The Heiress He Underestimated novel Chapter 104

Chapter 104 What Trauma Builds

Finished

That evening, Xan showed up at his penthouse where Sarah was waiting. She’d let herself in with the key he’d given her months ago, and she’d made herself comfortable. Too comfortable. She’d rearranged his living room, moved his books and some other things.

“Hey,” she said, smiling that eerie smile of hers. “I ordered Thai food. Hope that’s okay.”

“It’s fine,” Xan said, setting down his briefcase and trying to look relaxed. “You said you wanted to talk about our strategy? Do you have a new idea?”

“Yes.” Sarah curled up on the sofa, pulling a blanket around herself like a child. “I’ve been thinking about our approach. About how we’ve been going about this.”

“And?”

“And I think we’ve been too passive and too reactive. We wait for them to make moves and then we respond. But that gives them all the power. They set the pace and that makes them control the story. We need to flip that.”

Xan poured himself a drink, needing something to do with his hands. “What did you have in mind?”

“Active destabilization. We don’t wait for Elera to probably reveal her other secrets because I am sure she has. We force her hand. We create situations where she has to choose between her various identities and where maintaining all her masks becomes impossible. We make her life so complicated, so chaotic, that something has to break.”

“Other secrets?” Xan asked carefully. “What other secrets?”

Sarah looked at him like he was being deliberately dense. “Come on, Xan. A woman like Elera doesn’t just have one secret identity. She’s Raven Shadowmere, yes. But I guarantee there’s more. Multiple businesses, multiple personas. She’s too smart and too paranoid to put all her power in one basket. So we will dig and investigate more. So that we will find every hidden thing she’s built and we drag it all into the light.”

Xan felt cold. Sarah was talking about the exact thing he was doing, but for a completely different reason. She wanted to expose Elera to hurt her. He wanted to expose the truth to understand it.

“That could take time,” he said.

“Then we get them.” Sarah’s eyes gleamed with something that made Xan’s stomach turn. “We hire the best investigators. We bribe people around her. We hack if we have to. Whatever it takes. Because here’s the thing, Xan, Elera isn’t just fighting us. She’s fighting her father, who’s clearly trying to ride her coattails to relevance. She’s fighting the media, who want to turn her into their next scandal. She’s fighting Drakonius Vex’s enemies, who see her as a weakness to exploit. She’s fighting on a dozen fronts, and eventually, she’ll make a mistake. And when she does, we’ll be there to seize on it.”

“What about Vex himself?” Xan asked, trying to redirect. “He’s the one keeping her protected. Maybe we should focus on him instead of her.”

“We are focusing on him. Just indirectly. The man is dying, Xan. His company is probably scrambling to figure out succession. His board is likely divided about his marriage to someone they see as a nobody. His sister hates Elera. All of that is pressure and stress. And stress makes people sloppy. It makes them

11:54 pm

Chapter 104 What Trauma Builds

Finished

vulnerable. So we add to it. We should feed stories to the business press about instability at Vex Industries. We should also spread rumors about Elera being a gold digger who’ll dump him the second he’s dead. We make investors nervous and make his board question his judgment. Then we turn his empire against him.”

Xan listened to her lay out the plan and felt sick. This was vicious, crafty and designed to cause maximum pain. And the worst part was, it would probably work. Sarah might be damaged and medicated and possibly delusional, but she was also brilliant in her own twisted way.

“That’s pretty comprehensive,” he said neutrally.

“I’ve had a lot of time to think about this. Five years, locked in that place, with nothing to do but plan and plot and dream about the day I’d finally make her pay.” Sarah’s voice went distant and hollow. “Do you know what it’s like, Xan? To be told over and over that you killed your own parents? To have doctors and therapists and nurses all looking at you like you’re a monster? To know that somewhere out there, the person who really destroyed your life is walking free, living their best life, while you rot in a cell?”

洄

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