The Heiress He Underestimated novel Chapter 138

Chapter 138 A Very Convincing Forgery

“My sister,” he said quietly. “My sister is trying to help them take your company.”

Elera felt the world tilt sideways. Lyra. Of course. It made perfect sense. She hated that Drakonius had married Elera. She thought he was wasting family resources on a lost cause. And now she was actively working to destroy them.

“Thank you for letting us know,” Elera said to Richard. “Tell them no deal. We’re fighting this all the way.”

After she hung up, the room stayed quiet. Clara and Frost exchanged glances and quietly excused themselves, leaving Elera and Drakonius alone.

“I’m sorry,” Drakonius said finally. “I should have known she’d do something like this. I should have been watching her more carefully.”

sn’t your fault.”

y sister. My responsibility.”

a grown woman making her own terrible choices. You can’t control her any more than I can control father.”

Drakonius stood up and paced to the window, staring out at the ocean. “She hates you. Not because of anything you’ve done, but because she thinks you’re taking advantage of me. Using me. She probably thinks she’s protecting me.”

“By trying to destroy my company? That’s some twisted logic.”

“Family is complicated.”

“Family is a disaster,” Elera corrected. She joined him at the window. “But we knew they’d come after us. We knew this would be a fight. Lyra just made it personal.”

“What do we do?”

“We win. We fight them with everything we have and we win.” Elera took his hand. “And then maybe you have a very long, very uncomfortable conversation with your sister about boundaries and appropriate responses to not liking your sibling’s spouse.”

Despite everything, Drakonius smiled slightly. “That sounds terrible.”

“Family conversations usually are.”

They stood together, looking out at the darkening sky. The press conference was done. The secret was out. And the war was officially beginning.

But they had each other. And maybe, just maybe, that would be enough.

1:39 pm Pppp.

Chapter 138 A Very Convincing Forgery

Finished

The next morning brought a new crisis. Elera was barely awake when Clara burst into her room, tablet in hand and expression panicked.

“We have a problem. A big problem.”

“It’s seven AM. Can the problem wait until I’ve had coffee?”

“No. Because the problem is that someone leaked documents to the press. Financial records from Nethys Medical showing questionable expenditures and funding sources.”

That woke Elera up. “What? Let me see.”

Clara thrust the tablet at her. The article was already live on three major outlets. “Nethys Medical CEO’s Secret Slush Fund?” was the headline. The documents showed large transfers to offshore accounts, payments to individuals whose names were redacted, and what looked like money laundering.

“This is fake,” Elera said immediately. “These transactions never happened. Someone doctored these

records.”

“I believe you. But the press doesn’t know that. They’re running with it. People are already questioning whether your whole press conference was a lie.”

Elera’s mind raced. “We need to get ahead of this. Issue a statement immediately saying the documents are fraudulent. And get our forensic accountants to prove it.”

“Already on it. But Elera, whoever did this is good. The forgeries are really convincing. It’s going to take time to definitively prove they’re fake.”

“Time we don’t have. The takeover vote is in three days. If the board thinks I’m corrupt, they’ll vote against

me.”

Drakonius appeared in the doorway, already dressed and on his phone. “I just saw. My legal team is pulling the original records from Nethys Medical’s servers. We’ll have proof the documents are fake within hours.”

“And I’m calling in a favor with a friendly journalist,” Clara added. “Someone who actually fact–checks before running stories. We’ll get a counter–story out there.”

“What about the board?” Elera asked. “They’re going to panic.”

“Then we call another meeting. Right now. We show them the real records and explain what’s happening.”

The next few hours were a blur. Emergency board meeting where Elera presented the genuine financial records, showing they didn’t match the leaked documents. Statements from the company’s accountants verifying the authenticity. A carefully worded press release calling the leaked documents a “malicious fabrication designed to undermine the company during a hostile takeover attempt.”