📜 CHAPTER 10: The Ultimate Checkmate (The Grand Finale)
That evening, Adrian—now Andrew Vance—arrived at the gates of the San Juan ancestral house. He walked through the heavy iron gates, breathing in the scent of the mahogany trees. He was finally back where he belonged. He used his new biometric key to open the grand double doors of the mansion.
The house was dark, save for a single light illuminating the grand living room.
Sitting on the vintage velvet sofa wasn't me.
It was a woman, elegantly dressed, sipping red wine. Next to her was a toddler, playing quietly with a wooden toy train.
Adrian stopped dead in his tracks. His face drained of color for the third time in his life.
"Bianca?" he gasped.
Bianca Reyes looked up, a cold, sophisticated smile playing on her lips. She wasn't wearing a prison uniform. She looked stunning, adorned in expensive diamonds.
"Hello, Adrian," she said smoothly. "Or should I call you Andrew?"
"How... how are you out of prison? And why are you in this house?!" Adrian roared, panic finally setting in.
From the shadows behind the staircase, I stepped out, holding a glass of champagne.
"Because, Adrian," I said, my voice echoing through the grand hall, "you are a fool. Did you really think I didn't know you were in Singapore? Did you really think I didn't know you bought out my suppliers?"
Adrian looked between me and Bianca, his chest heaving. "You... you two are working together?!"
"Always have been," Bianca laughed, standing up and picking up her son. "Did you really think a girl from the province like me could afford a thirty-million-peso emerald ring on her own? Or check into a presidential suite on Valentine's Day without an unlimited credit line? Lucia funded my entire lifestyle for ten years, Adrian. Even the affair with you was a script."
Adrian staggered backward, hitting the wall. "No... no, the DNA test... you cried... you said it was mine..."
"And it is yours," I smiled, walking over to stand next to Bianca. "But we needed you to believe it wasn't so you would go crazy and attack her in the rain. We needed you to go to jail so your new 'investor identity' in Singapore would be created. You see, Adrian, the laws in the Philippines make it very hard to completely seize offshore corporate funds from a citizen. But an international entity like Apex Global Syndicate? That's much easier to trap."
I held up the contract Adrian had forced me to sign in the boardroom just hours ago.
"The contract you made me sign didn't give you 25% of my shares, Adrian. If you read the fine print in Section 9—which my lawyers drafted perfectly—it was an absolute merge agreement between Apex Global and Villareal Prime. By signing it to claim your 'settlement,' you legally transferred all of Apex’s offshore assets directly into my private trust to cover your 'debts'."
Adrian’s tablet buzzed frantically in his pocket. He pulled it out. A notification from his Singapore banks flashed across the screen: ACCOUNT CLOSED. ALL FUNDS TRANSFERRED TO VILLAREAL TRUST.
He had not shorted my stock. I had allowed him to think he was winning, just to get him to sign away his entire international network.
"You... you both sacrificed a child for this?!" Adrian screamed, pointing at the little boy.
"Sacrificed?" I laughed, gently patting the little boy's head. "He’s a Villareal heir. He lives in a mansion, his trust fund is worth billions, and he will never know a pathetic father like you. Bianca and I have been best friends since we were teenagers, Adrian. Men like you think women will always tear each other apart over a ring. But sisterhood? Sisterhood builds empires."
The heavy doors of the mansion burst open. This time, it wasn't the Makati police. It was Interpol and the National Bureau of Investigation, tipped off by my legal team with unassailable proof of Adrian's identity fraud, international money laundering, and illegal border crossing.
"Andrew Vance, you are under arrest," the lead agent announced, slamming Adrian against the mahogany wall and clicking the handcuffs into place.
May you like
As they dragged him out into the night, screaming and cursing our names, Bianca and I clinked our glasses together.
The rain had stopped. The sun would rise tomorrow on a new era. The Villareal empire was ours, the bloodline was secure, and the two queens had officially won the game.
