Chapter 233

LEONIE’S POV

I stood downstairs in the large, quiet living room, gripping the edge of my mahogany table so tightly my knuckles turned bone-white.

The morning sun was streaming through the high windows, but the room felt cold and suffocating. On my other hand, I held my tablet, the screen glowing with a headline that made my blood boil.

Aria Secures Major Venture Capital Investment – Logistics Empire Expansion Moving Forward.

"No," I hissed, the word coming out as a sharp, ragged breath. "That is completely impossible."

I threw the tablet onto the desk with a crash. It skidded across the surface, hitting a stack of financial reports.

This was not the news I was supposed to wake up to. I had paid Thomas Sterling five million dollars to walk away. I immediately pulled up my private bank portals on my laptop, my fingers flying across the keys as a cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck.

Red flags popped up across the screen. Total deficit. My secret offshore accounts were completely drained.

I had bankrupted my own personal savings and used every single piece of financial leverage I possessed just to ensure Aria’s company would crumble.

Sterling was supposed to destroy her. He was supposed to cause a total panic in the stock market and leave her with absolutely nothing. Instead, she had somehow found a new investor overnight.

Who was Marcus Sinclair? I had never even heard of the man. My chest tightened with a suffocating mix of panic and pure, unadulterated desperation.

I was a cornered animal. If Aria didn’t fall today, I would have nothing left to protect myself from the mountain of debt I had just created.

Right then, the heavy front door of the house slammed shut. Julian walked into the living room, still wearing his sweaty ice hockey gear. He was holding his phone to his ear, deep in a conversation with Blake.

"Yeah, Blake, practice was a total mess today," Julian said into the phone, his voice sounding completely drained and exhausted. "The coach is drilling us hard, but my head just isn't in the game. I can't focus on the ice right now."

He didn't even spare me a single glance as he walked right past where I was standing. He kept his eyes fixed on the floor, completely ignoring my presence as he headed straight upstairs. I stood there, my chest heaving with growing irritation.

After a few minutes, Julian came back downstairs. He had changed out of his hockey gear and was now wearing fresh, clean clothes, carrying his car keys in his hand. He was walking quickly toward the front door.

"Where are you headed?" I demanded, stepping into his path.

Julian didn't answer. He didn't even blink or look at my face. He just walked right around me, opened the front door, and walked out, slamming it shut behind him.

The fact that he wasn't even ready to talk to me made me incredibly, intensely angry. My blood boiled with rage at his blatant disrespect. He was becoming completely useless to me.

I turned back to the safe hidden behind the large oil painting on the wall, typing in the code with shaking fingers. Inside the dark metal box, there was only one thing left. A small, black burner phone.

My eyes hardened as I looked at it. I had hoped I would never have to use this. Attacking the business was one thing—it was clean, it was professional, and it was undeniable.

But attacking the family? That was dangerous. If Brandon ever found out, he would literally tear me apart with his bare hands. I looked back at the glowing laptop screen. Aria was going to survive.

She was going to grow. And if she grew, she would eventually have enough power to come after me for what I had done. I could not let that happen.

I picked up the burner phone. My hands stopped shaking completely. A cold, calculated calm washed over me. If the company couldn't be destroyed from the outside, I would have to destroy Aria from the inside.

I dialed a number I knew by heart. It rang twice before a soft, calm voice answered on the other end. "Hello?"

"It’s me," I said, my voice dropping to a dark whisper.

"I saw the financial news," the voice on the other end replied. It was Anna. She sounded just as innocent and sweet as she did when she was playing nanny to that child, but I knew the darkness underneath.

"The business plan failed," I said, leaning my forehead against the cool glass of the window. "Sterling is completely useless. We are out of time, Anna. We need to stop playing around with the company."

"What are you suggesting?" Anna asked, her voice completely steady, not a single hint of fear in her tone.

"The company doesn't matter anymore," I said, staring out at the dead grass in the garden. "Aria isn't just a CEO. She is a mother. Her ultimate weakness is that little girl. You are already in the house. You already have their complete trust. I don't care how you do it, or when you do it, but I want you to target Amelia. If Aria loses her daughter, she will lose her mind. And when she loses her mind, she will make a fatal mistake. That is when we will finish her for good."

There was a long, heavy silence on the line. I held my breath, waiting for her response. "Understood," Anna finally whispered, her voice chillingly calm. "I will handle it."

I hung up the phone and set it back inside the safe, slamming the heavy door shut. As I locked it away, my mind began to race with the terrifying details of the plan.

I decided that removing Amelia first was the absolute best way to make Aria completely spiral out of control. A mother without her child is weak, erratic, and easily destroyed.

However, a chill ran down my spine as I thought about the execution. We had to be extremely, incredibly careful. Brandon was a dangerous, highly powerful man, and he had eyes and ears everywhere.

His security team was top-notch, and his resources were endless. One wrong move, one suspicious glance from Anna, and Brandon would uncover the entire plot before we could even touch the girl.

But I was desperate, and I had nothing left to lose.

A cruel, thin smile spread across my lips as I looked out into the empty room. Let Aria enjoy her new investment.

Let her play CEO for a few more days. She had absolutely no idea that the real danger wasn't in her boardroom.

The real danger was sitting right on her own living room floor, holding her daughter's hand, waiting for the perfect moment to strike from the shadows.