Sera stared at the datapad, her knuckles white where she gripped the edge of the sofa. The proof of her uncle's betrayal was cold and absolute, laid out in sterile corporate reports and illegal transaction logs. The fury that rose in her was a sharp, familiar iciness. It was the same fury she'd felt towards the Blackwoods for years, but this cut differently. This was the salt in a wound she thought couldn't get any deeper.
Finally, she looked up, her gaze piercing Kaelen with a suspicion that momentarily erased the fragile trust they had built.
"Why?" The word was sharp, brittle. "Why would you help me? This isn't just some competitor, this is a Blackwood project. Your project. What is this, Kaelen? Another one of your family's cruel games?"
The accusation stung, but Kaelen didn't flinch. She had expected it. She deserved it.
"Because my father gave me this project to finish what the fire started," Kaelen said, her voice low and raw with a truth Sera had never heard from her before. "His goal is to erase the Vesper name from the world. For years, I was supposed to believe that was justice. I don't believe that anymore."
She risked a vulnerable glance towards the hallway where Iris slept. "I can't change what my family did, or what the person I used to be did to you. But I can stop this. I can build something for her future instead of just destroying your past." Kaelen met Sera's eyes, her own filled with a desperate sincerity. "This is a betrayal of my father. If he finds out, I... I don't know what will happen. But I won't be the architect of your daughter's ruin. Not anymore."
Sera searched Kaelen's face, looking for the lie, the angle, the inevitable trap. She found none. All she saw was the same fierce, protective resolve she felt for her own child, reflected in the eyes of the woman she was supposed to hate. The fight wasn't just Sera's anymore. Slowly, deliberately, she gave a single nod. The alliance was sealed.
[Plot Deviation Confirmed. New Questline Initiated: The Usurper's Gambit.]
[WARNING: This path is high risk and will run contrary to the primary mission. Your survival is not guaranteed.]
"Alright," Sera said, her voice regaining its strength. She sat up, her focus shifting from grieving victim to determined strategist. "If we're going to do this, we can't be stupid. A direct move on the company will alert your father. But my uncle... he's weak. And he's greedy."
Kaelen leaned forward, recognizing the shift. This was Seraphina Vesper, the heir to a pharmaceutical empire, not just theOmega she had tormented. "He's in debt. That's our leverage. I can set up a shell corporation, an anonymous third party, to make him an offer he can't refuse for his personal shares."
"It'll have to be a good offer," Sera countered, already thinking three steps ahead. "He's desperate, but he's not an idiot. He won't sell for pennies if he thinks there's a bigger buyout on the horizon from BioSynth."
"Then we make him more desperate," Kaelen stated, a flicker of the old Blackwood ruthlessness surfacing, but this time, it was aimed at a new target. "We need to know where his money is going. What are his vices?"
A wry, humorless smile touched Sera's lips. The transformation was complete. She tapped the datapad, her fingers pulling up a new search query.
"My father called Alban a man with champagne tastes and a beer budget," she said, her voice dripping with disdain. "He always had a weakness for high stakes poker and illicit pheromone auctions." She looked up at Kaelen, her eyes gleaming in the dim light.
"I know where he plays."