She stepped closer.
Still beautiful. Still elegant. And every inch of her was a lie.
Leon's pulse roared in his ears.
How dare she?
Kaya stared at Leon, as she could practically feel the tension radiating off him like heat off a boiling pot.
His face, so expertly impassive just seconds ago, twisted.
With rage.
Leon didn't speak right away, instead his hands curled into fists at his sides. She looked at the woman in front of her, wondering who she was to Leon and what she had done to make him lose his composure.
Wenna stepped closer, unbothered by the storm building in Leon's eyes. She glanced at Kaya then, slow, assessing.
"You've finally gotten a wife?" she asked sweetly. "How precious."
Kaya's spine straightened immediately, and she frowned.
"And you are?"
Wenna's smile widened, flashing perfect white teeth. "Oh, didn't he tell you, sweetheart? I'm Wenna Lang. First love. First betrayal. The woman he would've moved heaven and hell for, once."
Kaya flinched slightly, unsure of what to do with the information she had just received. Leon Feng was capable of love?
Leon Feng stepped forward, his voice deadly calm. "What are you doing here, Wenna?"
"Business, darling," Wenna replied. "You know how it is, scandals, buyouts, new power plays. Old ghosts reappearing to haunt the men who thought they'd buried them."
Leon's jaw clenched so tight a vein popped at his temple.
"You betrayed this company," he spat. "You sold internal data to a direct competitor. You leaked the ArcTech blueprint and walked out with my rival's ring on your finger."
"And yet here I am," Wenna said, tilting her head innocently. "Still standing. Still profitable."
She flicked her gaze to Kaya again, this time slower. Her eyes dragged from Kaya's face to her modest black dress to the plain heels she wore.
"Well," she said with a laugh. "He's downgraded. But at least she looks... obedient."
Kaya stiffened. Obedient?
Downgraded?
Every nerve in her body was on edge as Leon took a step forward, his presence like a brewing storm.
"If you're here to pitch, I'll make sure every door in this city slams shut on you. If you're here to gloat—" his eyes narrowed, "—consider it done. Now leave."
Wenna's lips curved slowly. Unbothered. Unshaken.
"Oh, Leon." Her voice was sugar-dipped poison. "Always so dramatic." She tilted her head, red curls catching the light. "I'm not here for you. I've been hired. Someone very rich. Very powerful. Someone who sees the cracks in your empire and knows exactly where to apply pressure."
She smiled, all teeth."If that bothers you... well." She leaned in, her voice dropping to a whisper only he could hear. "I suppose some wounds never really close."
Wenna stepped back, that wicked smile still in place. She turned her attention to Kaya, eyes sweeping her slowly, dismissively.
"Lovely to meet you, Mrs. Feng," she said, voice syrup-sweet and venom-laced. "Though I do hope you've read the fine print. You've married a wolf." She smiled wider. "Be careful not to bleed."
And with that, she turned and walked away, heels clicking like gunshots against the marble floor.
For a long second, Leon said nothing. Kaya could feel his fury radiating beside her, sharp and silent. His face was stone, but his eyes burned.
Then, finally, he exhaled.Slow. Controlled. Like forcing rage back into a locked box.
"Let's go," he said tightly.
Kaya followed, her heels silent next to his.
~
The silence between them was thick enough to choke on as they made their way to the waiting car. A sleek black Maserati idled at the curb, its tinted windows glinting under the noon sun like a promise of more silence.
Leon opened the door without a word and slid in first, jaw set like stone.
Kaya hesitated a second, gathering her dress before following. The second she sat, the door shut with a soft but final thud behind her, trapping them inside a space that now felt too close.
The driver didn't ask for a destination. Of course not. Leon didn't explain. Leon didn't ask.
He ordered. And he expected the world to follow.
For a while, the car rolled forward in loaded silence, only the low hum of the engine filling the void.
Kaya finally broke it, her hands jittery. "Where are we going?"
Leon said nothing in response, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. His jaw kept flexing again and again like he was chewing on every ounce of his fury.
She groaned and tried again, sharper this time. "Leon."
Still, there was no answer.
The frustration bubbled in her throat and she snapped. "Seriously, what's your problem? Who was that woman?"
That did it.
He turned his head, and the way he looked at her.
It wasn't anger.
It was volcanic.
"Shut up," he snapped, voice like a whip crack.
Kaya blinked, stunned. "Excuse me?"
"I said shut up." His voice dropped to a low growl, every word like a slap. "Don't speak. Don't ask. Don't pretend you can understand anything about what just happened back there."
Her shock snapped into heat.
"Don't speak? You dragged me into this whole performance, paraded me like some accessory, and now I'm not allowed to speak?" she hissed. "You don't get to silence me just because you have anger management issues!"
Leon's head turned slowly. His eyes narrowed, his expression sharp and unreadable. Then he gave her something worse than a glare.
A laugh.
Cold. Bitter. Without humor.
"You think this is anger?" he muttered, chuckling darkly. "Kaya Song, you haven't seen me angry."
Kaya bit her lips. A part of her warned to let it go. But another part, the one that refused to be trampled, dug in its heels.
"Right," she scoffed. "And I'm supposed to sit here and just take it? Be your perfect little display wife while you spiral into god-knows-what every time some ghost from your past waltzes in wearing heels?"
Leon leaned back in the seat, finally tearing his eyes from her, a muscle ticking at his temple. His jaw flexed once, and then he opened his mouth.
"We're going shopping," he said flatly.
"…What?"
His gaze flicked to her, as if she was the ridiculous one.
"I said we're going shopping. Clothes. Jewelry. Accessories. You're underdressed for everything coming next."
She gaped at him. "You shouted at me… to take me shopping?"
"I shouted at you," he said coldly, "because you don't know when to stay quiet."
Kaya's throat tightened, but she swallowed it down, forcing herself to sit straighter.
"So that's it?" she muttered. "You can't handle your past, so now I get to play dress-up Barbie to make you feel powerful again?"
Leon turned his head so sharply she flinched.
"This isn't for me," he said, voice low and dark. "This is for you."
She frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
He looked out the window, his tone like ice.
"Because if you walk into the next meeting or event looking like you did today," he said, "they won't just mock you. They'll destroy you, and I can't have that. You represent me."
Kaya stared at him, stunned into silence for once.
Not because of the insult.
But because of the truth under it.
In his own twisted way, this was protection. Brutal, uninvited, and cold, but protection nonetheless.
She looked down at her dress. It was plain. Forgettable. She hadn't known what today required. She didn't know this world. Not really.
But she would learn.
"Fine," she said after a long pause. "Let's shop."
Leon didn't respond. But Kaya saw his hand twitch on his thigh, just once.
She turned her gaze to the window.
Neither of them said another word.