Chapter 120

Chapter 120
Chapter 120

The Trap is Set

(Aurora’s POV)

The night was cold, but inside me burned a fire that refused to die. My father’s face, his last words, haunted me every time I closed my eyes.

The sound of the gunshot, the way his body crumpled, the blood staining my hands,I carried it all like a curse carved into my bones.

For days, grief had swallowed me whole. Silence had been my cage. But silence was not enough anymore. Silence didn’t bring justice. Silence didn’t make Tiffany bleed.

Now I was done grieving.

Now I was sharpening myself into something else.

Something she would dread and never forget the aftermaths of.

I sat at the long table in the study, maps and documents sprawled out before me like the threads of fate. Alex’s face stared up from one of the photographs, his eyes burning with that obsession he could never hide. Tiffany thought she was clever, thought she had chained me in fear. But she didn’t understand one thing, obsession was a weakness, and I knew how to exploit it.

Or would I say, I'm beginning to learn how to exploit it.

She thought I was Alex weakness, but she was wrong.

The real truth is Tiffany’s weakness is Alex.

Alot actions she had taken was because Alex was by her side, he was her main support and drive for alot if her bad doings.

So to strike her fast and hard, u would start from Alex.

That was where I would begin.

I leaned back in my chair, tapping the edge of a pen against the wood, my thoughts racing like blades clashing. “Spread whispers,” I murmured to myself, tasting the words like a strategy already unfolding. “A meeting. A chance. Something Alex cannot resist, then he would inform Tiffany drawing her into my trap.”

He would come. He always came. And Tiffany would follow, unwilling to let him be close to me without her shadow standing in the way.

Not wanting to risk loosing her delusional control over him.

Dominique entered quietly, though his presence was anything but silent. His eyes swept over the papers, over me, his jaw tightening the longer he stared.

“You’ve been at this for hours,” he said, voice careful, almost reverent. “What exactly are you planning?”

I didn’t look up. My pen drew a circle around a warehouse marked on the outskirts of the city. “I’m not planning,” I said coldly. “I’m hunting, I'm planning, I'm being the Devil's Handmaiden.”

His silence stretched, but I felt his eyes on me like a weight. When I finally glanced at him, I saw something flicker there, pride, fear, desire, all tangled into one storm.

“You’re changing, faster than I imagined,” he said finally.

“No,” I corrected him, standing, my hands flat on the table. “I’m becoming what I should have always been, I'm becoming what I've been running from.”

That night, I began my transformation into a true daughter of Valeryk bloodline.

Every morning before dawn, I trained. My body was bruised, my muscles screamed, even when I knew I was just few weeks pregnant, I didn’t stop.

I ran until my lungs burned, fought against Damian’s blows until my arms felt like lead, learned every move, every strike, every way to kill a man with my bare hands. I picked up the gun my father left behind, and I fired until the recoil felt like an extension of my heartbeat.

Every night, I studied. I memorized Tiffany’s movements, her patterns, her alliances. I watched tapes of Alex, learned his tells, the way his eyes darted when he lied, the way he leaned closer when my name was spoken.

I consumed myself in the art of war until there was nothing left of the woman Tiffany once mocked as weak.

One evening, drenched in sweat and bloodied knuckles, I caught Dominique watching me from the edge of the training floor. His expression was unreadable, torn between awe and terror.

“You’re pushing too hard,” he said, his voice strained. “You don’t have to destroy yourself to destroy her and please remember that you are pregnant, I wouldnt want to loose our baby and also loose you.”

I smiled, bitter and sharp. “ I understand your fear Dominique, But Don’t you see, Dominique? That’s exactly what I have to do. She expects prey. I’ll give her a predator, I would take her by surprise.”

He flinched, as though my words cut deeper than a blade.

And still, I kept going.

Days blurred into nights, and nights into war plans. I spread whispers into the underworld, rumors of a secret meeting, of a chance to finally corner me. I left trails carefully crafted, breadcrumbs Alex would follow like the fool he was.

A stolen document here, a hint dropped there, whispers traded in smoky bars where Tiffany’s ears stretched longest, I played my cards well inorder to get her attention, make her curious.

The bait was set.

Dominique tried to reach me in the quiet moments. He would touch my shoulder, speak softly, ask if I remembered who I was before all of this. But the truth was, I couldn’t. That woman was gone, for now until what needed to be done is done.

One evening, I stood before the mirror in my chamber, my reflection staring back at me. My eyes were harder now, sharper. My body, bruised but unyielding. My heart, scarred but steady.

I lifted my hand, dragging my fingers across the glass as though I could peel away the fragile woman Tiffany once tormented.

I stared down at my stomach, I couldn't believe I was carrying a child whilst going for revenge,but deep down I Know if I don't fight this fight now, it would keep following me.

“Enough is Enough, I am no one’s prey anymore,” I whispered silently with resolve.

The glass didn’t answer, but the woman in the reflection smiled back at me, feral, unbroken, and ready.

The trap was set, the stage was set. The bait was laid out.

And when Tiffany walked into it, she would never walk out again.

That's my promise to her.