Chapter 3
Soren was the finance department's campus crush, a walking trophy case for every major finance competition.
His family background was a total mystery. Everyone knew he never stayed in the dorms, always had a private car picking him up, but never showed off.
In my previous life, I barely crossed paths with him. The only time we ever went head-to-head was in the finals of the finance challenge, where I faced him as King. I won by a hair, but that victory blew my cover wide open.
After that, I married Jude, and our lives never crossed again. Every now and then, I'd see his name in the news. He started his private equity fund after graduation and shot to fame on Wall Street in a few years.
He was a true genius, someone who, like me, saw finance as a battlefield.
"Go ahead," I said calmly, looking away and sliding the computer over to him.
Soren seemed a bit surprised by how direct I was. He gave me a glance, said nothing, and sat down, his fingers flying over the keyboard.
I noticed he was logging into an extremely professional financial analysis software. The data streaming across the screen was a hundred times more complicated than anything I'd ever used.
"You're interested in Sonova Tech, too?" he suddenly asked, eyes still fixed on the screen.
"I suppose so," I replied casually.
"Too bad. It was a solid play, but he moved too fast," Soren sighed, a trace of regret in his voice. "Jude's way too arrogant. He thinks every target will play along, but he never considers that sometimes, the prey bites back."
My heart skipped a beat, and I turned to look at him.
Soren seemed to catch my gaze and turned his head too, his deep eyes glinting with something I couldn't read.
He said, "Ten minutes before Sonova Tech crashed, some mysterious offshore money swooped in and snapped up almost 5% of the shares. So, what do you think this person is planning?"
My heart lurched. He caught it.
In the middle of that selling frenzy, when everyone else was panicking and dumping their stocks, he still managed to spot my stealthy move.
This guy was scary sharp.
"Maybe it's some gambler trying to snatch chestnuts from the fire." I kept my voice steady.
"A gambler?" Soren chuckled softly and shook his head. "No, that's not it. Gamblers bet on luck, but this person deals in information. It's almost like they can see what's coming."
As he spoke, Soren locked his eyes on me, like he was trying to pierce right through to my soul.
I clenched my hand at my side, nails digging deep into my palm, forcing myself to stay cool.
I told myself not to panic. I wasn't afraid of death, let alone him.
"See the future? Soren, you really need to lay off the sci-fi," I smirked, shooting him a sarcastic grin. "I've got stuff to do, so I'm out."
With that, I turned on my heel and walked off without another glance.
"Vera, wait." His icy voice rang out from behind me.
I stopped in my tracks.
"I'll be waiting for you at the National College Finance Challenge," he said.
I didn't look back. I quickened my pace, nearly bolting from the computer lab.
*****
It wasn't until I bolted back to my dorm that I slumped against the door, gasping for air. My back was soaked with sweat.
Soren was more intimidating than I remembered, almost frightening.
I couldn't shake the feeling that he was going to be the biggest game-changer on my road to revenge.
For the next few days, I made sure to steer clear of anywhere I might bump into Soren.
During the prelims and semifinals of the challenge, I kept using the King ID, but switched up my usual bold, aggressive style.
Instead, I played it safe, posing as an ultra-cautious, borderline conservative investor. Every move looked nothing special, but I always managed to barely edge out a win each time.
The best part was that I wasn't the center of attention like I was in my previous life. I blended right in with the hundreds of other contestants, totally flying under the radar.
Meanwhile, Soren was like a supernova, steamrolling the competition and blazing his way straight to the top of the leaderboard, holding onto first place like it was nothing.
On the forums, threads about him were blowing up, already stacked with over ten thousand replies.
By now, Zephyr Group and Jude were the industry's running joke.
That botched takeover cost them at least 600 million in real cash, and their reputation took a massive hit.
Every day on the financial news, Jude looked more pissed off. He was scrambling, throwing everything he had at it, desperate to find the mole who leaked the Nucleus Chip flaw, and the mysterious Fulminate Innovations ally who stabbed them in the back.
But of course, he came up empty.
All my moves were buried under layers and layers of overseas servers and offshore shell companies, like an unsolvable maze.
When I thought everything was unfolding exactly as I'd scripted, someone totally unexpected found me, Chloe.
She appeared outside my dorm, wearing a white dress, her long hair draped over her shoulders, and a gentle, innocent smile on her face.
"You must be Vera, right? I'm Chloe, a second-year grad student in music. Can I talk to you for a minute?" she said.
Looking at that woman, the one I loathed to my core, I almost couldn't stop my hands from trembling.
This was the woman who, in my previous life, took my husband away from me and was the reason my son died.
Why was she coming to me? This time, she shouldn't know me at all.
I forced down the tidal wave of hatred inside me and shot her a frosty look. "I don't know you."
"You might not know me, but Jude knows you," Chloe said, her smile still in place, but there was a flash of smugness in her eyes. "He sent me to find you. He said you're an interesting dark horse in this year's finance challenge."