Chapter 1 The Emperor’s Mute Maid

ANGELA'S POV

My phone was blowing up, and I wanted to wrap my bare hands around my legal counsel’s neck.

"I don't give a damn about the emergency board meeting, Marcus!" I screamed into my car's Bluetooth speaker.

I slammed my hand against the leather steering wheel of my sports car. "They lied! The entire board fabricated those audit reports!"

"Angela, please, pull over," Marcus’s voice cracked through the speakers, sounding panicked and pathetic. "It’s already all over Bloomberg and the news networks. The board voted to remove you as CEO effective immediately. They're accusing you of embezzling millions from the investment fund. The police are already involved. Just pull over so we can do damage control!"

Embezzling funds from my own company? What the actual fuck?

"Damage control?!" I yelled back, my face burning with pure rage. "For a scam they set up? I built this company from nothing! I took on loans at twenty-three, worked twenty-hour days, paid off my family's endless debts,and turned a single boutique hotel into a multi-million-dollar luxury hospitality empire! They can't push me out of my own company!"

"Angela, they executed a hostile takeover..."

"Shut up!" I shouted, cutting him off completely. "I don't need the board, and I don't need you! I made this company, and I can burn it to the ground and build another one before the quarter ends!"

I aggressively tapped the screen on the dashboard, switching on the financial news radio. The anchor's smug voice echoed through my luxury interior.

"...breaking news in the corporate sector. Hospitality mogul and self-made CEO Angela Vale has been officially ousted from Vale Global following a massive financial fraud investigation. Sources confirm board members uncovered millions missing from recent hotel expansion funds…”

"Corrupt snakes!" I roared at the dashboard screen. "Every single one of you board members was leeching off my hard work!"

My chest squeezed tight, a sharp, suffocating pain spreading through my ribs. I spent five years starving myself of sleep, carrying the financial weight of my irresponsible family, working until my hands shook only to be stabbed in the back by the very executives I hired.

I smashed my foot down on the gas pedal, the engine roaring like a caged beast. I just needed to reach my lawyer’s private office downtown and grab the real financial ledgers before they wiped the servers.

A massive semi-truck pulled out from the right lane ahead of me.

"Damn it," I muttered through gritted teeth. I slammed my foot on the brakes.

Nothing happened. The pedal went straight to the floorboard without an ounce of resistance.

"Angela? What’s that sound? Why are your RPMs spiking?" Marcus yelled over the line.

"The brakes!" I shrieked, terror ripping through my pride. "Marcus, the brakes are gone! They cut the fucking brakes!"

"What?! Pump the pedal!"

"I am pumping it! It’s not working!"

The car didn't slow down by a single mile an hour. It rocketed toward the highway barrier like a guided missile. I yanked the steering wheel with every bit of strength in my arms, but the front tires just shrieked against the asphalt. The metal guardrail rushed toward my windshield like a gray wall.

Explosion. Shattering glass. Iron pressure crushing my ribs.

Then, darkness.

Cold, filthy water hit my face, shocking my lungs awake.

"Wake up, you evil witch!" a rough voice barked.

I gasped, coughing and choking on thick, sewage-smelling mud. I instinctively tried to raise my hands to push myself up, but my arms wouldn't budge. My wrists were bound tightly behind my back with heavy, coarse ropes that bit viciously into my skin.

Who the fuck wakes an accident victim up with that foul water.

I looked around, but this place doesn't seem like anything I know.

Where am I? Did Marcus call an ambulance? Is this a nightmare? I tried to demand.

But no real words came out. Only a dry, raspy wheeze escaped my throat.

"Look at her! Still acting innocent after what she did!" someone screamed from nearby.

I forced my eyes open to take a closer look, wiping away the grimy water, and my breath caught in my throat.

This wasn't an ICU. There were no heart monitors, no white walls, no sterile smell of antiseptics.

I was kneeling in a pit of freezing, thick mud. Directly in front of my face sat a massive, weathered block of dark wood encrusted with thick, dried, rust-colored blood.

Thousands of people packed a sprawling stone square around me. But they weren't dressed in normal modern clothes. They wore threadbare rags, muddy leather boots, and coarse wool cloaks. It looked like an expensive historical movie set.

A jagged stone slammed right into my temple. My brain went white for a fraction of a second.

Hot blood trickled down my forehead, stinging as it ran straight into my eye. The blinding, throbbing pain was too sharp, too immediate.

Pain? My mind raced. If I am in a coma, I shouldn't feel pain this raw. The stench of horse shit and damp earth all seemed too real…

A massive man wearing a black leather hood stepped up onto the wooden platform. He lifted a heavy, double-bitted axe over his head. The broad steel blade caught the dull gray light of the sky.

He looked down at me with flat, hollow eyes.

Panic hit my chest like a tidal wave. What is this?! Do you idiots any idea who I am?! I am the CEO of Vale Global! I might have been kicked out but I am Angela Vale, I always find a solution, you can't execute me!

I opened my mouth to scream, to threaten them with lawsuits and security teams, but my vocal cords were dead. Locked. Completely silent.

The mob cheered, throwing their fists in the air.

"Off with her head!"

"Hang the poisoner! She tried to murder

Princess Lily!"

The executioner kicked my shoulder with a heavy boot, forcing my upper body down. My chin slammed hard against the bloody, splattered wood of the chopping block.

The metallic smell of old death filled my nose, triggering a wave of pure nausea.

The man braced his heavy legs and raised the axe to its highest peak. He was actually going to swing. He was going to sever my neck right here in the mud.

I clamped my eyes shut, my pulse hammering wildly in my ears as I waited for the cold steel to bite through my flesh.

Am I going to die before I even realize what the fuck is going on?