The Heiress He Underestimated novel Chapter 64

Chapter 64 Her Father’s Second Strike

The day after the cutting off the chains from her father, Drakonius slept late, a deep, untroubled sleep that Simon reported with a note of quict optimism. Elera, after a night of her own surprisingly dreamless rest, found herself in the kitchen at mid–morning, making tea not out of habit, but because she wanted the simple, familiar ritual.

She was standing at the counter, watching the steam curl from the spout of the heavy ceramic pot, when Frost entered. He moved with a cat’s quiet grace, but his expression was more grave than usual.

“Mrs. Vex. We have a development.”

Her stomach tightened, the brief peace shattering. “Valdris?”

“Indirectly.” Frost placed a tablet on the granite countertop. On it was a series of grainy, time–stamped photographs, taken from a distance with a long lens. They showed a man getting into a car. The man was Kieran Nethys. The car was a nondescript sedan, but the next photo showed it parked outside a private members‘ club downtown. The following image, captured by a different camera from a different angle, was clearer. It showed Kieran, looking harried and older than he had just yesterday, being ushered through a service entrance by a man in a dark suit. The man had his face turned away, but his build, the cut of his hair… it was Xan Valdris’s personal driver.

“He met with Valdris last night,” Frost stated. “Three hours after he left this building. The meeting lasted forty–seven minutes. He left alone, looking… agitated.”

Elera stared at the photos, the tea forgotten. Her father, beaten and humiliated, had gone straight to the enemy. It was the move of a truly desperate, truly stupid man. He was like a wounded animal, lashing out at anything, even the hand that had once fed it.

“He’s trying to make a deal,” she murmured, her mind racing. “He has no leverage with me, so he’s trying to sell what he has to Xan. Information. About me. About this house. About… you.” She looked up at Frost. “But he doesn’t know anything real. He doesn’t know about the lab. He doesn’t know about Dr. Mystral.” Or my other identities.

“We treat him as a hostile entity,” she said, her voice calm. “All his communications will be monitored. If he attempts to approach the estate, he is to be turned away with a warning. If he persists, involve local law enforcement for trespassing. He is to have zero access and zero contact.”

“Understood.” Frost picked up the tablet. “There is more. The patron’s dinner for the literary gala is tomorrow night. Valdris is not on the guest list. But given this new alliance, we must assume he is aware of it. The dinner is a smaller, more predictable target than the main gala.”

Elera’s thoughts flew to the emerald dress hanging in her closet, to the promise of stepping into a room where she was celebrated and not hunted. The idea of Xan poisoning that, using her own father as a weapon to ruin it, was a special class of violation.

“We go anyway,” she said, the decision instantaneous. “But we will change the plan. We won’t be using the private underground entrance anymore, instead we will use the main one. We also arrive fashionably late and we leave early. We will be seen, and then we are gone.”