REBORN My Second Life I Became The Villianess (Nyxara) novel Chapter 9

One of the men, a venture capitalist with eyes like polished flint, looked me up and down. “Nyxara? never heard the name. Why the long hiatus from the public eye, Carlton?” he asked my father. 

Before I could even open my mouth, Nysa stepped in, her voice pitched in that sickeningly sweet, condescending tone she’d perfected. 

“Oh, Nyxara is just a total bookworm. She’s obsessed with her studies. She loves to bury herself in dusty old journals and textbooks, she honestly has no time for social gatherings or real-world business. It’s all just… academic to her.” 

She smirked at the men, a silent signal that I was just a decorative, useless nerd with no business being in the room. 

The venture capitalist chuckled, a dry, dismissive sound. “I see. That’s a shame, that means she probably has no idea about current business trends or the real potential of the new age of Artificial Intelligence, then? It’s a fast-moving world, miss. You’d be lost in it.” 

Nysa’s eyes lit up, ready to pile on more insults to make sure I stayed small and irrelevant. “Exactly. She wouldn’t know a ROI from a…” 

“Actually,” I interrupted, cutting her off. My voice still soft and shy, but clear enough to cut through her jab, “I think AI is the single most significant lever for profit a company can pull right now, provided they stop outsourcing their core infrastructure.” 

The room went still. Nysa froze, her mouth slightly agape. 

“If a tech firm is still outsourcing their software development and programming, they’re hemorrhaging money,” I continued, keeping my gaze respectfully lowered but my tone sharp and educated. “By bringing those pipelines in-house and building a proprietary AI architecture, you’re not just saving on overhead you’re building a scalable engine.” 

“For instance, if you automate the backend migration for a high-traffic platform, you reduce downtime costs by nearly forty percent. With the right team, you’re not just talking about saving pennies; you’re talking about billion-dollar valuation jumps in under two fiscal years.” 

I looked up, meeting the venture capitalist’s gaze. His flinty eyes had widened, his dismissive smirk replaced by genuine, shocked intrigue. “You’re talking about deep-stack automation?” 

“I’m talking about turning the cost center into the profit center,” I said, offering a small, modest smile. 

The men around us were leaning in now, their champagne glasses forgotten. My mother was standing stiff as a board, her face pinched in annoyance, and Nysa was vibrating with silent, homicidal rage. My father, however, was beaming. 

He had no idea what I was actually talking about, but he loved the way these titans were eating out of my hand. 

“That’s… a remarkably sharp take for someone who just reads books,” the man muttered, stepping closer. “Tell me, how would you handle the data security bottlenecks in that kind of transition?” 

I didn’t hesitate. I gave them exactly what they wanted, technical mastery, hidden behind a facade of humility. I watched Nysa’s hands ball into fists at her sides, her face turning a dangerous shade of purple as she realized she had accidentally handed me the spotlight. 

She tried to be the queen, but she’d just made me the genius, and for the first time in my life, I watched the room choose me. 

The shift in the room was palpable. The way the light caught their eyes they weren’t looking at the forgotten daughter anymore. They were looking at an asset, a threat, a player. Even my father had that hungry, predatory glint in his eye, the look of a man who’d just realized he was sitting on a gold mine he didn’t even know he owned. 

I felt the air getting thin. It was time for a reset. 

“If you’ll excuse me,” I murmured, my voice perfectly pitched to be demure. “I need to freshen up.” 

I turned and walked away, the silk of my dress trailing behind me like a shadow. I didn’t get five steps into the powder room before the door swung shut with a violent thud and Nysa walked in. 

Her hair was slightly disheveled, and her eyes were bloodshot with a cocktail of alcohol and pure, unadulterated hatred. She didn’t waste a second. She lunged, her hand swinging in a wide, frantic arc. 

The night air was cool and crisp, a sharp contrast to the suffocating rot inside. I took a long, slow sip of the champagne, looking out over the city lights. Everything was going exactly according to plan. The bait was set, the trap was laid, and my family was already starting to cannibalize itself. I just had to wait for the scream. 

The balcony was silent, save for the distant hum of the gala’s orchestra bleeding through the glass doors f stood at the far edge, leaning against the cold stone railing, watching the moonlight bleed into the dense woods that bordered the estate. 

The champagne was crisp, but it was nothing compared to the adrenaline still humming in my veins from the bathroom encounter. 

I heard the heavy click of the door. My senses flared, shifting from relaxed to combat-ready in a heartbeat. I spun around, my gown swirling around my ankles. 

Dario Valteri. He didn’t just walk; he owned the space he moved through. He stopped a few feet from me, his presence heavy and magnetic. He looked me over, not with the predatory hunger of the other men, but with a sharp, calculating amusement. 

“So,” he murmured, his voice a low, gravelly hum. “The youngest Vexari daughter.” 

I dropped my gaze, softening my posture. “Yes,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “I’m Nyxara.” 

He let out a short, dry laugh. He took another step closer, his eyes narrowing. “Drop the act, Nyxara. The weak, meek, scared-little-girl routine? It doesn’t work on me. It’s boring.” 

I held his gaze for a second, then let the timid mask dissolve. A slow, genuine smirk crept across my face, the first real expression I’d worn all night. “Clever man,” I countered, my voice dropping an octave, losing its tremor. 

He smiled, and for the first time, I actually looked at him. He was striking, impossibly sharp features, a jawline that could cut glass, and eyes that were a deep, fathomless dark. There was a dangerous intensity to him, a ruthless edge that most people would find terrifying. I just found it refreshing.