The Heiress He Underestimated novel Chapter 178

Burning Meadows Fa

Chapter 178 Everything That’s Hers

a Finished

Elera groaned and put her head down on the cool marble countertop. “No more photos. No more interviews. I just want to be a hermit who writes books and fixes DNA and maybe designs the occasional dress in peace.”

“Too late. You’re a public figure now. A multi–hyphenate icon. The mysterious genius the world can’t get enough of. Get used to it.”

“I hate it.”

“No, you don’t. You hate the invasion of privacy, but you love that your work is being seen. You love that young women everywhere are going to look at you and think, ‘I can do that too.‘ Don’t even try to deny it.”

Elera lifted her head. Clara was right, of course. She did love that part. The idea that her secret struggles, her hidden labs and late nights and constant juggling, could mean something to someone else. That it could show them a path.

“Fine. Maybe a little.”

“Ha! I knew it.” Clara plopped the pie crust into a dish. “Now, are you going to help me slice these suspicious apples or are you just going to sit there looking sad and beautiful?”

“I’ll help. I need to do something with my hands.”

They worked in companionable silence for a while, the only sounds was the slice of knives and the hum of the refrigerator. It was so normal and so deeply ordinary, that Elera felt the last of the day’s tension seep

away.

“He loves you, you know,” Clara said casually, not looking up from her apple.

Elera’s knife slipped, narrowly missing her thumb. “What?”

“Drakonius. He’s in love with you. It’s painfully obvious. The way he looks at you? It’s like you’re the only person in the room. The only person on the planet, really.”

Elera’s heart did a funny little flip. “We have an arrangement. A partnership.”

“Yeah, and I have an arrangement with my gym. That doesn’t mean I look at the treadmill like it hung the moon.” Clara finally looked up, her expression serious. “Elera, come on. The man married you to save his life, sure. But he’s not looking at you like a life raft anymore. He’s looking at you like you’re the shore.”

The metaphor was so unexpectedly poetic coming from Clara that Elera just stared at her.

“I don’t know what we are,” Elera said softly. “It’s complicated.”

“Love is complicated. And scary. And messy. And totally worth it.” Clara went back to her apples. Just something to think about while you’re being a hermit genius.”

Elera didn’t answer. She just kept slicing apples, her mind whirling with a new kind of chaos.

3:49 pm P PPO

Chapter 178 Everything That’s Hers

Finished

Later that evening, after the suspicious apple pie had been baked and deemed a success and after Clara had retired to her guest room with her laptop to “manage the brand,” Elera found herself wandering the quiet house.

She ended up in the library, where a fire was crackling in the hearth. Drakonius was there, stretched out on one of the large sofas, a book open on his chest. He wasn’t reading. He was staring into the flames, his face thoughtful.

“Can’t sleep?” he asked without turning.

“No. My mind’s too busy.”

“Mine too.” He shifted, making room on the sofa. “Join me?”

She did, curling up at the other end, tucking her feet underneath her. They sat in silence for a while. watching the fire dance.

“Today was a lot,” he said eventually.

“Yeah.”

“Are you glad you did it?”

Elera thought about it. The fear, the scrutiny, the inevitable backlash that was already starting in some corners of the internet. Then she thought about the stock stabilizing, the emails from young female scientists and designers that Clara had forwarded, the quiet pride in Drakonius’s eyes.

“Yes. I’m glad.”

“Good.” He picked up his book, then set it down again. “I realized something today, watching you up there.”

“What?”

“I don’t know anything about you.”

The statement was so blunt and so unexpected, that Elera blinked. “You know plenty about me. Probably more than anyone.”

“I know what you do. I know the masks you wear, the empires you’ve built, the secrets you’ve kept I don’t know you.” He turned his head to look at her. “I don’t know what you were like as a little girl. I don’t know your favorite color. I don’t know what you wanted to be before you decided to be everything.”

Elera felt a lump form in her throat. “Oh.”

“So,” he said, his voice softer now. “Tell me something. Something true. Something no one else knows”

3:49 pm p pp

The Heiress He Underestimated