All Chapters of The Heiress Curse; Reborn For A Cause : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

“Auntie,” Vanessa repeated with a flutter of her lashes, her tone slipping into the perfect point between gentle concern and barely disguised flattery. “I didn’t want to take too much of your time, but I… well, I had a few things I needed to discuss. Delicate things.”Eliana didn’t roll her eyes, but it was a battle. Her expression remained pleasant, though it was tight enough to cut glass.Vanessa pressed her knees together and leaned in just slightly, tilting her head like a sympathetic dove. “I know it’s not my place to talk about the matters of your family, but I hope you’ll forgive me for bringing up something that’s been weighing on me.”"Here we go", Eliana thought, folding her hands neatly on her lap. She had seen this kind of slow circling behavior too many times. Vanessa was a smart girl who had mastered the art of talking sideways.“Speak.”Vanessa lowered her eyes modestly. “It’s about Emma.”Eliana’s fingers twitched. Of course it was.She’d known the moment she saw Vane

Emma took her seat, next to him, because of course the universe had it out for her. Matthew didn’t look at her when she sat down, which was somehow worse. Like he was letting her stew in the fact that he’d gotten here first like some smug little strategy troll.She exhaled sharply through her nose and straightened her posture. Her notes were in front of her. Her brain was full of intelligent things. She was ready. This meeting was not about Matthew. She looked at Ross subtly and drew strength from his imposing figure.Mr. Desmond, the very old, very rich, and very fun investor for the G-Apex project, sitting at the head of the long glass table, clicked his pen once and leaned slightly forward. “We’ve reviewed your proposal and invested. There was clear foresight, and above all, the revision to the G Apex clause was clean.”Emma nodded slightly, trying to keep her expression neutral. Her stomach was clawing up into her throat. She could feel Ross’s gaze across the table, but she didn’

Emma was still thinking about the boardroom long after she left it. Her head was pounding, not from the noise, but from the sheer absurdity of the day. She had just wrapped up a pitch and was supposed to feel good about it, but instead, she was left standing there while a grown man acted like an idiot with decades of repressed resentment.She’d dealt with rich assholes before somehow, she could feel it, but never ones who had a personal vendetta against the CEO.The elevator ride down to the lobby felt longer than usual. People stared at her – or maybe she was just paranoid. She couldn’t shake Matthew’s frantic eyes from her mind, the way his hands had gripped her arms too tight. She’d seen that kind of fake concern before: in men who wanted to “save” you from a problem they created in the first place.By the time she reached the parking lot, her phone buzzed. It was a text from Eliana.“We need to talk. Tonight. At home.”Emma stared at the screen. No 'Hello' or 'good job on sealing

Emma wasn’t sure which was worse, sitting through a three-hour budget alignment meeting where everyone took turns pretending they weren’t in open warfare with each other or the fact that Matthew was seated two chairs down, radiating smugness like a cheap cologne. The man hadn’t even flinched after Ross slapped him the other day, or after she caught him snooping through her files. If anything, he seemed more energized, like a cockroach that had been stepped on and somehow evolved instead of dying. Emma kept her gaze fixed on the quarterly slides, though she could feel Matthew’s stare every time Ross spoke. Not at her, at Ross. It was the kind of stare a lion gives another lion right before trying to take over the pride. When the meeting adjourned, everyone scattered in their usual “thank God that’s over” rush, leaving Ross, Emma, and Matthew as the last three in the room again. Matthew was first to break the silence. “So, Ross,” he began casually, leaning back in his chair, “a

Emma kept her expression serene, but her mind was still replaying the moment in the bathroom over and over. The sting, the blood, the nothing.If she was lucky, maybe she’d dreamed of it. If she wasn’t…Well, she wasn’t sure what the “if she wasn’t” part meant yet.By lunch, she had almost convinced herself to shove it into the mental junk drawer labeled “Weird Crap To Deal With Later."But then she caught sight of Vanessa walking past her office, all sleek confidence and perfectly arranged hair, and that drawer snapped right back open.Vanessa didn’t look in, didn’t say anything, but Emma’s instincts, the same instincts that had kept her alive more than once, said the woman was circling.She didn’t know how right she was. Because at that same moment, in a quiet corner of Vanessa’s glass-and-white penthouse, a phone sat on the counter, displaying a string of messages from a number saved only as PI.The last one read; “Match confirmed. Sending full file.”Vanessa’s lips curved into the