Chapter 3 - Four Years in the Shadows
Chapter 3 - Four Years in the Shadows
Four years passed in Jiang City like a slow, deliberate tightening of a noose.
Inside the high-walled, ultra-private Reed Estate in the southern hills, the atmosphere was entirely detached from the frantic, crumbling world of Callaway Holdings. The gardens were filled with the scent of blooming white roses and lavender, and the long brick walkways were immaculate.
Sable Reed stood on the stone veranda, watching her four-year-old daughter, Marlo, run across the grass. Marlo was a striking child—she had inherited Sable’s piercing emerald eyes and thick, dark hair, but her laughter was entirely her own, full of the bright, unbothered joy of a child who had never known a day of rejection. Marlo was currently chasing a golden retriever, her small feet dressed in custom-made leather shoes.
Beside Sable stood Christian, his arms folded across his chest as he reviewed a thick financial report on a tablet. Over the past forty-eight months, Sable hadn't filed a single lawsuit against Weston. She hadn't demanded child support, she hadn't spoken to the press, and she hadn't responded to the dozens of frantic, desperate emails Weston had sent her after realizing she owned his northern development project.
Instead, she had gone completely silent. She had allowed the Callaways to believe they were surviving. She had let them take out massive secondary loans from predatory international banks to cover the losses from the terminated ground leases. She had watched from the shadows as Weston formally married Camille and presented their son, Liam, to the high-society circles of the city.
"They’re reaching the breaking point, Sable," Christian said softly, his eyes tracking Marlo’s movement on the lawn. "Callaway Holdings just announced their fourth-quarter earnings. They’re down forty-two percent. The interest payments on their secondary debt are eating up their remaining cash flow. Weston has spent the last six months trying to liquidate their older motel properties, but no one is buying. The market knows they’re bleeding."
"I know," Sable said, her voice dropping into that same quiet, freezing register that had defined her since the day Marlo was born. "They think they’ve survived the worst of the storm. Weston thinks that because four years have passed, I’ve moved on. He thinks his little empire is safe because he’s finally managed to stabilize his line of credit."
"Are you ready to pull the trigger?"
Sable took a slow sip from her porcelain teacup. "Not yet. A wounded animal still fights if you corner it too quickly. I want Weston to feel completely secure. I want him to believe that his son, Liam, is destined to inherit everything. I want the height of his fall to be absolute."
She turned her gaze back to her daughter. Marlo had stopped running and was now kneeling next to a small, quiet woman who was carefully trimming the rose bushes near the edge of the terrace. The woman was Clara, the new live-in maid Sable had hired three weeks ago to assist Mrs. Gable with the estate's primary household duties. Clara was a quiet, reserved woman in her late twenties, and she always kept her own three-year-old toddler, Toby, close to her side while she worked.
Sable watched as Marlo offered Toby a small, half-eaten biscuit from her pocket. The two children giggled, their small voices rising into the clean morning air.
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"Sable," Christian added, his tone shifting slightly. "Our intelligence team inside the Callaway Tower reported something interesting yesterday. Camille has been arguing with Weston’s mother, Adele, about the family trust allocations. Apparently, Camille is demanding that Liam’s inheritance be locked into an offshore account immediately, bypassing Preston’s oversight. She seems... frantic."
Sable’s emerald eyes narrowed slightly. "Frantic? Camille Russo doesn't get frantic unless the ground beneath her feet is shifting. Look into her personal bank accounts, Christian. See where her monthly allowances are going. A woman who hides a child for four months before revealing it to a married man is a woman who thrives on leverage. Let's see what else she’s leveraging."
