Chapter 3

That night, I tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

The nightmare of falling from the cliff three years ago clung to me like a parasite, jolting me awake again and again in the middle of the night.

I put on a coat and walked out onto the balcony.

Moonlight spilled over the estate’s massive garden like water.

A figure stood in the shadows of the garden, the crimson glow between his fingers flickering on and off.

It was Ethan’s uncle, Jasper.

He was the family’s outlier, the one in charge of the Kolya family’s “gray” businesses. He had never fit into the legitimate line of succession Victor and Ethan represented.

He was ambitious, but Victor had always kept him suppressed.

He was also the only person who had tried to investigate the truth after my death.

Even though, in the end, it had gone nowhere.

I went downstairs, crossed the garden, and stopped in front of him.

“Can’t sleep?” I asked.

Jasper turned his head. His face bore a faint resemblance to Ethan’s, but his features were darker, more brooding. A teasing smile played at the corner of his mouth.

“I was admiring my former niece-in-law. Oh, no…” His gaze swept over me without the slightest attempt to hide it. “My new sister-in-law.”

“You’re very bold,” Jasper said, blowing out a ring of smoke. “Getting surgery to look like Lila, then marrying Victor. What exactly are you trying to do?”

“What do you think?” I asked back.

“Revenge?” He raised an eyebrow. “For that ‘accident’ three years ago?”

“Looks like you know quite a lot.”

“There are no secrets in the Kolya family.” Jasper stubbed out his cigarette. “I’m just curious. What’s your plan? Rely on Victor’s favor and torment that little couple every day?”

“That would be far too easy on them.” I looked toward the lights of the main house in the distance. “What I want is for them to lose everything, turn against each other, and in the end…” I paused, then said coldly, “Get out of the Kolya family through my door.”

Jasper’s eyes lit up.

“That sounds interesting. Need my help?”

“I give you what you want. You give me what I need,” I said bluntly.

“Oh? And what can you give me?”

“Ethan.” I looked at him. “I know every business he’s responsible for. Every link in the chain. Every loophole. I can help you drag him down from his position as heir.”

Jasper fell silent.

He looked at me for a long moment, as if weighing whether my words were true.

“And your condition?”

“Help me destroy Chloe,” I said coldly. “I want her reputation ruined beyond repair.”

“Deal.” Jasper held out his hand.

I took his slightly cool hand in mine.

“Pleasure doing business with you.”

And just like that, in the dead of night, with no one else knowing, our alliance was quietly formed.

The next day, I deliberately assigned Chloe to clean the study in the main house.

It was where Victor and I worked. Many of the family’s confidential documents were kept there.

Maya voiced her concern. “Donna, this goes against protocol.”

“What protocol?” I leaned back on the sofa and flipped through a fashion magazine. “She’s already slept with the man. Why should she care about seeing a few documents? Let her do it. If anything happens, I’ll take responsibility.”

Chloe did not disappoint me.

As she cleaned, she secretly used her phone to take pictures of several documents.

She thought she had done it without anyone noticing.

What she did not know was that every corner of the study had been fitted with micro-cameras by Jasper.

That night, Jasper sent me the video.

“Your dear best friend really can’t wait to help Ethan secure his position,” Jasper said in the video, his voice dripping with mockery.

I watched Chloe’s greedy, stupid face on the screen and smiled.

“The fish took the bait.”

A few days later, an important shipment under Ethan’s control was intercepted at the port by a rival family.

The losses were devastating.

Victor was furious. During a family meeting, he stripped Ethan of that portion of his authority on the spot.

Ethan had no way to defend himself.

The other side knew his shipping route and schedule inside out. There was clearly a mole.

He suspected everyone around him. Everyone except Chloe, the woman who supposedly “loved” him more than anything.

As for Chloe, after her so-called cleverness had caused Ethan such a massive loss, she was scared out of her mind. She spent every day terrified and restless.

I watched them struggle in pain and suspicion without the slightest trace of pity.

This was nothing. The real show was still waiting.