air-conditioned office. For five years, I had slowly picked myself back up, rebuilding the life that had shattered into pieces on what should have been the happiest day of my life. I was Annisa, the secretary known for being organized, calm, and never late. Here, no one knew what wounds I hid behind my neat blouse and the polite smile I always wore.
The CEO's office door slowly opened.
"We're going in now, Ms. Annisa. The new Director is waiting," said the security officer escorting me.
I nodded and drew a deep breath to calm my suddenly erratic heartbeat. News of the company head's replacement had been circulating for a week, but no one knew who would be leading the company starting today.
My steps stopped right in front of a large desk covered in dark wood. The man sat upright, his back broad, his gaze sharp yet seemingly filled with a thousand stories he had never told. When he turned and looked me directly in the eye, it felt as though my breath vanished.
Andrian Antoni.
The man who had left me without a word or explanation just as I stood there in my wedding dress. The man I had spent the past five years trying to erase from every corner of my memory, only to fail every time. And now, standing before me, he was neither the man I loved nor the man I hated, but my new superior. The CEO who had remained hidden all this time—the man I never imagined it could be.
He stared intently at me, as though no time had passed between us. Then his lips moved slowly, calling my name in the exact same voice as before.
"Annisa. You're finally here."
My legs felt incapable of moving. The report in my hand nearly slipped free.
I had just stepped into the world he had kept completely hidden from me all this time. And it seemed he had no intention of letting me leave again.
But I straightened my shoulders and swallowed the sudden stab of pain. Five years had been long enough to teach me how to stand on my own. I was no longer the weak Annisa who had waited for him at the wedding altar. I was a professional secretary, and to me, he was nothing more and nothing less than my new superior.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Andrian. I'm Annisa, the secretary who will assist you while you work here," I said flatly, briefly shaking his hand before quickly pulling mine back.
But the brief touch stayed on my skin longer than it had any right to. His palm had been warm and dry, his grip exactly as firm as I remembered, and the faint scent of cedar and black coffee that clung to his collar slipped past every wall I had spent five years building. I hated that my body recognized him before my mind gave it permission. I hated even more that, for one treacherous second, I wanted to step closer and breathe him in.
He noticed. Of course he noticed. His gaze dropped to the hand I had pulled back, then rose slowly to my mouth before settling on my eyes again, unhurried, as if he had all the time in the world to relearn my face.
I pressed my fingers against the folder until the cardboard bit into my skin. Professional, I reminded myself. He was my superior. Nothing more.
My pulse did not believe me.
A glint flashed in his eyes, as though my cold attitude had caught him off guard. But he said nothing, merely gesturing for me to sit.
From that day on, my little slice of hell began. In every meeting, Andrian always looked for an opening to pressure me. He questioned every sentence I read aloud and double-checked every file I prepared, even making sarcastic remarks in front of the other staff as though I were completely incompetent.
"Is this what you call thorough preparation, Annisa?" His deep voice echoed through the meeting room, his eyes fixed sharply on me. "If this is how you work, then it seems you're simply not fit to stay in this position."
Shame and anger churned together inside me. To be honest, I had never stopped hating him for what he had done back then. But I had no choice except to endure, doing my best even as he made it feel harder to breathe every single day.
Until that day came. A fatal mistake occurred—the important files I was supposed to hand over to a client had been switched with other documents. The major client flew into a rage and threatened to terminate the partnership. The entire room fell silent when Andrian summoned me to his office afterward. I was ready to be fired. In fact, it would be better if I never had to face him every day again.
But his words left me frozen in place.
"I can fix all of this. The partnership will continue, and you won't lose your job," he said quietly, standing right in front of me. "But there's one condition."
It felt as though my blood stopped flowing when I heard the absurd offer that came from his lips.
"Become my fiancée, Annisa. That's the only way you're allowed to stay here, by my side."