Dominic's POV
The private investigator's report hits my desk with a thud.
"Nothing?" I ask, already knowing the answer.
"Mr. Kane, your wife is a ghost." Jackson, my third investigator in three years, looks exhausted. "No credit cards. No bank accounts. No employment records. No social media. No traffic tickets. Nothing. It's like she never existed."
"She existed," I say quietly. "She was my wife."
"Was being the key word. Sir, I think you need to accept—"
"Get out."
He leaves without another word. Smart man.
I open the report anyway, hoping for something new. But it's the same dead ends. The last confirmed sighting was three years ago at a bus station. Security footage showed her boarding a bus heading north. After that? Nothing.
Mira vanished completely.
My office door opens without knocking. Only one person does that.
"You're still looking for her?" Mother walks in, her face tight with disapproval. "Dominic, it's been three years. Let it go."
"She's the mother of my child—"
"She abandoned your child. And you." Mother sits across from me, perfectly composed as always. "Lily is thriving. She barely remembers that woman. Why torture yourself?"
Because I can't sleep. Because Lily asks questions I can't answer. Because I destroyed the only real thing I ever had.
But I don't say any of that to Mother.
"The board is concerned," she continues. "You're distracted. The company needs your full attention, especially after last month's security breach."
The security breach. Someone hacked our entire system, exposed every weakness, and disappeared before we could trace them. We lost two major contracts. The stock dropped fifteen percent in one day.
"We have the best security team money can buy," I say.
"Clearly not." Mother leans forward. "Which is why you need to hire her."
"Her?"
"M. Shadow." Mother says the name like it tastes bad. "The hacker everyone's talking about. She's expensive and arrogant, but apparently brilliant."
M. Shadow. I've heard the name whispered in tech circles for over a year. A ghost hacker who can break into anything. Companies pay her six figures just for consultations. No one's ever met her face-to-face.
"She doesn't take meetings," I say. "I already tried."
"Try harder. Your company is dying, Dominic. Swallow your pride and beg if you have to."
After Mother leaves, I pull up everything I can find on M. Shadow. Which isn't much. Anonymous message boards praise her skills. A few CEOs mention her in vague terms. One tech blog calls her "the phantom who can make or break empires."
My phone rings. My CFO.
"We just lost the Richardson account," he says without greeting. "They cited 'security concerns.' That's three major clients this quarter, Dominic. We're hemorrhaging money."
I close my eyes. "What do you suggest?"
"Hire M. Shadow. She's our only option."
"She won't meet with me—"
"She'll meet for the right price. Offer her whatever she wants."
After he hangs up, I sit in the silence of my office. Three years ago, I had everything. A thriving company. A family. A wife I took for granted.
Now? The company is failing. Elise left after I refused to marry her—turns out she only wanted the Kane name, not me. Lily barely speaks to me, preferring her grandmother and nannies. And Mira—
I pull up the photo on my phone. The only one I have where she's smiling. It was taken at our wedding, before I broke her.
She looks so young. So hopeful. So in love with a man who didn't deserve her.
My assistant buzzes the intercom. "Mr. Kane? There's someone here to see you. No appointment, but she says it's about the security position."
I frown. "I'm not interviewing—"
"She says her name is M. Shadow."
I nearly drop my phone. "What?"
"Should I send her away?"
"NO!" I'm standing now, my heart racing. "Send her in. Now."
This is impossible. M. Shadow doesn't do office visits. She works remotely, anonymously. Why would she suddenly show up here?
Unless... unless someone sent her.
The door opens.
A woman walks in, and my world stops.
She's tall, confident, wearing a designer suit that probably costs more than my desk. Her long black hair falls loose over her shoulders. Her face is striking—high cheekbones, sharp eyes, the kind of beautiful that makes people stare.
She looks nothing like Mira.
But something about her makes my skin prickle. Something familiar.
"Mr. Kane." Her voice is smooth, professional. "Thank you for seeing me on short notice."
"You're M. Shadow?" I can't stop staring at her.
"In the flesh." She sits without being invited, crossing her legs. "I understand you need help with your security problems."
"You never meet clients in person."
"You're a special case." Her smile doesn't reach her eyes. "I've been following Kane Enterprises for a while. Your vulnerabilities are... fascinating."
Something about the way she says that makes me uneasy. "You've been watching my company?"
"I watch lots of companies. Yours just happens to be exceptionally fragile right now." She pulls out a tablet. "Last month's breach was just the beginning. Whoever hit you barely scratched the surface. Your entire infrastructure is built on outdated security protocols. A determined hacker could take you down in hours."
"And you can fix that?"
"I can. For a price."
"Name it."
She studies me for a long moment. "Two million. Up front. Non-negotiable."
It's an insane amount. But I'm desperate. "Fine."
"Plus full access to your systems. Every file, every password, every secret." Her eyes gleam. "Can you trust me with that, Mr. Kane?"
No. Every instinct screams no. There's something wrong here. Something I can't put my finger on.
But I'm drowning, and she's offering a lifeline.
"Yes," I hear myself say.
She stands, extending her hand. "Then we have a deal."
I shake her hand, and electricity shoots through me. Not attraction—something else. Something that makes my heart race and my palms sweat.
"One question," I say, not letting go of her hand. "Why now? Why agree to meet me when you turn down everyone else?"
Her smile widens. "Let's just say I have personal interest in seeing Kane Enterprises survive. Or burn. I haven't decided yet."
She pulls her hand away and walks toward the door.
"Wait," I call out. "When do we start?"
"Tomorrow. I'll need an office here. Something private." She pauses at the door, glancing back. "Oh, and Mr. Kane? You might want to stop looking for your ex-wife. Some ghosts are better left buried."
The door closes behind her.
I stand frozen, my mind racing. How does she know about Mira? I never mentioned—
My phone buzzes. Email from M. Shadow's encrypted address. Just one line:
"Stop searching for Mira Chen. She doesn't exist anymore."
Below it, an attachment. I open it with shaking hands.
It's a photo of Mira. But not my Mira. This woman has different hair, different clothes, different everything. She's walking down a street I don't recognize, confident and alive and completely transformed.
The timestamp is from yesterday.
My wife is alive.
And somehow, M. Shadow knows exactly where she is.
I run to the door, yanking it open. But the hallway is empty. M. Shadow is gone.
My assistant looks up, startled. "Sir?"
"The woman who just left—where did she go?"
"What woman? No one's been here except you and your mother all morning."
"The woman in the suit! M. Shadow! She was just—"
My assistant's face is genuinely confused. "Mr. Kane, you've been alone in your office for the past hour. Are you feeling alright?"
I look at the security camera in the corner. At my desk where she sat. At the door she just walked through.
Was she even real?
I pull out my phone. The email is still there. The photo of Mira is still there.
Someone is playing games with me.
And I have a terrible feeling I just invited the enemy inside my walls.
My phone rings. Unknown number. I answer immediately.
"Hello?"
"Tick tock, Dominic." The voice is digitally altered. "You wanted to find your wife. Congratulations. She found you first."
"Mira?"
"Not anymore. Tomorrow, your company becomes my playground. Let's see if you're smarter than you were three years ago. Spoiler alert: I doubt it."
The line goes dead.
I sink into my chair, my hands shaking.
M. Shadow. The hacker I just gave complete access to my company.
Somehow, impossibly, she's connected to Mira.
Or worse—she IS Mira.
But that's insane. My quiet, plain wife could never—
Except she wasn't quiet. I made her quiet. And she wasn't plain. I just stopped looking.
I pull up the photo again. Study it closer this time.
The woman in the picture has Mira's hands. Mira's walk. And around her neck—barely visible—a simple silver necklace.
Her mother's necklace. The only thing she took when she left.
"Oh God," I whisper.
My useless wife didn't disappear.
She became the one person I desperately need.
And tomorrow, she's walking into my company with complete access to destroy me.
The hunter just became the prey.
And I invited her in myself.