The Heiress He Underestimated novel Chapter 182

The Heiress He Underestimated

Chapter 182 Confession

新營

Finished

“I built this whole… this whole identity around avenging a crime you didn’t commit. I hurt you. I tried to humiliate you. I allied myself with the actual devil to destroy you. And you never did anything to me but exist as his daughter.” He ran a hand through his hair, the gesture frustrated, exhausted. “I am so sorry, Elera. It’s too little, too late, and it doesn’t fix anything. But it’s true.”

Elera was silent for a long moment. She walked forward then, slowly, and picked up the USB drive. She turned it over in her fingers, a tiny black rectangle holding a world of corruption.

“This is what you were going to use against me?” she asked quietly.

“Some of it. Mostly, it was what I used to get close to him. My proof of loyalty. My… villain resume.” He tried for a smile, but it felt like a grimace. “It’s cleaner coming from you. Or from Vex’s lawyers. If I released it, it would just look like a bitter rival’s smear campaign. From you, it’s evidence.”

She nodded, slipping the drive into her own pocket. “Thank you.” The words were polite and distant.

It was more than he deserved. He should turn and leave now. His job was done. But the words were there, clawing their way up his throat. The last, most selfish truth.

“There’s something else,” he said, his voice dropping. He couldn’t look at Frost. He could only look at her. “I need to say it. Just once. So you know. So it’s out there, and then I’ll go, and I won’t bother you again.”

Elera watched him, her expression unreadable.

“The real you,” Xan said, and now his voice did break, just a little. “The one I finally see… you’re brilliant. You’re strong. You’re kind, even after everything. You’re someone who builds things instead of breaking them. The real you… is someone I wish I’d deserved.”

He took a shaky breath. This was the hardest part. The part that made him feel naked and stupid.

“I love you, Elera, still love you even though you pretended a lot to me but I love the real you. I think a part of me always did, even when I was pretending to hate you. And I know… I know I have no right. I know it’s the worst possible timing. I know you’re married to a man who is ten times the person I am. I’m not saying this to change anything. I’m not asking for anything. I just… I need you to know. Before I go. I love you. And I hope… God, I hope someday you can find it in your heart to give someone a second chance. Not me. I’ve burned that bridge to ashes. But someone. Because you deserve… you deserve every good thing.”

The silence that followed was absolute. Frost had gone very still. Elera just stared at him, her face a mask of pure shock. He’d blindsided her. He saw the confusion, the discomfort and the sheer disbelief in her

eyes.

That was his answer. It was all the answer he needed.

He gave a small, final nod. “Goodbye, Elera. Use that drive. Win and be happy.”

And before she could formulate a reply, before she could reject him or pity him or say anything at all, he turned and walked out of the conference room. He didn’t look back. He walked down the hall, took the elevator down to the garage, got into his car, and drove.

6:31 pm PLMM.

Chapter 182 Confession

Finished

He didn’t know where he was going. He just drove. And for the first time since this whole miserable saga began, he didn’t feel angry. He didn’t feel vengeful. He just felt clean and terribly, terribly sad.

Back in the conference room, Elera stood frozen, her hand in her pocket clenched around the USB drive. Her mind was reeling.

“Well,” Frost said dryly, breaking the silence. “That was… a lot.”

Elera let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “Yeah. A lot.”

“The drive could be a trap,” Frost stated, ever practical. “A virus or a tracker.”

“We’ll have it analyzed in the secure lab. On an isolated system.” Her voice sounded strange to her own ears. She was processing on two levels. On one level, the strategist: This is a potential goldmine of evidence. We need to verify it immediately. On another level, the woman: He loves me? He’s sorry? What do I do with that? He had told me he had underestimate me and now he loves me?

“His emotional declaration changes nothing from a security standpoint,” Frost said, as if reading her thoughts. “But it could indicate he’s a loose cannon. Unpredictable.”

Elera shook her head slowly. “No. That wasn’t a loose cannon. That was… surrender. He gave up all his power. Every secret he had. He kept nothing back.” She thought of the raw pain in his eyes. The shame. It hadn’t looked like manipulation. It had looked like someone finally seeing themselves clearly in a cracked mirror. And not liking the reflection one bit.

“We should go,” Frost said. “This location is secure, but it’s not home.”

On the drive back to the cliff house, Elera was quiet. She kept touching her pocket, feeling the outline of the drive. Xan’s words echoed in her head. I love you. The real you. It was so bizarre. After all the drama, the public humiliation, the cruel plots, it came down to this? A sad, sincere confession in a lawyer’s office?

Part of her wanted to be angry. How dare he lay that on her now? Now, when she was finally building something real with Drakonius? It felt like an intrusion. Another messy claim on her life from a man who’d caused nothing but chaos.

But another part, a smaller, quieter part, felt a pang of… something. Not for Xan. Not like that. But for the sheer, tragic waste of it all. All that energy, all that passion, directed at the wrong target for years. What a colossal, human mess.

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