Chapter 8 - The Puppet Master Revealed"Elena..." I whispered, the name tasting like ash in my mouth.
I had mourned her for half a decade. I had buried an empty casket, wept at her memorial, and spent years pouring my grief into building Carter Global into an impenetrable fortress.
Elena chuckled, walking gracefully toward the wet bar and pouring herself a glass of my vintage scotch.
"Surprised?" she asked, turning around to lean against the counter. "You should be. You always were brilliant at numbers, Nathan, but utterly blind to people."
Rosa stepped forward, trembling with rage. "You're dead! The police confirmed the crash!"
Elena laughed outright, a sharp, cruel sound. "The police confirmed what my paid forensic accountants told them to confirm. A decoy flight, a rented corpse, and fifty million dollars funneled into an offshore Cayman account. It was remarkably easy."
The pieces violently snapped together in my mind.
"Adrian," I said, my voice dropping into a lethal, quiet growl. "Adrian didn't come up with the takeover plan. He was just your pawn. And Isabella..."
"Isabella was just a gorgeous, greedy little distraction I planted in your path to lower your defenses," Elena interrupted, finishing my sentence with a proud smirk. "She thought she was going to inherit a billion dollars and run away with Adrian. Poor, stupid girl. She never knew she was just my instrument to drain your liquidity accounts while I executed the final stage of the hostile takeover."
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Elena set her glass down, her eyes flashing with a dangerous, manic brilliance.
"You see, Nathan, Carter Global was never yours alone. We built the foundation together. And tonight, I’m taking back the entire empire—legally, permanently, and completely."
