Lilith's silk handkerchief was a small, inadequate bandage for a wound that was far deeper than skin. Kaelen clutched it in her bleeding hand all the way back to the penthouse, her mind a maelstrom of shock, fury, and a cold, creeping dread. She had survived the meeting. But as she stepped back into the sanctuary she had built with Sera and Iris, she knew the war had just begun.
She tried to be quiet. She slipped into her private bathroom, the door clicking softly shut, hoping to conceal the evidence of her father's wrath. Her cheek throbbed, a dark, ugly bruise already beginning to form. She gently washed the blood from the sharp, deliberate cut across the back of her hand. It was a shallow wound, but it was symbolic. A mark of ownership. Her inheritance.
But there was no hiding from Sera.
The bathroom door opened, and Sera stood there, her arms crossed, her eyes taking in the poorly concealed bruise and the fresh bandage in an instant. A storm gathered in her gaze, a cold, protective fury that made the air crackle. She didn't say a word. She simply stepped forward, her touch impossibly gentle as she tilted Kaelen's chin up to inspect the damage.
"I'm fine," Kaelen lied, her voice hollow.
"No, you're not," Sera replied, her voice soft but absolute.
Before the weight of that quiet care could undo her, Kaelen retreated, pulling her armor back into place. "I need to check my accounts. Start moving funds." She needed to focus on the impossible task her father had given her, the one she had to win.
She strode into her office, Sera following like a silent shadow. She sat at her desk, her hands shaking almost imperceptibly as she brought up her private financial portfolio. And then, the world fell out from under her.
Red flags and error messages bloomed across the screen.
ACCESS DENIED ACCOUNT FROZEN PENDING REVIEW PRIMARY BLACKWOOD CREDIT LINE TERMINATED
A frantic, desperate search confirmed her worst fears. Magnus hadn't just given her a task; he had cut her off at the knees. He had truly gated her inheritance. Her trust funds, her stock portfolios, her access to the vast Blackwood credit network all of it was sealed. A cold, formal notice from the family's financial office spelled out the terms of her new prison: 'Access to all Blackwood assets is restricted pending the successful profitability of the Vesper Pharmaceuticals project.'
The only significant asset she had left was the seed money in Phoenix Holdings, a finite pool of funds that was a pittance compared to the resources needed to resurrect a dying corporation while fending off the likes of Valeria Ironwood.
It was the final blow. The physical punishment, the impossible, poisoned chalice of a task, and now this being financially castrated, set up to fail in the most public and humiliating way possible. The weight of it all, of the last few months, of a life she never asked for, crashed down on her.
She stared at the screen, a sound bubbling up in her throat. It was a laugh, but it was a broken, terrible thing, devoid of all humor. She dropped her head into her hands, the laugh turning into a shuddering, wracking sob. The carefully constructed walls of Kaelen Blackwood, the powerful, untouchable Alpha, crumbled into dust, leaving only the terrified, lost soul of Ashe Li, a woman trapped in a nightmare with no end in sight. The script was gone. Her power was gone. She was overwhelmed, and she had no idea what to do.
She felt a gentle, hesitant touch on her shaking shoulders, and then Sera was there, kneeling beside her chair, wrapping her arms around her. She didn't speak. She just held her, a quiet, steady presence in the chaos of Kaelen's despair, letting her break.
After a long time, Kaelen's sobs subsided into ragged breaths.
"He did this to you," Sera whispered, her fingers gently tracing the edge of the bruise on Kaelen's cheek.
"He took everything, Sera," Kaelen's voice was broken, stripped of all its usual strength. "My accounts... he's gone. He set me up to fail. The company... I... I don't know how I can win this." It was the first time she had ever admitted weakness, ever admitted defeat.
Sera listened, and in her eyes, there was no pity. There was only a fierce, burning light. She took Kaelen's hands the injured one and the whole one into her own.
"Then you won't do it alone," she said, her voice a vow. "Did you really think your father and his money were your only resources? You have the Vesper legacy. You have Elias Vance and my father's loyalists. You have forty percent of the company." She squeezed Kaelen's hands, her gaze intense and unwavering. "And you have me."
She stood and gently began to re dress the cut on Kaelen's hand, her touch now filled with a cold, protective fury aimed squarely at Magnus. "He wants to see you fail. He wants to see us fail." She looked up, her dark eyes blazing with a strength Kaelen had never seen before.
"He thinks he's built you a cage. We'll turn it into a fortress. Together."