Chapter 6 - The Long Game Revealed
The ballroom slowly emptied as the authorities processed the scene. The high-society guests who had once looked at me with pity and disgust now averted their eyes in fear.
I wasn't a broken victim. I was the apex predator, and they had just witnessed me devour a dynasty.
Once the room was cleared, Marcus wheeled me into a private suite upstairs. Evelyn poured two glasses of scotch—Macallan 25, my favorite—and set one on the table beside me.
"You did beautifully, El," Evelyn said, sitting across from me. "The SEC raid on Ardell's headquarters happened perfectly on schedule. They're seizing hard drives right now."
I couldn't drink the scotch, but the smell of it brought me a strange sense of comfort.
For the last year and a half, my life had been a living hell of physical therapy and secret meetings. When I first woke up in the hospital, locked in my own body, Graham’s betrayal had almost killed me.
But anger is a powerful medicine.
I realized quickly that Graham thought he had inherited my empire. But Whitaker Industries was built on trusts and failsafes. The moment I was incapacitated, majority control didn't go to my husband—it went to a blind trust managed by Evelyn.
I used a specialized eye-tracking computer to communicate. I commanded Evelyn to let Graham think he was winning. I let him take the penthouse. I let him take the cars. I let him parade Savannah around town.
I needed them arrogant. I needed them reckless.
And they were. Eager to impress the Ardell family, Graham tied all his stolen assets to their fraudulent real estate ventures. He unknowingly built his castle on quicksand. All I had to do was pull the plug.
"Victoria's bail is set at two million," Marcus noted, reading from his phone. "For the assault. But the fun part? Her bank accounts are frozen. She's spending the night in central booking."
May you like
I let out a soft, raspy exhale. It sounded like a chuckle.
They thought a wheelchair made me powerless. They forgot that the most dangerous piece on a chessboard doesn't need to move fast. It just needs to move smart.
