Stay with me

84 Taming the stubborn ( Тhe story of Jansu and Niko)

Niko Bianco confirmed the money transfer operation in online banking and got up from the table. The clock showed midnight. He made it. Paid the last part of the debt before the new day began. The day he has appointed as his Rubicon. June 1st. A date that has left a deep scar in his memory. It was on this day, four years ago, that his heart died. No, it didn't stop. It continued to knock quite measuredly and strongly, but not a single living emotion remained in it. Just a muscle pumping cold blood.

Niko went to the window. In the dark glass, as in a mirror, he saw his thin, aristocratic face and flexible, perfectly developed body. Women called him impeccably handsome. Once, in a past life, such a definition flattered Niko. Now it was annoying. Life has made it clear to him that beauty is not a guarantee of happiness. It is unable to maintain either love or trust. The beautiful are also rejected and killed by betrayal.

She did just that. She removed him from her life so easily and mercilessly, as if he were a figurine on her dressing table, which the spoiled princess suddenly considered unsuitable for the interior of the luxurious room.

She crossed him out, not even allowing an explanation. And, as if in a mockery, she announced through a lawyer that she leaves her dowry, with which he had to pay the debts of the ruined Bianco family, to him.

It would be better if she had shot him in the heart.

He asked the lawyer to tell her that he did not accept handouts and would return all the money to the last coin. For four long years, day in, day out, he worked twenty hours a day. When he managed to raise Bianco's company from the ruins, he experienced only cold satisfaction. When he returned the first part of the debt, he drank himself to death. When her father called, he sent him to hell and refused to speak.

Now, having reached the goal, Niko felt cold and an irresistible desire to forget. Tomorrow he will begin to exercise his revenge. Tomorrow, excitement will ignite in the blood and become the meaning of his existence. But today... today he has to fill the void with something, or it will kill him.

Niko took his phone out of his pocket, casually tapped the screen with his finger, and held it to his ear. "Hello," he said with icy dispassion. "Are you at home? Unlock the door. I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

***

Jansu could not sleep. The time had passed after midnight, but the thoughts in her head did not give her a single chance to sleep. They twirled and itched and tormented her with memories.

This was the case every year on June 1st. This date became her karma. She lived the day over and over again when, collecting the fragments of her broken heart, she blinded them into a pile and ordered herself to move on. She did it. She did not die of pain, did not become embittered by the betrayal, and did not close herself in from humiliation.

On that day, the old Jansu died, and the new one was born.

But first -

This happened almost five years ago.

She was only eighteen. The only daughter of the owner of the Baisal jewelry trading network. A girl who lost her mother early and became the meaning of life for her father. A spoiled, self-confident beauty who knows nothing of refusal. The whole world was at her feet, and she considered it a given.

He came to work for her father's company. He was twenty-five years old. An Italian with a face, as if came down from the paintings of Botticelli, and burning, black eyes. A descendant of an old Florentine family with impeccable manners and royal bearing. From the first minute of their acquaintance, Niko Bianco treated her like a princess. It seemed to Jansu that he was the personification of masculinity and nobility. She fell in love. Head over heels.