Chapter 2

"Are you okay? You look really pale." Zoe looked at me, worry in her eyes.

I shook my head and forced a smile. "It's nothing. It hit me. I might need to switch up my strategy for this competition."

In my previous life, I charged into the competition with fearless energy, using the ID King to crush the opposition and catch Jude's eye.

To him, my talent was like a dazzling, exotic prey. He relished the hunt, the thrill of breaking a wild spirit and locking me away like a pet in a cage.

This time, I wouldn't let him have that chance.

I wanted to win, but I'd do it under the radar, so he'd never be able to track me down.

"Change your strategy?" Zoe looked confused. "Isn't your 'steady, precise, ruthless' style working fine? You already cracked the top ten in the mock trading nationwide."

"It's still not enough," I murmured.

What I wanted wasn't to break into the top ten. I wanted to create a legend, a financial myth that would be unmatched, yet invisible to everyone.

*****

For the next month, I practically lived in the library and the computer lab.

I attended classes during the day, and at night I plunged straight into the global stock, futures, and foreign exchange markets.

My biggest cheat code at this time was having ten years of future financial trends burned into my memory.

I took the allowance my parents gave me, opened an offshore account, and started hunting like the greediest predator, stalking and striking with pinpoint accuracy.

In the first week, I shorted a tech stock that seemed like a golden ticket. The day before its financial fraud blew up, I bailed out and walked away with five times my money.

The next week, I used leverage to nail a small drop in oil prices, and my cash grew ten times over.

By the third week, my account had exploded from 6 thousand to a jaw-dropping million dollars. Zoe's worried gaze had morphed into pure shock.

"Vera, did you borrow from loan sharks or something?" Zoe whispered, gripping my arm.

I couldn't really explain, so I patted her hand. "Relax. This money's legit."

Now that I had enough capital, it was finally time to set my plan in motion.

I set up an offshore company and, under its name, began quietly accumulating Sonova Tech's public shares in the capital markets.

While Zephyr Group launched its takeover bid and Sonova Tech's stock price soared, I was discreetly buying up the small parcels of shares that retail investors were offloading.

It was a mentally exhausting process. I was only getting three or four hours of sleep a night, and I'd lost weight, but I was wired, buzzing with energy.

It felt like my previous life, pulling all-nighters for three days straight, analyzing data non-stop to bail Jude out of a crisis.

Only this time, I wasn't saving him. I was digging his grave with my own hands.

My phone buzzed with a secure email from the CEO of Fulminate Innovations. [Thanks. I owe you big time. If you ever need anything, say the word, and I will always have your back.]

I glanced at the email and gave a faint smile. I knew my first move had paid off.

*****

A few days later, Zephyr Group's takeover bid was reaching its final stage.

Jude was riding high, throwing a victory party ahead of time. His self-assured smirk dominated the front pages of every major financial outlet.

But on that very day, Fulminate Innovations suddenly called a press conference and publicly released a detailed technical report, exposing a critical flaw in Sonova Tech's flagship Nucleus Chip.

The news blew up online and in the financial world. Sonova Tech's stock price plummeted instantly.

Yesterday, investors were hyped and piling in; now, they were a spooked flock, dumping shares like crazy. In only three hours, Sonova Tech lost billions in market value.

No one had it worse than Zephyr Group, which had initiated the takeover bid.

They were completely blindsided by this sudden black swan event, left holding the bag at the top.

If they forced the acquisition through, they'd inherit a massive mess; if they backed out, all their sunk costs and the hit to their reputation would leave them reeling.

In the end, their so-called bear hug ended up hugging nothing but thin air.

I sat in the computer lab, staring at the sea of green on the candlestick chart, and Jude's face plastered all over the financial news, shell-shocked, livid, and completely in disbelief.

I took a calm sip from my cup, unfazed.

This was the beginning for Jude.

I would pay every ounce of pain he gave me in my previous life back a thousandfold, ten thousandfold.

Just then, a calm, almost chilly voice came from behind me. "Hey, can I use this computer for a bit?"

I turned around and locked eyes with someone whose gaze was deep and razor-sharp. It was him, Soren Whitmore.

He was the true legend of our finance department, and in my previous life, the only light that streaked across my world, a comet, brilliant but fleeting.