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The untouchable heiress he regret losing - Chapter 14



Chapter 14

When Allies Look Like Enemies
Zara’s POV

As I leaned back in my chair, I couldn’t help but think of the happenings of the day. Zane hadn’t changed one bit. He still had so much ego that he wrapped himself in like armor. I thought seeing me and all I have become would make him beg forgiveness after realizing the evil he did. Rather, he chose to validate it with silly excuses. Weak and pathetic ones.

Each word he let out fanned the flames of vengeance brewing in me. He has succeeded in strengthening my resolve to destroy him the more. He had better watch out for this version of me because she would stop at nothing to make sure everything he built on greed and evil comes crumbling down. It was game over for him. No second chances. But something else couldn’t leave my mind.

There was no denying that Leo looked like a knight in shining armor as he defended me from Zane. He looked so heroic and powerful. It replayed in my head like a cinematic scene. I’ve never seen someone throw such a passionate blow. I was more shocked that he did that for me. It oddly reminded me of my childhood. I had been sent on an errand by my mother to get groceries from a nearby store. Some bullies from my school tried to stop me on the way. I still remember their scornful laugh, as sharp as shattered glass. But there was this boy who came out of nowhere and got into a fight with the bullies. They never got in my way again since that day.

Wait. Why was I fantasizing over Leo’s heroic act? I couldn’t afford to daydream like a hopeless romantic over a fake engagement. I straightened myself where I sat and scoffed at myself. Anyone could have done that for a damsel in distress. Besides, he must have thought he had discarded the issue, but I suspect he is in a relationship with that woman, Selene.

The softness in his eyes. Only a man in love would look at a woman that way. The way he abruptly let go of my hand, even when we were supposed to be acting. He kept staring at her. saying he missed her and continuously smiled at her. He kept looking as she went. And he made it clear that I couldn’t ask about his personal life. So I shouldn’t think about him too much. He must have saved me just because of our alliance.

But still, I couldn’t rub off the dying curiosity that lingered in me. At least I should know one or two things about the person I’m engaged to. What if my father asks questions? I’d be found out, and no one would trust a liar to rule the Smith Empire.

“Mia,” I called out, turning to the room next to me. She came rushing in. “Yes, Ma’am” she adjusted her suit and stood tall like she was about to deliver a presentation.

I let out a smirk. “Oh, please. You don’t have to be all professional when we’re the only ones together.” She burst out a refreshing laugh I hadn’t heard since we got back from New York, flipped her hair to the back, and sank into the chair opposite mine. She relaxed into the chair and crossed her legs like the mistress of a mansion.

“Now that’s more like it,” I chuckled with her. “I missed you”, I said with a wide smile tugging at my lips.

“I’ve been observing you, Zara. I am proud of the woman you are and are becoming.” She locked those beautiful emerald eyes into mine, filling me with so much comfort.

I met Mia the very night I got to New York three years ago. I wouldn’t have amounted to so much today if it weren’t for her. She was a great part of my success story, and I loved her for that.

Although my grandfather had given me cash to support me before I traveled, I had lost it all to fraudsters who claimed to help me secure a good apartment and a good paying job immediately after I landed in New York. But I was a fool to have trusted them.

I got to New York late at night, called all their numbers, and went to different locations they initially directed me to, but there was nothing. I sat on the road that night, holding onto my empty wallet and wondering what would become of me until I met Mia. Like an angel in time of need, she took me in and introduced me to her boss’ restaurant where I worked as a waitress We went through thick and thin trying to make a name for ourselves. I had taken her in to live with me the moment we got back. My grit, my instinct, my fight—I owed everything to her. And I wouldn’t let her down.

“I need you to get me something on Leo”.

I said with narrowed eyes to show I meant business.

She tilted her head with raised brows. “Leo?”

“I thought he was clean. I investigated him the day we got back and found no past records that could break your alliance. I think he’s a good man”. She said with a confident tone

“Not just that…I don’t feel completely at peace. I can sense him holding back a lot of things”, I said, my voice heavy with the weight of the many things that could go wrong.

She sat upright in her seat and leaned into the table.

“Zara, my dear”, she said softly, taking my hands in hers. “I know we have come this far with baggage of betrayal and deception. But I need you to let yourself feel at peace and not be worried that everyone who comes your way wants to take advantage of you or would betray you.”

“You and Leo have a common enemy, remember?”

“Yes,” I replied with a slow nod, my voice barely above a whisper.

“So, let’s focus on bringing down that one enemy. Okay?” She leaned back into her chair, dipped her hand into her clothes, and brought out a brown file she had been hiding.

“But knowing the kind of best friend I have, I already dug into our mystery, Leo Armstrong.”

Realizing what she did, I laughed out loud and clapped my hands. She sure got me this time.

“I almost took your word for it, girl!”A grin broke across my face.

She shook her head playfully. “Then you still have a lot of learning to do, my lady”.

I took the file from the table and began flipping it as we scanned the pages together. Leo’s background was unclear and out of reach but he was the heir to Armstrong Technology Ltd and also known as the famous CEO of one of the top investment firms home and abroad. How did I never hear of him? When he moved, the entire city paid attention. That explained the paparazzi on the day he proposed the fake engagement to me.

Studying him, he was the last man anyone would want to provoke.

With such striking and fearsome looks, he was sort of the man the city girls lined up to marry. Brilliant, scheming, intelligent. And perhaps, that’s why I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

“Hmm”. I closed the file and rubbed my fingers slowly on its edges.

I seemed to be getting interested in my fiancé.







Chapter 15

Chapter 15 Unmasking Leo Armstrong
Leo’s POV

The drive from the cemetery was a confusing one. The weight of everything was sitting heavy on my shoulders. I was unsure whether Zara was mad at me or Zane or the both of us. Although, I understood why she was crying and on the edge all through. I wish I had taken the time to calm down but I dismissed her like a coward. I wasn’t ready to talk about myself or my past. Even my foster parents know better than to bring up anything from my past. It was locked and sealed for a reason. I just wasn’t ready to reopen closed chapters. Zara just had to trust me for who I say I am.

Still, seeing Zara in Zane’s embrace made my stomach twist. Although I could sense resistance on her side, something about the scene made me clench my fist against the wheel. Why did that even bother me? After all, it wasn’t my business if she chose to go back to her ex-husband when we were done with our revenge.

“You can’t get distracted, Leo,” my inner voice said to me. It was right. My 10-year goal could come crumbling down if I let anything or anyone distract me. Since I had been trailing Zane years back, I only pitied her when I saw Zane torture her by causing her to bleed. I couldn’t bear to see another woman die at the hands of another Wesley.

My mother had been a victim of the evil doings of Wesley Group. The first wife of Brad Wesley, my father, and Zane’s father. It worked perfectly for me that he didn’t know we were related. She was broken, battered, and murdered by his hands. All because she refused to bend to his desires and dance to his music. There was still so much mystery behind my mother’s death that I couldn’t place my hand on, and I still had to uncover it. This has been my life’s mission.

But I was forced to approach Zara because the corporate world still needed an already wealthy and powerful billionaire to have a partner or wife to be taken as serious and untouchable. I scoffed at the thought of that.

I pulled over in front of my penthouse and made my way inside, kicking off my shoes and loosening my belt. I went straight to my favorite cushion and sank into it.My phone buzzed for the third time since I got home. I flipped it to check who had been texting me all day.Buzz. Buzz.

Two messages.They were texts from the mole I had planted in the Wesley Group.

“He has ordered someone to look into you.What should I do, boss?”

A wry smile curled on my lips. As expected. Zane was so predictable. Just like his father, pulling strings when he felt walls closing in. I knew he’d proceed to do a background check on me right from that night. For someone who had been trailing and watching him for years, I was definitely ten steps ahead of him and whatever plan he may try to achieve.

“I know. Since he’s on the move,let’s feed him some information. Something to keep him busy. Something to make him think he’s winning this fight”. I replied to his text.

Zane must have thought his threats held water. I let out a soft smile. He didn’t know I had been digging his grave for the past 10 years since my mother passed away. His downfall and the entire Wesley group’s disappearance have busied me all through the years. This wasn’t just a game or a fight for a girl I wasn’t even interested in. It was war.

My thoughts were interrupted when my foster mother walked into my room, her face looking pale.

“You’ve been quite scarce these days Leo” she took out the chair from my desk and sat next to me.

“I’m sorry, Mum. You know I have a lot of things going on.”

She gave me a tired smile. “I know, but you’re still our main heir to Armstrong Technologies and shareholders are starting to murmur.”

“That.You.Should. Get. Married.” I tilted my head to the left and the right as I said the words with her at the same time because I had heard it a hundred times now.

“But I already have a fiancé. I got engaged for you too, you know. Why wouldn’t they just leave me alone?” I asked, throwing my hands up.

“I understand you, son, but that’s just an engagement. You need a wife. A ring. An heir.” She had no idea Zara was a fake fiancée. And that made this messier.

“I don’t want them to come up with a replacement because you refused to get married, Leo”, she said. I could hear the devastation in her voice and see the weariness in her eyes. I owed my survival to my foster parents after the death of my mother. They could see I was so tense living with my real father, Brad Wesley. I ran away from home several times because I refused to bend to his will.

He wanted me to study a course I didn’t like, and almost forced me to get married at an early age to secure alliances.


My foster parents took me in and raised me as their own. I was a blessing to them since they had no children. I could also say they meant everything to me. If getting married would make them happy, I guess I would have to think about it.

“Okay, Mum”, I playfully tilted my head. She turned to leave with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

As soon as she walked out. My phone rang. It was Zara. I paused for a bit, unsure of what to say. Then I picked.

“Leo…I think we have a problem.”






Chapter 16

Chapter 16 A House Built on Lies
Zara’s POV

I paced back and forth around the house that was now supposedly ours. Leo’s and mine. I thought my father was joking when he called me over, saying he had a surprise for me. I thought he got me a little something because I returned to Smith Holdings.

“I have a surprise for you, Zara!” he had said with a voice bubbling with excitement. I imagined him to be glowing with the joy of being a generous father. He gave me an address that led me here. I didn’t know what to expect, but I couldn’t have considered it to be a house.

My father had a flair for luxury, so he definitely didn’t hold back here. Luxury furniture in shadows of ivory and charcoal, photo frames hanging on the wall, waiting to be filled with smiling photos and a neatly furnished living room. The place was glowing and designed to scream–perfect life, perfect couple. Except that Leo and I weren’t.

There was just one big bedroom. My father must have done this purposely to strengthen our bond.

“You’ll soon be getting married anyway. You need a proper place to begin your lives as a couple. The press is watching. Let the world see how strong you two are together”, he added. His words stuck in my head like a song on repeat. I couldn’t tell him this was a lie—that the man he thinks I’d spend a future with is, in fact, a stranger in a strategic relationship with me for revenge.

I let out a bitter laugh as I raked my fingers through my hair, still pacing wide in the living room. But there was nothing that could be done. We couldn’t back down now, and refusing the house would have looked shady. Not when Madilyn and Evelyn were watching and scheming, and Zane was hovering over me like a vulture over its prey.

And Leo…How was I going to inform him about the sudden turn of events? Would he cut off the alliance? No. He approached me first after all. I might not know the full story, but it was clear he needed me. I rehearsed the different ways I could break the news to him, but none of them were satisfying enough. I bit my lower lip, frustration welling inside me.

I pulled out my phone anyway and dialed his number. He picked up in a heartbeat, which made me more nervous.

“Leo…I think we have a problem.”

There was a pause. “What happened? he asked.

“Uhm…my-my my father..” I stammered. I couldn’t possibly be able to spill it all on the phone, so I told him to come see for himself. I sent him the address and waited. The wait was unbearable.

He arrived in approximately forty minutes and softly knocked on the door. My heart skipped. With my fingers nervously twisted into one another,I walked slowly to the door and opened it.

Leo stood there, tall and composed in navy blue sweatpants and a black t-shirt. His intense, dark blue eyes met mine, and I quickly avoided them as I let him in. He got in and turned to me immediately.

“Well, what’s the problem?” He asked, looking around to get a clue.

I swallowed my saliva to wet my dry throat.

“You mentioned your father. What happened to him?”

Suddenly, everything I had rehearsed flew away, and I was left with a clueless man standing in front of me, demanding answers I didn’t know how to give.

“Uhm..” I started. “This is our house..Leo”

He blinked. “What?” He took a step backwards and looked around the second time.

“What do you mean, Zara? Our house? This place?”

I exhaled after letting a part of it out and inhaled as if summoning courage for the next part.

“My father got us this house and said we should live in it as a couple since we would soon get married.”

His eyes widened. He froze as his lips parted as though he was trying to find the right reply.

“I don’t understand. You want me to live here with you?”A wave of confusion washed over him.

“I didn’t want it. It was my…”

“And how do I know you were not in on this? What? Are you trying to actually have me for yourself?” he cut in, tone cold.

My hands fell to my side in awe and disbelief. His words hit harder than I anticipated.

“How could you possibly think I wanted this. What? You think I have time for this? I only came back to get revenge on the one man who ruined me and reclaim my legacy. And you think I’d suddenly get a house to live with…you?”

I folded my arms and looked him right in the eye, anger brewing inside me.

“Are you forgetting you were the one who approached me? You fucking proposed to me!”

“But I tell you my father got us a house, and you start questioning my intentions?” I let out another sigh in disbelief.

His stiff posture began to loosen, doubt creeping in.

“I’m sorry…” he muttered. “I was just..stunned”, he said, his voice low.

He turned in a slow circle , trying to take in what the house looked like, but his eyes stopped at the center table in the living room. He became still.

I looked over to the table to check what he was staring at, and my eyes widened.

Shit. I forgot the file Mia had given me on the table. I had carried it along with me unknowingly. What’s worse is that his name on one of the papers was peeping out of the file.

“No”, I whispered as I moved towards the table to grab it away from his view but he got there before me. He picked up the file and brought out all the papers that contained information on him. His face hardened as he flipped through every page.

I closed my eyes in defeat and surrender. He slowly turned back to me. I could see the mistrust welling up in his eyes.

“You did a background check on me?” he asked, his voice low and broken. He blinked fast while still looking at me.

I froze. Too stunned to speak. I didn’t know how to explain that I just needed to know him more and I was worried he might be just like Zane or someone worse.

He threw the file back on the table.

“You know what? Fuck this. I’d do everything I need to do with you as fast as I can so I can get this over with.Even if it means moving in with you.”

He didn’t give me a chance to defend myself. He turned to the door to leave, but stopped in his steps.

“Since we have to keep this going on and we need to avoid suspicions, I’ll do all I need to.”

“We’d break up as soon as we’re done,” he said, with a tone of finality. He went out and slammed the door behind him. I stood there breathless, my heart aching.

Buzz. Buzz.

The sound was coming from inside.

I searched around for my phone. A text from an unknown number.

“You and your fiancé make a lovely couple. Embrace each other next time. You’re being watched.”






Chapter 17

Chapter 17 When Rage Meets Regret
Zane’s POV

Crash. Crash. Crash.

My files and lamp landed on the ground, scattering glass across the room as I angrily pushed them away from my table. Fury welled up in me like nothing I’ve ever experienced.

Leo Armstrong. That name made my skin crawl. I gripped the edge of my wooden table in my study so hard that some part of it creaked beneath my fingers. I was more than pained by the findings of Kelvin on this godforsaken Leo. Even the address he got was a fake one. His records looked so normal and quiet, but my gut kept telling me otherwise.

The fact that he followed her everywhere she went made me boil with more rage. Kelvin had sent me the surveillance footage of Zara getting into Leo’s car from Smith Holdings, and I couldn’t help but follow them. I watched it again, and my jaw ached from how tightly I was clenching it.

He had his hand just slightly above her waist, and she didn’t even flinch.

She never let me hold her that way back in our dating days. I felt like an erased memory. Leo didn’t even know her like I did. He didn’t know the Zara who used to laugh so innocently as she whispered her dreams to me with her head placed on my chest. She hated black coffee but drank it anyway whenever she was angry. Her favorite flowers, food, and places. I bet he had no idea.

I nearly smashed the screen, but I cautioned myself because, unfortunately, I wasn’t in a position where I could waste money on repair. Our financial records at Wesley Group showed we were hanging by a thread. At this point, with every passing minute, I needed someone or something to strengthen my position and save my face at the sight of my father, Brad Wesley.

My father is a fierce, no-nonsense man. Right from when I knew my left from right as a teenager, he had been doting on me with so many expectations. Expectations that exceeded my capacity to deliver.

“You imbecile, why did you fail to close the deal with Alloy Industries last month?” he had asked.

He would kick and hit me mercilessly when I had no answer for him. He was like a circling vulture waiting for me to fail just so he could deal with me.

He never failed to make me feel so less of myself in comparison with my step-siblings. I was the illegitimate one. Having to hide whenever he came home, to stay in the boys' quarters while the rest of the family resided in the mansion, and having to feed on the crumbs of whatever my siblings left behind. He had taken me away from my mother at an early age, so I barely knew her before she died.

I worked my way to the top with everything I had and didn’t have–including divorcing my wife and marrying Elora Shane, a heiress who I perceived could help me out of this inheritance mess and make me the owner of Wesley Group forever. But even that plan has begun to falter.

I slammed my fists on the table one more time, exhaling a very hot breath. I didn’t care what I had to do. Expose Leo, ridicule him, buy him out…I was ready for anything.

Just then, the clicking of heels against the floor interrupted me. I didn’t raise my head. I already knew who it was. My resilient wife.

She walked in majestically like she owned the place, arms folded and head held up high. Her lips were blood-red like a ripe cherry. She steadied her gaze on me like she was going to war.

“I saw the look on your face when you got home.”

She paused.

“Is this because of Zara again? Because ever since she came back into our lives, you haven’t been your jovial self. Everything was fine until that bitch came back all shiny and mighty.” Shwe thundered in pain.

My blood was set on fire by her words.

“How dare you call her a bitch?”

I continued, “How dare you call my wif…”

I instantly held myself back when I realized my mistake. But it was already too late.

Her eyes widened so that I could almost see her eyeballs falling out of their sockets.

“Your…wife?” she repeated in disbelief.

She stood there, broken, silently taking in the cruel words I just said. Her expression cracked.

“Wow...” she finally managed to say, her voice trembling. “Wife, uh? So what does that make me, Zane?”

Her face went pale.

“What does that make us?” she screamed, her cold stare slicing through me.

I didn’t answer. She provoked me into saying what I said. She should have just left me alone.

“So I was right. You have been thinking about her all this while.”

She leaned into my table. “You know what, Zane? You’re obsessed. You think you love her? No. You wouldn’t have left her for me years ago if you did.”

My fists clenched as I suppressed the urge to give her a good beating.

I inhaled and exhaled to keep myself from doing what I would regret. She might still have some purpose to fulfill.

“Elora—Get the hell out of my face”, I said, this time with a tone higher.

“So you think I’m just going to back down without a fight? After everything we’ve built together?”

I ignored her.

A small figure tiptoed into my study.

It was Lucas. My son. One of the people that meant so much to me. Smart, handsome and dashing. He had my eyes and nose but surprisingly, he’s got no looks from Elora.

“Mum? Dad? Why are you fighting?” He asked, tilting his head towards Elora and me. Lucas was just three years old, but he was so intelligent and observant. We usually do not get surprised when he talks about topics above his age.

Elora didn’t respond. She just stared at him and looked away. If I were to judge, she wasn’t a good example of a mother. Sometimes in the past, I’d wonder why she seemed not to be paying the usual motherly attention to him. Or maybe I was the one who didn’t know how much a mother gives her son attention. After all, I didn’t have that privilege.

“We aren’t fighting Lucas. You have nothing to worry about. Go to your room.”

He stared at us quietly for a second, then picked up his toy that was lying on the floor, and walked out.

Then I turned back to Elora.

Her phone rang before I could speak to her.

She hesitantly picked up the call and placed her phone to her right ear.

“Yes?” She asked the person on the other side of the phone.

Her hands began to shake, and she suddenly looked like she was about to faint.

“What?!!!”



Chapter 18

Chapter 18 Beneath the Sham
Elora’s POV

I slammed the door of the study behind me, my heart pounding loudly in my chest, and my head spinning in fear and anxiety. I walked briskly back to my room, nearly tripping over the edge of the rug as I rushed.

As I got into the room, I looked around to be sure I was alone, even though it was obvious I was. The air around me felt heavy and thick, like the walls were closing in on me. I twisted the door knob with my trembling hands then spun around. I couldn’t take the risk. The secret I’ve given my entire life to protecting must not come out. This was not the time to be careless. Not when everything I’ve built is being threatened.

“You are so close to being found out”, Mason said on the call. Mason was my high school lover who knew me before I assumed this status and position. He was there for me all the time and understood the sacrifices I had to make and why.

I had cut the call on Mason because Zane was there. Zane was the last person who should find out my secret. He’d throw me out with nothing to my name the moment he found out. I quickly called Mason back to get the full gist of why he called.

“Mason, what happened?”

“We’ve got a problem.” his voice was low and sharp.

My stomach tightened.

“What problem exactly? Give me answers!” I thundered at him.

“Word on the street is that someone is digging for dirt on you, and we both know how much is there for them to find.”

I began to pace back and forth with sweaty palms. Why now? After all these years. I’ve covered every crack before now and paid off everyone who needed to be paid to keep my secret from coming out.

“Who is looking into me? Why all of a sudden? “

“There are no names yet, but I’m working on it. In no time, they would be found out. I just called to warn you. You might need to watch your back and not be too trusting,” he continued.

“But I’ve kept this going for years. Why would anyone dig for information on me?”

My hands squeezed my dress, crumpling the fabric. “Could it be that someone knows I’m…not..that I’m an impostor?”

“No, they don’t know yet. If they knew, they would have come forward, and it’d be all over the media by now,” Mason assured me and ended the call.

That should have been comforting, but it was not. I was still worried. No one had ever tried to get in my way before. I weakly staggered back, sat at the edge of the bed, and pressed my palms to my temples.

Ten years. It’d been ten years since I assumed another’s identity so I could survive. Ten years of fine dining, expensive vacations, timely massages, charity galas, and the illusion of legacy. But it was also ten years of careful groundwork, being on the edge, looking above my shoulders, and positioning myself as the daughter and true heir of Shane Foods—the real Elora Shane.

My real mother served as the Shane family’s maid. She had brought me to work with her a few times, but I never got to meet face to face with Mr Shane and Mrs Shane. Each time I went, I played with the real Elora Shane in her bedroom, where we built Legos and dressed fashion dolls. She was my best friend. Or maybe my only friend. No other person played with me. My mother and I were poor. My father? Absent.

A terrible fire accident landed Elora in the hospital ten years ago. Despite her rich parents trying everything they could to save her, she passed away. But my mother and the doctor saw it as an opportunity and kept it a secret. I was exchanged with the real Elora.

It was a cold night at the hospital. My mother paced beside me, her worn-out heels tapping nervously against the floor.

“She’s gone, please pass the message across to your bosses,” the doctor said, turning to my mother since her parents were not around at the time.

I didn’t understand what happened next, but I could hear whispers, a handshake being exchanged between them. And then my mother turned to me and called me Elora but that wasn’t my name.

Before I could understand what was going on, I was in the Shanes’ limo and being driven off to their mansion.

They had lied that they had to reconstruct their daughter’s face, which is why I didn’t look like her. Meanwhile, they didn’t recognize me because I never got to meet them whenever I came around their mansion.

I pitied them at first. I was just 15 years old, innocent, confused, and terrified. I didn’t understand why my mother was giving me away to strangers. But when they started to pamper me, give me plenty of toys, and enroll me in one of the top high schools in the city, I didn’t want to go back to being that poor girl again. I could never go back to the rodent-infested apartment with a leaking roof.

Never again.

I had almost been found out many times, but I always managed to escape.

“Since when did you not like strawberry ice cream, Elora?” Mrs Shane asked.

“My taste buds were adjusted after the accident, Mum. I find myself liking the things I didn’t use to like.” I lied, and even though it didn’t make sense medically, she believed me. After all, I was her baby girl who life gave a second chance.

When I thought all was going smoothly for me, my real mother returned and said she would reveal her mistakes and take me back because she needed someone to be with her as she was retired and alone.

I fought her with everything I had to remain as Elora Shane. I knew all she wanted was money.

“I could bring down everything you have built for yourself if you don’t send me money”, she often blackmailed me. Since then, I have been sending her money to keep her mouth shut.

My entire world had been built on the ashes of a dead girl. The effort. The money. The media stories. The investments. And most importantly, my marriage to Zane was my insurance. If things go wrong and it is revealed I’m a fake, I couldn’t lose this marriage, too. I had to keep Zane as mine forever to keep surviving.

But Zara. That snake was a threat. She could ruin everything I had worked for in the twinkle of an eye.

Wife. Zane had called her his wife even when he was clearly married to me. Even after being divorced from her for three whole years. That was enough to make me cry out my lungs, but this wasn’t about emotions. It was about survival.

I must do something. I couldn’t leave Zane to carry out whatever plan he intends to execute to get Zara back. I’d stop anyone who gets in my way, even if it meant getting rid of them.

I dragged myself to the mini bar in the room, poured myself some cool bourbon, and gulped it down.

I picked up the luxury cream my fake mother had bought for me while on her trip in Paris. I rubbed my skin gently and with pride. Standing up, I walked to my closet, but my reflection caught my eye.

And for a moment, just for a moment, I saw something appalling there. Something that looked like the poor, scared, and deprived kid who’d walked into the Shane mansion all those years ago.

But then I blinked, and I was perfect. Elora again. The worshipped Elora. Elora, who could do no wrong in the eyes of her parents.

Then suddenly there was a movement by the window.

I gasped.

Someone had been watching me.




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