The Heiress He Underestimated novel Chapter 75

Chapter 75 The Email

Lyra. It had to be Lyra. Drakonius’s sister had already proven she could hack into secure systems. Maybe she’d been digging into Elera’s finances, following the money trails, and found the connection between Dr. Mystral, Elera Nethys, and Raven Shadowmere. Maybe this was her way of trying to drive a wedge between Elera and her brother.

Or maybe it was Xan. He’d certainly been busy tonight, orchestrating fires and making dramatic appearances. Maybe he’d hired someone to dig into her background, looking for leverage. Finding out she was a secret bestselling author would be quite the prize.

Either way, this was bad. Really bad.

She looked at Drakonius, sleeping peacefully for the first time in days. If this got out, if someone publicly connected Elera Vex to Raven Shadowmere at tomorrow night’s gala, it would be chaos. The would

go insane. Her anonymity, the thing that had protected her for years, would be gone. And worse, Drakonius would find out in the worst possible way, in front of hundreds of people, that his wife had been lying to him about who she was.

She could back out. She could call Clara right now and say she wasn’t coming. Claim illness. Family emergency. Anything. Raven Shadowmere could stay hidden, mysterious and safe.

But then she’d never give Drakonius his wish. He’d never get to meet his favorite author. And part of her, the part that had been hiding for so long, was desperate to step into the light. To be acknowledged for something she’d built with her own mind and her own words, not her father’s name or her husband’s money.

She stared at the email for a long time, reading it over and over, trying to find some clue about who sent it. Then she made a decision.

She wasn’t backing down. She was going to that gala. She was accepting that award. And if someone tried to expose her, she’d deal with it. She’d dealt with worse.

But she needed backup. She needed information. She needed to know who she was fighting.

She typed out a quick message to Frost: “Need a trace on an email. Encrypted. Possibly from Lyra Vex or someone connected to Xan Valdris. Urgent.”

His response came back in less than a minute: “Send it to the secure server. I’ll have my people on it within the hour.”

She forwarded the threatening email and then opened a new message to Clara: “Still coming tomorrow night. Need you to be extra vigilant. Someone might try to cause problems. Will explain later.”

Well, Lyra didn’t know who she was dealing with.

Elera opened a new email, this time sent from a burner account that couldn’t be traced back to her. She addressed it to the same anonymous account that had sent the threat.

“Lyra. I know it’s you. If you expose me tomorrow night, you won’t destroy my marriage. You’ll just prove to your brother that you’re exactly as petty and vindictive as he already thinks you are. Is that really how you want to be remembered? As the bitter sister who couldn’t let him have one good thing before he dies? Think carefully about what you do next.”

She hit send before she could second–guess herself. It was a gamble. But Lyra’s whole motivation seemed to be this twisted idea that she was protecting her brother from gold–diggers and manipulators. If Elera could reframe the exposure as an attack on Drakonius rather than on her, maybe Lyra would back down.

Maybe.

Or maybe Elera had just made things ten times worse.