POV: Kai
I shouldn't have come.
From my seat in the VIP section, I watched Nova accept her Grammy with that smile I knew wasn't real. Ten years apart, and I could still read every expression on her face like sheet music.
She was searching the crowd. Looking for him. For Darren Blake—the man who'd stolen everything from me.
My hands clenched into fists on the armrests of my chair. The other billionaires around me were clapping politely, but I barely heard them. All I could see was her. Nova. The girl who used to sing to me under the old oak tree behind her house. The woman who'd become a star while I was building an empire in the shadows.
She looked exactly the same and completely different. Still that wild dark hair that caught light like fire. Still those green eyes that used to look at me like I was her whole world. But now she wore diamonds that could buy small countries, and her smile had sharp edges it never used to have.
Darren had done that to her. Changed her. Used her.
I'd been tracking his moves for years, waiting for the right moment to destroy him. Tonight was supposed to be reconnaissance. Watch from a distance. Plan my attack.
I never expected to see her break apart on live television.
When she announced the divorce, the arena went insane. People were screaming, cameras flashing, security guards running. But I only watched her face as she walked off stage like a queen walking to her execution.
"Holy shit," muttered the tech mogul next to me. "Did Nova Black just—"
"Yes," I said, already standing.
I shouldn't get involved. Not yet. My plan required patience, careful timing. Darren didn't even know I was back in the country, let alone that I'd built Storm Industries from nothing into something that made his little music empire look like pocket change.
But seeing Nova's hands shake as she held that microphone...
I was moving before I could stop myself.
The VIP section had private access to the backstage area. Perks of buying the most expensive seats in the house. I flashed my pass to security and slipped through the chaos.
Reporters swarmed like vultures. Camera crews pushed and shoved, trying to get the first interview with the newly single Grammy winner. Staff members ran around shouting into headsets about "damage control" and "crisis management."
I found a quiet corner and watched.
Nova appeared in the hallway, still in that stunning silver dress, still carrying her Grammy. But something was wrong with her face. She looked pale. Fragile. Like she might shatter if someone spoke too loud.
Then I saw Darren.
He moved through the crowd like a shark, his eyes locked on Nova. Even from a distance, I could see the fury radiating from him. The barely controlled rage of a man who'd just lost his most valuable possession on live television.
My jaw clenched. He still thought he owned her.
Darren reached Nova just as she stumbled. I couldn't hear what he said, but I saw his mouth move close to her ear. Saw her face go white as paper.
Every instinct screamed at me to step forward. To put myself between them like I used to when we were kids and the older boys picked on her.
But I wasn't that powerless fifteen-year-old anymore. I was Kai Storm, CEO of Storm Industries, worth more than Darren could count. I could buy and sell him before breakfast.
The question was: Did Nova want my help? Or would seeing me make everything worse?
She hadn't known I was coming back. No one did. I'd spent a decade building my fortune in silence, staying invisible while I planned my revenge against the man who'd destroyed my family and stolen my girl.
Now here she was, close enough to touch for the first time in ten years.
And she was falling apart.
Nova pulled away from Darren, but she was swaying on her feet. The Grammy slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor. Again.
"Nova!" Someone shouted her name.
She spun around, looking lost and scared and nothing like the confident star who'd just owned that stage. Her eyes swept the crowd frantically, like she was looking for an escape route.
Those green eyes found mine across the hallway.
Time stopped.
I saw the exact moment recognition hit her. Her lips parted in shock. Her hand flew to her chest.
"Kai?" she whispered.
I couldn't hear her voice over the chaos, but I read my name on her lips.
She took a step toward me, then another. Her face cycled through a dozen emotions—shock, disbelief, hope, fear.
"It can't be," she breathed.
Darren followed her gaze and saw me. His face went dark with something that looked like fear mixed with rage.
Good. He should be afraid.
Nova kept walking toward me like she was in a trance. Reporters started noticing, cameras swinging to follow her line of sight.
"Nova, who is that?"
"Miss Black, do you have a statement?"
"Is this your new boyfriend?"
She ignored them all. Her eyes stayed locked on mine as she moved through the crowd. I wanted to go to her, to close the distance between us, but something held me back.
What if she hated me for leaving? What if—
Nova's knees buckled.
She went down hard, her silver dress pooling around her like spilled starlight. The Grammy skittered across the floor as cameras exploded with flashes.
"Nova!" Darren lunged forward.
But I was already moving.
Ten years of staying away, of watching from the shadows, of building my power in silence—all of it ended the moment I saw her fall.
Nothing else mattered now.
She needed me.
And this time, I was strong enough to catch her.