Too Late For Regrets, Mr. Billionaire (Brianna Meyers and Brandon Levy) novel Chapter 162

Chapter 162 A Conspiracy

It was already ten at night, and the monitors in Brianna’s office were still glowing.

Brianna kicked off her heels under the desk, letting her bare feet rest on the heated floor, but the chill still seeped up through her soles.

Three monitors sat side by side in front of her. The left screen showed Allison’s public resume, the middle displayed a ruling, and the right was filled with a summary of Allison’s human rights cases.

The windows stacked up like layers of gold leaf, but underneath, a shadowy gray hinted at something dubious lurking below.

Brianna started by comparing the timeline: from the moment Allison submitted her master’s thesis, to it being fast-tracked by the Universal Council of Rights, and then to Allison being recognized as an outstanding graduate by one of the world’s top universities-all within less than a month.

And before she even graduated, the university went so far as to name a flower garden on campus after her.

The only other person from her country to ever receive such an honor was a legendary poet who made history.

What was even more bizarre was that just a month after graduating, while still a trainee lawyer, Allison represented a human rights case against an Afrogan government leader and scored a sweeping victory. All of the official’s overseas assets and bonds were frozen.

Brianna nudged the mouse, and the crisp snap of the scroll wheel sounded like a judge’s gavel, hammering right on her nerves.

“It’s all happening too fast. She’s way too perfect. It’s like someone hit the fast-forward button on her life,” Brianna muttered to herself.

She absentmindedly jabbed at a sticky note with her pen, again and again, until the corner of the A4 sheet underneath was frayed and rough.

The air carried the bitter, sour tang of cold coffee.

The door was pushed open, and Tristan poked his head in without bothering to knock.

Noticing Brianna was still working, he decided to stick around and work late as well. With a cup of hot milk in hand, he walked around the desk and stopped beside her.

“No lights on, are you trying to spook someone?” Tristan smiled, keeping his voice low, as if he didn’t want to interrupt her thoughts.

Brianna didn’t take the milk. Instead, she turned her laptop toward him. The screen’s glow highlighted the bluish shadows under her eyes, revealing her fatigue.

“See? It’s not just me being paranoid, right?” Brianna said.

Tristan first noticed the bloodshot look in her eyes, then took in the screens crowded with files.

Too Late For Regrets, Mr. Billionaire

His smile slowly faded, and before any other emotion could even surface, he was stunned by the data in front

of him.

“Seventeen days to name a flower garden after her?” Tristan scrolled with his finger. “At my alma mater, it took four months just for alumni to vote on renaming a hallway. Is she running on cheat codes or what?”

Brianna pulled up the window from the middle monitor and kept scrolling, but it was just win after win for Allison. Every single case was another courtroom victory.

Her voice was low and quick, like water rushing under ice. “These cases are pretty suspicious too.”

Tristan finally dropped the joking tone and pushed the milk aside. He leaned in, hands braced on the desk, his breath so close it stirred the loose strands of hair by her ear.

“So you think this whole thing is a reverse setup? They set up the target first, then take the shot?” Tristan asked.

“It’s more than that,” Brianna said, lifting her gaze, her lashes almost brushing his jaw.

“I suspect Allison’s real weapon isn’t human rights at all. It’s the West’s game of hunting down foreign tycoons. Every win she gets, some big shot’s assets end up frozen by western countries,” Brianna said.

Tristan was silent for a couple of seconds, then suddenly reached out and covered her hand, which was gripping the mouse. His palm was dry and carried the chill of deep winter.

“Are you saying…” His voice dropped, rough with tension. “Allison approached Brandon with a hidden agenda?”

“I need to go see Gabrielle,” Brianna said, suddenly standing up so fast that her head smacked right into Tristan’s chin, making him wince in pain.

“Are you worried about Brandon?” Tristan asked, rubbing his chin. Oddly enough, the knock seemed to tug at something deep in his chest.

Brianna paused, stunned for a moment. She didn’t even spare a glance at Tristan’s injury, her mind already spiraling back into her own thoughts.

‘Is it really Brandon I’m worried about?’ Brianna wondered. ‘Or am I just itching to go head-to-head with Allison?

‘Or is it Kane showing up at Unity Group that’s got me feeling threatened?’

Whatever the reason, she refused to just sit around and wait for disaster to strike.

“Let’s deal with this later. I need to go see Gabrielle first,” Brianna said.

With that, she grabbed her coat, shut down her computer in a hurry, and left the office.

By the time Brianna arrived at Gabrielle’s place, it was already midnight.

Gabrielle was still up. When she heard the noise, she headed downstairs.

Too Late For Regrets, Mr. Billionaire

“Gabrielle, why are you still awake?” Brianna asked, a little surprised.

“With everything that’s happened, there’s no way I could sleep,” Gabrielle said. Seeing Brianna show up so late, she knew something was up. “Why are you here at this hour?”

“Mom,” Brianna said, settling in next to Gabrielle. “I suspect there’s something suspicious about Allison.”

Gabrielle’s eyes went wide. “What’s wrong with her?”

Brianna shared her analysis and suspicions about Allison with Gabrielle.

“Hmph, so that’s why she didn’t care for Brandon back then and took off to Afrogan for those human rights things. So this is what it was all about,” Gabrielle snorted. “Does Brandon know?”

From Gabrielle’s reaction, Brianna figured Brandon hadn’t told his family yet that they’d already started the divorce process.

“It’s hard to talk to him about this with Allison around,” Brianna said.

Gabrielle just thought Brianna was worried about her son and Allison, probably assuming the couple was just having a fight. She didn’t even notice the awkwardness on Brianna’s face.

Brianna had done what she owed Gabrielle-her warning was given, and anything beyond that was out of her hands.

By the time Brianna got home, it was already past three in the morning.

The bathroom light clicked on, wrapping her in a warm yellow glow, but it couldn’t melt the cold that seeped up from the floor and settled in her bones.

Brianna turned the shower up as hot as it would go, her skin flushed from the heat, but there was still a faint, bloody scent tangled in her hair.

It reminded her of the bloody haze from that night on the cruise ship, or the mix of cedar and gunpowder on Kane’s collar when he leaned in close.

Steam covered the mirror, and as she wiped it away, she saw a blurred face-gentle features, but eyes with a snake coiled inside, ready to strike.

She seemed to see Kane.

Brianna swiped the steam off the mirror in one quick motion, and all that was left was her own ghostly pale face staring back at her.

As dawn crept in, painting the sky a faint blue, Brianna stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in a bathrobe, her hair dripping onto her collarbone.

Unable to sleep, she went ahead and brewed herself a cup of coffee.

The smell of coffee hung in the air, and Brianna couldn’t help but remember that night on the cruise deck-

when Kane took a knife for her.

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Too Late For Regrets, Mr. Billionaire

His burning blood had splashed onto her lashes, making her heart freeze. Now, when she thought back, it felt like she’d been served up as a sacrifice, right on cue.

The coffee tasted bitter and harsh, but she kept gulping it down, forcing herself to snap out of it.

The laptop screen flickered to life, and Brianna opened the encrypted file sent by Unity Group, a strategic partnership proposal with the Flynn Group.

The deal was for a 10 billion investment, granting Flynn Group an 18% stake, but they were only asking for two seats on the board.

There was an “irrevocable” clause: if Unity Group ever needed to raise more capital, Flynn Group would have priority subscription rights.

At the very bottom, in tiny print, it stated that once the partnership launched, all of Unity Group’s land in Valmere Phase II would have to be “jointly developed.”

Brianna gripped the mouse so hard it made a sharp click.

‘Joint development?’ Brianna frowned, a chill creeping up her spine.

She opened another window and brought up Kane’s personal profile.

Born in Seavale, with Port City roots, Kane was the second son of the powerful Flynn family behind Flynn Group.

She pulled up the files from the private investigator. The last encrypted call Benedict made before the incident was placed from Port City, Victoria Harbor, right on the Queen Marina cruise ship.

That was the same ship where the launch party for the couture line had been held. Its home port was registered to a shipping company under the Flynn Group.

‘Darcy and Reese got on board, even with Nancy pulling strings. Don’t tell me Kane was clueless about it,’ Brianna thought.

A cold sweat crept down her spine, and she could almost hear the ominous click of an invisible lock sealing

shut.

The coffee cup was empty, and absentmindedly, she scraped her nails along the inside wall, producing a shrill screech, like nails on a chalkboard.

Memories started rewinding in her mind-the elite polo match in Port City, the couture launch event, the moment he shielded her from a knife, and his heartfelt confession…

The screen dimmed automatically, and her warped reflection stared back at her from the darkened glass.

Suddenly, she remembered reading about predatory spiders as a kid.

They’d spin webs so delicate they seemed to drift with the breeze, but every strand was carefully mapped out to snare anything that crossed its path.

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Too Late For Regrets, Mr. Billionaire

ร

And from the moment Allison showed up on Kane’s arm to today’s partnership deal, every step she took had landed right on that invisible web, exactly where the spider wanted.

“Kane, what are you really after?” Brianna whispered.

Her words lingered in the air, bouncing off the walls, as if someone hidden in the darkness was ready to respond.

The screen went dark, and the room was swallowed once more by the iron-gray haze of dawn.

Brianna stood by the window, watching the first rays of light slice through the city, like a blade cutting through a veil of darkness.

She suddenly smiled-a soft, barely-there smile, but with a dangerous, all-or-nothing edge.

‘So the web’s already been spun, huh? Brianna thought.

She dumped the leftover coffee grounds into the sink, turned on the hot water, and watched as the black swirl disappeared without a trace.

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