PROTECT MY HEART

CHAPTER 1: THE OPPORTUNIST

LIZZ'S POV

Daukon Ogi sat in his leather chair at the top floor of the Fin-Tech Group's skyscraper, gazing out at the gray city skyline like a man staring into his own fading legacy.

His hands, though veined and wrinkled, still clenched the armrest with the firmness of a leader who'd spent his life building something that must not fall.

He had no son to inherit his empire. Only Lizz.

And Lizz, though brilliant, tough, and ruthless when needed, stood on fragile ground with the board.

Not because of her skills, those were undeniable, but because tradition still whispered in the ears of aging stakeholders, "a woman needs a man beside her to rule", they said.

It was absurd. But it was real.

I stood at the center of the boardroom, arms folded over my fitted navy blazer, my jaw tight.

"You're telling me I need a ring before I can lead a billion-dollar company?" I said with disbelief.

My father looked at me with tired eyes.

"You know it's not me. It's them. They don't think it's stability unless there's a man in the picture." He said.

"I'm not marrying just to make your board sleep better at night," I snapped.

"Then be engaged. On paper. For appearances. It's a formality" said my father.

"It's blackmail," I interrupted, coldly.

But my heart twisted with something else.

I had no time for love. No space in my life for complicated entanglements.

Every man I'd dated had eventually crumbled under the weight of my ambition.

I refused to play small, and the men I met refused to play second.

Still, my father's health was fading, and I couldn't let this company, my company, slip into the hands of some greedy shareholder or backdoor executive.

So I agreed. With one condition:

"I'll choose him myself." I said in agreement.

..............,.......................

Kalix Obasi, was a man with a plan, a hunger for power that bordered on obsession.

As the head of innovation at a rising Crypto AI firm, he had already begun making waves in tech circles.

But his ambitions reached far beyond cryptocurrency and blockchain. Kalix wanted Fin-Tech.

He wanted its legacy, its influence, and more than anything, its vast resources in traditional finance.

He'd been watching Lizz from afar for months. Her brilliance fascinated him, but it was her position, her proximity to power, that truly intrigued him.

And when a well-placed source whispered that her dad, would only pass the company to her if she got engaged.

Kalix acted faster than any algorithm he'd ever written.

He didn't waste time with romance. He approached Lizz with an offer dressed as affection, cloaked in admiration.

"You need stability," he said over wine at a rooftop bar.

"And I offer it", said Kalix.

"I know what the board expects. I know what you need to stay in control. And I offer more than a title beside yours, I offer an alliance". He explained.

"We build something together. Fin-Tech and Crypto AI. We reshape the future." He sounded logical. Even compelling.

Lizz, cornered by pressure and time, found herself saying yes.

A private engagement. A ring that sparkled more for public perception than passion.

A contract, signed and notarized, that merged their professional ambitions like a corporate merger.

But deep inside, something felt hollow and she didn't yet know someone had watched her from a distance, longing, but silent.

Dave Stanton wasn't just wealthy, he is legacy. The only son of the Stanton dynasty that controlled Tech-Organization, a tech giant with stakes in Biotech Software, and Telecom.

He is brilliant, enigmatic, and famously untouchable.

No woman had ever gotten close. Not the socialites. Not the actresses. Not even his rivals' daughters thrown at him like power pieces.

But there was one woman who had caught his attention. One who never noticed him.

Lizz Daukon.

He saw her once, at a World Tech Summit. She was speaking on a panel about Fin-Tech reform and integration in underserved markets.

Her voice was confident, her words razor-sharp, her intellect magnetic.

From that moment on, Dave followed her career in silence.

I didn't know. Couldn't know. He admired me from a distance, always convincing himself it wasn't the right time.

That I was too focused and he had too much on his plate.

" If it were meant to happen... it would", he told himself.

Then came the trip. A six-weeks business expedition in Dubai to finalize TEC's global expansion.

He'd cut all distractions, no media, no social feeds. Just numbers, strategy, and execution.

And while he was away, Lizz got engaged.