Chapter 2 2

The elevator doors opened to the underground parking garage.

Jett stepped out into the damp, chilly air of the Manhattan night.

A light rain was falling outside the garage exit, slicking the pavement into a dark mirror.

Before she could take five steps, a massive, armored black Maybach rolled silently out of the shadows.

It stopped exactly two feet in front of her.

The driver, a broad-shouldered man in a dark suit, immediately stepped out.

He snapped open a large black umbrella, shielding Jett from the drizzle, and pulled the heavy rear door open with a respectful nod.

Jett slid into the cavernous back seat.

The leather was warm, a sharp contrast to the coldness spreading through her chest.

She placed the black Birkin on the seat beside her.

She opened the hidden compartment beneath the armrest, revealing a biometric safe.

She pressed her thumb to the scanner, placed the offshore trust documents inside, and locked it with a heavy mechanical click.

She opened her encrypted phone.

Rows of green data cascaded down the screen.

She was already tracking the real-time fluctuations of Arthur's personal asset portfolio.

Across town, high above Fifth Avenue, the atmosphere was entirely different.

Arthur shoved the heavy oak door of Serena's luxury flat open.

He stormed into the living room, his chest heaving, his tie ripped loose from his collar.

He marched straight to the crystal decanter on the bar cart and poured a massive measure of amber whiskey into a glass.

Serena emerged from the hallway.

She was wearing a sheer silk robe that clung to her curves, her blonde hair falling perfectly over her shoulders.

She walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her warmth against his tense back.

"Did she sign it?" Serena asked, her voice a soft, practiced purr.

Arthur gripped the edge of the bar cart.

"She refused," he ground out through clenched teeth.

He swallowed half the whiskey in one burning gulp.

"She is demanding four percent of the original equity. She actually had the nerve to slide some forged offshore trust document in my face."

Serena's hands froze on his waist.

Her fingers subconsciously moved up to touch the heavy diamond pendant resting on her collarbone.

A sharp, ugly spike of jealousy twisted in her gut, quickly masked by a wave of cold calculation.

"An offshore account?" Serena murmured, stepping around him to look into his face.

She pitched her voice to sound innocent and concerned.

"Arthur, how could someone from her background possibly manage an offshore trust? That makes no sense."

Arthur frowned, the alcohol rushing to his head.

He thought back to the name on the document.

"Dark Web Ventures," he muttered, rubbing his temples.

"She claimed she was the one who bailed out the group three years ago. It is absolute insanity."

Serena's eyes widened in mock horror.

"Arthur... you do not think she found a loophole in the group's accounting, do you?"

She placed a gentle hand on his cheek.

"What if she has been embezzling family funds for years and hiding them in dummy corporations?"

Arthur's breath hitched.

His bias latched onto the idea instantly. It was the only explanation that protected his ego.

"She is stealing from us," Arthur hissed, his face turning a dark, ugly red.

"We cannot let her walk away with dirty money and ruin the Vanderbilt reputation," Serena urged, her thumb stroking his jaw.

"You need to freeze her out. Cut her off from everyone."

Arthur nodded sharply. "I will call the legal team first thing in the morning."

"Let me go freshen up," Serena said, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek.

She turned and walked into her massive, soundproofed walk-in closet, shutting the heavy door behind her. She didn't stop there. Serena was far too meticulous to leave her survival to chance. She walked past the rows of designer gowns, her hand trailing over the silk, until she reached the back wall. She pressed her thumb to a hidden biometric scanner. A secondary, reinforced door clicked open, revealing her private jewelry vault. She stepped inside, the thick steel sealing her in a perfect, acoustic vacuum. Only then did the soft, loving expression vanish from her face.

She pulled her phone from her robe pocket and dialed a number.

It rang twice before a woman answered.

"Serena? It is midnight. What is going on?" the voice groaned.

"Wake up, Chloe. I have a massive tip regarding the Vanderbilt Group," Serena said, her voice dropping into the casual, venomous drawl of an Upper East Side socialite.

On the other end, the Wall Street hedge fund manager suddenly sounded very awake.

"I am listening."

Serena touched her diamond pendant again.

"Jett Whitfield is being investigated by the family. Her funds are dirty. Massive international money laundering."

"Are you serious?" Chloe gasped, smelling blood in the water.

"Remember that solo trip she took to Eastern Europe right before the wedding?" Serena lied smoothly, inventing the narrative on the spot.

"She was setting up the shell accounts. The family is about to dump her."

"This is going to crash their stock tomorrow," Chloe said, her voice vibrating with greedy excitement. "I am shorting them at the bell. The whole street will know by dawn."

Serena smiled at her reflection in the full-length mirror.

"Have fun, darling."

She hung up.

Back in the Maybach, the tires hissed against the wet asphalt.

Jett's tablet chimed with a high-priority alert.

She tapped the screen.

It was an anonymous post on a highly restricted Wall Street internal forum.

The headline screamed about a Vanderbilt spouse involved in an Eastern European money laundering syndicate.

Jett's eyes scanned the text.

She recognized the sloppy, dramatic phrasing instantly.

Serena's PR playbook was painfully predictable.

The driver glanced at her through the rearview mirror, noticing the sudden drop in the cabin's air pressure.

"Do we need to retaliate, ma'am?" he asked, his voice low and serious.

Jett let out a short, freezing laugh.

"No," Jett said, her fingers tapping a slow rhythm on the leather armrest.

"This kind of cheap rumor is exactly what I need to build a massive short squeeze."

She opened her encrypted messaging app.

She scrolled down to a contact saved simply as 'Lord'.

She typed a single sentence.

Initiate Plan B.

She hit send.

Three seconds later, the screen showed 'Read'.

A moment after that, a single emoji popped up on her screen.

A black chess knight.