Chapter 3

Bella arrived on Chloe' s doorstep an hour later, looking exactly the part of a repentant victim. There was a faint, purplish bruise on her cheek, artfully applied with makeup, and her eyes were red-rimmed as if she' d been crying for days. She wore old, simple clothes, a stark contrast to her usual designer attire. It was a masterful performance, one that would have broken Chloe' s heart in her previous life.

"Chloe, I' m so, so sorry," she whimpered, throwing her arms around her sister. Chloe stood stiffly, not returning the embrace. "Leo... he hit me. He took all my money and left. I was so stupid to trust him. You were right all along."

Chloe looked past Bella' s shoulder, her eyes cold and analytical. She saw the lie in every trembling lip, in every fake tear. She knew from Marcus' s latest report that Leo was waiting in a car just down the street. The bruise was a theatrical touch, designed to pluck at Chloe' s heartstrings.

"It' s okay," Chloe said, her voice carefully neutral as she gently detached herself from Bella' s hug. "You can stay here for now. The guest room is ready."

She led Bella inside, a silent observer in her own home. She was allowing the Trojan horse through the gates, fully aware of the soldiers hiding inside. But this time, she was the one who had set the trap.

Bella gave her a grateful, watery smile. "Thank you, Chloe. You won' t regret this. I' ll make it up to you, I promise."

"I know you will," Chloe said, a double meaning in her words that Bella was too self-absorbed to notice.

For the next two days, Bella played the role of the perfect, remorseful sister. She cooked, she cleaned, she spoke in soft, deferential tones. Chloe watched her, a predator observing its prey, waiting for the inevitable mistake. It came on the third night.

Chloe was in her home office, ostensibly working late. On a small, secondary monitor hidden from view, she watched a live feed from the micro-camera installed in the main office downtown. Around 2 a.m., a figure slipped into the darkened room. It was Bella, using the key she had stolen from Chloe' s purse.

Chloe watched, her face impassive, as Bella tiptoed over to her main computer. Bella pulled a small USB drive from her pocket-the same kind of device that had been used to corrupt her files in the past-and plugged it into the machine. She began rapidly clicking, navigating through folders, searching for the new project files for the prestigious Sterling Tower commission.

Chloe' s heart beat a steady, cold rhythm. This was it. The confirmation she didn' t need but wanted to see with her own eyes.

The betrayal was so casual, so complete. Bella found the folder, copied the entire contents onto the USB drive, and then, just as Chloe expected, she navigated to the system' s primary and backup directories, preparing to delete the original files to cover her tracks.

Chloe leaned back in her chair. She could call security right now. She could have Bella arrested in the act. But that was too simple, too clean. A simple arrest for theft wouldn' t undo the damage. It wouldn' t make Vance pay. It wouldn' t teach Bella the lesson she so desperately needed to learn. A far more severe punishment was required.

So, Chloe did nothing. She watched as Bella, with a smirk of triumph on her face, dragged the Sterling Tower project folders to the trash bin and hit "Empty Trash." The files, representing months of work and millions of dollars in potential revenue, vanished. Bella pulled out the USB drive, tucked it back into her pocket, and slipped out of the office as silently as she had entered.

Chloe closed the video feed. She felt no panic, no despair. Only a chilling sense of purpose. The files Bella had stolen and deleted were fakes. They were brilliantly crafted decoys, filled with subtle but critical flaws that would make any building constructed from them structurally unsound. The real plans were safe on a secure, offline server that only Chloe could access.

Bella, thinking she had committed the perfect crime, grew bolder. The next day, while Chloe was "at the office dealing with a major server crash," Bella ransacked the apartment. She helped herself to Chloe' s jewelry, stuffing expensive necklaces and bracelets into her purse.

She found the emergency cash Chloe kept in a safe and took that too. Her greed was insatiable. She believed she had crippled Chloe, that the company was finished, and this was her last chance to grab what she could before fleeing.

She sent a text to Leo: Got it all. Meet me at the airport in an hour. We' re going to be rich!

As Bella was about to walk out the door, her bag heavy with stolen goods, the apartment' s main entrance was flung open. Two police officers stood in the doorway, their expressions grim. Behind them stood Chloe.

"Bella," Chloe said, her voice like ice. "Going somewhere?"

Bella' s face went white with shock and panic. She dropped her purse, the stolen jewelry spilling across the floor with a clatter. "Chloe! What is this? I didn' t do anything!"

"Attempted corporate espionage, theft of private property... the list is quite long," Chloe said, gesturing to the officers. "She has a USB drive in her pocket containing what she believes are proprietary architectural plans. She also has my jewelry and my cash."

The officers moved in, cuffing a struggling and screaming Bella. "You set me up!" Bella shrieked, her eyes wild with hate. "You bitch! You set me up!"

As they dragged her away, reporters and news cameras, tipped off by an anonymous source, suddenly swarmed the hallway. The flashes were blinding.

"Ms. Chloe, is it true your own sister tried to steal from your company?" one reporter shouted.

Chloe faced the cameras, her expression one of carefully crafted sorrow and resolve. "My sister, Bella, has been struggling with some personal issues. She has fallen in with a very bad crowd. As a result, our family has made the difficult decision to legally dissolve our relationship. She is no longer associated with me or my company in any capacity."

She held up a copy of the disassociation agreement for the cameras to see. The legal document, combined with Bella' s very public arrest, created an undeniable narrative. Chloe was the victim, the steadfast professional betrayed by her unstable, criminal sister.

At the police station, Chloe made a surprising decision. She told the district attorney she would not press the most serious charges of corporate espionage. The theft charge would stick, but the far more damaging industrial sabotage charge, she would let go.

The D.A. was confused. "But you have her dead to rights. We could put her away for years."

"I know," Chloe said calmly. "But I believe this is a family matter that requires a different kind of resolution."

Leo and Vance, watching the news, were equally baffled. They had expected Chloe to throw the book at Bella. Her leniency made them suspicious, but also relieved. They thought they had dodged a bullet. They didn' t realize Chloe wasn' t aiming a gun at them. She was preparing a bomb.

The public outcry over the story was immediate and massive. Sympathy poured in for Chloe, the brilliant architect fighting to save her father' s legacy while being betrayed by her own flesh and blood. The story of the "server crash" and the attempted theft made her look resilient and strong. Investors who had been wary before were now clamoring to support her. The Sterling Tower project, far from being in jeopardy, received a fresh wave of funding and positive press.

Bella' s greedy, destructive act had, ironically, become the best marketing campaign Chloe could have ever asked for. She was controlling the narrative now, turning her sister' s poison into her own personal antidote. And the real plan, the one aimed at Arthur Vance, had only just begun.