**Chapter Eight: Sasha's True Colors**
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The photo of his mother wouldn't leave Jayden's mind.
He could see every detail even with his eyes closed: the cracked concrete wall, the flickering lightbulb above her head, the faint redness around her wrists where she'd been bound. She wasn't dead—but she was definitely in danger.
Jayden paced the floor of his private suite at Lexington Estate, the photograph clenched tightly in his hands.
Leo stood by the door, arms crossed, watching him.
"This was a message," Jayden said. "They could've killed her. But they didn't. They want to play."
Leo nodded. "They want to see how far you'll go."
Jayden exhaled. "Then we show them."
He picked up his phone and began to issue quiet orders through encrypted apps. Calls were placed. Surveillance tools activated. Within an hour, The Legacy Guard was deployed across Nairobi—monitoring known Serpent properties, shadowing Brandon's father Gerald Macharia, and following every lead on the location of his mother.
But while Jayden moved like a silent storm behind the scenes, the world around him grew noisier.
The school buzzed with drama.
Students whispered that Sasha had been spotted at a private lounge in Lavington trying to reconnect with Jayden. Someone leaked an edited video showing the two of them talking outside the school gates—with music, slow motion, and captions twisting the context into a fake reconciliation.
Worse, someone was actively trying to rewrite the story of Sasha and Jayden.
"She wants her way back in," Leo muttered as he scrolled through trending hashtags. **#JaySha**, **#SecondChances**, **#BillionaireLove**. All fake. All planted.
Jayden scowled. "She's a virus. And viruses spread."
It wasn't long before Sasha made her next move.
She cornered Kevin and Brian after school, pretending to be casual.
"I just want to make things right," she told them. "I know I hurt him, but I didn't know who he was. I didn't know what he was going through. He's not just a boy from Kibera—he's someone powerful."
Kevin frowned. "So you care now because of that?"
"No," Sasha said. "I cared before. But I panicked. I made a mistake. Everyone deserves a second chance."
Brian crossed his arms. "Then why did you start sending around screenshots of his donations?"
Sasha froze. "What?"
"Don't play dumb," Kevin snapped. "Jayden gave money anonymously to children's homes, schools, hospitals. You found out and started sharing the screenshots like you were some kind of insider."
"I didn't—"
"We know it was you," Brian said. "And now people are using his kindness against him."
Sasha looked trapped. Her voice cracked. "I just… I thought it would help him. I thought people would love him more if they saw what he's doing."
Kevin shook his head. "You're not helping him. You're trying to control the narrative."
Later that night, Jayden met Kevin and Brian in his room. He listened quietly as they recounted every word Sasha had said.
"She's not just trying to get back into your life," Brian added. "She's trying to weaponize it."
Jayden nodded slowly. "It's worse than I thought."
He opened his laptop and loaded a different set of files—ones he had deliberately prepared in case someone tried to blackmail him.
He released them that night.
An anonymous blog post titled **"The Truth Behind Sasha Kamari"** hit social media like a missile.
It contained:
* Voice recordings of Sasha and Brandon plotting Jayden's social exile.
* Screenshots of her manipulating group chats to isolate him.
* Receipts linking her to private intelligence agents hired by Gerald Macharia to monitor Jayden.
And finally, a video clip of Sasha laughing at Jayden's broken shoes only days before the breakup—laced with her mocking comment: *"He'll never be more than a charity case."*
By morning, Sasha's name was scorched into the earth.
Eastview expelled her. Public sympathy vanished. Brandon refused to defend her. Her social accounts went dark.
But the real damage had already been done—to Jayden.
He sat alone under a tree near the football field, watching the sky.
Leo approached him slowly.
"You alright?"
Jayden nodded once. "She didn't break me. She just reminded me why I don't trust easy anymore."
"You did the right thing."
Jayden's eyes stayed on the clouds. "Then why does it still hurt?"
Leo didn't have an answer.
That same night, The Legacy Guard finally caught a lead.
A back-alley contact in Kiserian reported seeing a woman matching Jayden's mother's description being moved in a black SUV to a compound near Ngong Hills.
"She's alive," Aida said through the secure channel. "But she won't be for long."
Jayden didn't wait.
He called Leo, Brian, and two Guard members—Tariq and Malik.
By 2 a.m., they were armed, gloved, and packed into a van heading toward the hills.
The compound was surrounded by electric fences, motion sensors, and armed guards.
But Jayden didn't hesitate.
They disabled the cameras.
Leo created a diversion on the far side of the property.
Jayden and Tariq slipped through the trees and breached the north fence with wire cutters.
Inside the compound, it was silent. Too silent.
Jayden moved through the hallways like a shadow, taking out one guard with a blow to the throat, another with a blunt strike to the temple.
He finally found her in a small, locked room—dazed, tired, but alive.
"Jayden?" she whispered.
His voice trembled. "Mum… I'm here."
He carried her out as the team retreated into the night, not as heirs or warriors—
—but as family.
Back at Lexington Estate, his mother was treated by private doctors, fed, bathed, and wrapped in warm blankets.
Jayden sat by her bedside until dawn.
She opened her eyes slowly and whispered, "You've become someone else."
Jayden smiled. "Only on the outside."
She touched his cheek. "Don't lose the boy I raised."
He nodded, tears brimming. "I won't. I promise."
But the next morning, a blood-soaked note arrived at the mansion gate.
It read:
**"We let her live. This time. Next time, we finish what you started."**
Jayden stared at the note. His mother asleep upstairs. His father recovering in a hospital. His name under fire.
He turned to Leo.
"No more hiding. We go public."
Leo's eyes widened. "You're sure?"
Jayden nodded.
"They've been writing my story long enough."
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**End of Chapter Eight**