The Heiress He Underestimated novel Chapter 148

Chapter 148 Telling Sarah (2)

+5 Pearls

“This is the intersection where your parents died,” Elera said, her voice steady even though her heart was hammering. “This is from a traffic camera that was supposed to be malfunctioning that night. It wasn’t.”

She tapped play.

The video was only about ninety seconds long. It was shaky, the quality was poor, but it was clear enough.

They watched as a car pulled into the frame, driving erratically. It swerved, moving from one side of the road to the other, and finally slammed into the tree. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the driver’s door opened.

A man got out.

He was tall, wearing a dark coat. He walked around to the passenger side, opened the door, and dragged out a limp figure–Sarah, her limbs loose, clearly unconscious. With a careful and horrifying calm, he arranged her in the driver’s seat. He closed the door. He stepped back, looked at the scene, adjusted her arm so it was draped over the steering wheel. Then he turned and walked away, disappearing off the bottom of the frame.

The man’s face was partially obscured by the shadows and the angle, but in one frame, as he turned, the camera caught his profile. The distinctive hawk–like nose. The set of his jaw.

Kieran Nethys.

Sarah made a sound like all the air had been punched from her lungs. Her hands flew to her mouth. She was shaking her head, back and forth, back and forth, a frantic denial.

“No,” she whispered. “No, that’s… that’s fake. You made that. You’re lying. You’re always lying.”

“It’s not fake, Sarah,” Elera said, her voice soft. “Jennifer Martinez saw the original. A detective nameel Michael Reeves saw it. He showed it to her. He asked her to identify the man which she did. The next day. Detective Reeves was found dead in his apartment. It was a supposed suicide.”

Elera pulled up another file. A news article about the detective’s death. A photo of his grieving family,

“After that, men came to see Jennifer. They gave her a hundred thousand dollars in cash. They told her to disappear, to change her name and to never speak of what she saw. Or she’d end up like the detective.”

Sarah was crying now, silent tears running down her face. She wasn’t making a sound, sje was just shaking. the tears falling onto the table. Xan had gone ashen. He was staring at the tablet, then at Elera, then back at the tablet. His mouth was a tight line.

“The blood alcohol test,” Elera said. “Point one five. You weren’t drunk, Sarah. You were drugged. My father drugged you. He used a compound that metabolizes in the blood to look like alcohol. He set the whole scene. He killed your parents and he framed you. And then he bought your family’s company for pennies.”

“Why?” The word burst from Sarah, torn and raw. “Why would he… my parents… they were…. why?”

“Because they refused a merger he wanted,” Elera said, and the shame of it, the sheer bloody awfulness of

9:22 am P PPP.

Chapter 148 Telling Sarah (2)

+5 Pears

being related to that monster, burned in her throat. “Because they stood in the way of a deal. Because to him, people are just obstacles or assets. And your family became an obstacle.”

Sarah let out a sob, finally breaking the silence. She buried her face in her hands, her shoulders heaving Xan moved automatically, putting an arm around her, but he was still staring at Elera, his eyes wide with a dawning of a horrified understanding.

“You,” he said, his voice hoarse. “You were there too.”

Elera nodded. “I was. I saw my father there. I went to confront him. He gave me a drink.” She swallowed. “I think he drugged me too. To make sure I wouldn’t remember so that I wouldn’t talk. My memories of that night… they’re very fuzzy. I thought it was just stress. But I think he was covering all his bases. If the Sarah story didn’t hold, maybe he could point his fingers to me instead.”

98

9:22 am Pppp.

The Heiress He Underestimated