Ficorpio
Chapter 1
“Chloe, your fortune is hopeless. Even Grandmother couldn’t save you.”
I knelt in the Memorial Hall, surrounded by the heavy scent of sandalwood, listening to my cousin’s insincere sigh.
In accordance with Grandmother’s final wishes, Victoria and I were to draw from her tarot deck. Whoever drew the more auspicious card would inherit Aurelia Group.
Victoria drew The Empress.
I drew Death.
But there was something no one knew about that Death card.
I had planted it myself.
“Chloe, your fortune is hopeless. Even Grandmother couldn’t save you.”
I knelt in the Memorial Hall, surrounded by the heavy scent of sandalwood, listening to Victoria’s insincere sigh. Everyone had just watched me draw the Death card.
The deck had been Grandmother’s favorite. According to her final wishes, Victoria and I would each draw a card today. Whoever received the more auspicious omen would inherit Aurelia Group.
Victoria drew The Empress.
I drew Death.
“You see? It was meant to be.” Victoria’s fiancé, Marcus Sterling, strolled toward me. “Don’t take it too hard, Chloe. Once Victoria and I are married, we’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”
Taken care of?
Right.
They had started spreading rumors a month ago. They told everyone I was a reckless spendthrift, an ignorant dropout, and utterly unfit to inherit Aurelia Group.
Of course they had.
Victoria had been the family’s golden child for as long as anyone could remember. She had an MBA from Harvard and was already capable of running a company on her own. Marcus was a rising star in the finance world, reportedly earning tens of millions a year.
And me?
I was the spoiled heiress who had not even made it into college.
No one knew what had happened at the hospital that night. Grandmother had clutched my hand with all the strength she had left.
“Chloe, remember this. In this world…”
But she never finished.
Her eyes closed, and they never opened again.
“Cousin, the attorney prepared this Inheritance Waiver.” Victoria held out a document. “Sign it, and I’ll give you five million yuan. That should keep you entertained for quite a while.”
I glanced at the papers, then shook my head. “I want another look at Grandmother’s tarot deck.”
“The Death card already told us everything. What is there left to consider?” Marcus asked impatiently. “Do you honestly think you could manage Aurelia Group? Don’t be ridiculous.”
I rose and walked slowly toward the memorial table.
Grandmother’s tarot deck rested inside a mahogany box beneath her portrait.
No one noticed my fingertips brushing lightly over each card.
No one knew that Grandmother had taught me to recognize those mysterious images when I was five years old.
And no one knew the Death card’s true meaning.
It had never meant misfortune.
It meant an ending.
It also meant rebirth.
Chapter 2
I turned to face Victoria and Marcus. Triumph shone openly on both their faces.
“Deal,” I said softly. “I’ll sign it now.”
They had gotten exactly what they wanted.
From this day forward, they would see me as nothing more than a useless, insignificant fool.
That was fine.
Grandmother had always said the best disguise was to make your enemies underestimate you.
Besides, there was something they did not know about that Death card.
I had planted it myself.
On the third day after Grandmother’s burial, I moved out of the Executive Suite at Yunrui Tower.
My cousin watched as I carried my Hermès handbag and wheeled my Louis Vuitton luggage out through the main doors. Once I was gone, she returned to her office and threw a victory party, perfectly satisfied with herself.
I knew because I had planted a Covert Listening Device in her office.
“At last, we’ve gotten rid of that useless heiress,” Marcus Sterling declared, raising his champagne glass. “Aurelia Group can finally get back on track.”
My phone chimed.
A message had arrived from a private account. Five million yuan had been transferred, with the note:
[Inheritance Buyout]
I glanced at the screen, the corners of my mouth lifting.
After taking a cab to a rundown apartment building downtown, I changed out of my designer clothes, wiped away my carefully applied makeup, and put on a pair of black-rimmed glasses.
The woman staring back at me in the mirror no longer looked anything like a spoiled heiress.
I opened my laptop and entered several complicated passwords. An Encrypted File Archive appeared on the screen.
Yes. I had been ready for this long before today.
Three years ago, I had already known this day would come sooner or later.
Victoria and Marcus thought I was only good for shopping. But every purchase I had made was for today.
The sales associates at luxury boutiques loved sharing gossip with wealthy wives like me.
The massage therapists at upscale salons always happened to overhear the private conversations of rich women.
And after a few drinks, the young men at nightclubs would tell me anything.
My shopping receipts concealed records of every one of Marcus’s affairs.
My spa files documented all of Victoria’s secrets.
They thought I was burning through money. They had no idea I was weaving an enormous net around them.
I opened another encrypted folder. Inside was everything I had collected over the years:
Marcus’s mistress in Shanghai. His illegitimate son in Guangzhou.
The former business partner Victoria had framed to secure her rise.
Evidence of the money laundering hidden beneath Aurelia Group, along with the original records behind its fraudulent accounting.
Chapter 3
And proof of how they had gradually chipped away at my father’s shares, one step at a time.
All of it was leverage.
But it was not time to use it yet.
I took out the bank card Grandmother had left me. A substantial sum sat in the account.
“This is a small gift from the old lady, young miss,” Margaret Ellis had said when she handed it to me. “Before she passed, she specifically instructed me to give it to you on the day you moved out of Yunrui Tower.”
Now I understood Grandmother’s intentions.
She had wanted me to lose so completely that Victoria and the others would let their guard down.
I checked the time. It was almost time.
I dialed a number I had kept saved for years.
“Hello, is this Professor Whitmore? I’m the granddaughter of Aurelia’s former chairman. I was hoping to ask you a few questions…”
Victoria and the others would never imagine that their supposedly spoiled heiress had already received acceptance letters from three international universities.
I had not attended a single one of them.
Compared with those polished credentials, I needed practical experience more.
Over the past three years, I had moved from place to place.
A New York hedge fund had opened the door to the world of finance.
A London investment bank had taught me how capital really worked.
Professor Whitmore’s laboratory had taught me big-data analysis.
I presented myself as an ordinary recent graduate. No one would ever connect me to the heiress of Aurelia Group.
“Professor Whitmore, regarding the quantitative trading project, I think we could approach it from another angle…”
The professor on the other end of the call responded with growing enthusiasm.
She had no idea that the strategy I was describing pointed straight at Aurelia Group’s weak spot.
Victoria and Marcus’s proudest Corporate Restructuring project from all those years ago was riddled with flaws.
But first, you had to know how to use algorithms to uncover them.
By the time I ended the call, night had fallen.
Outside my window, Yunrui Tower blazed with light.
Victoria, didn’t you always love saying that this world respected strength above all else?
Then let’s see which of us is truly stronger.
I took out Grandmother’s Tarot Deck and looked once more at the Death Tarot Card.
I had been waiting far too long for this reading.
A man in a Versace suit stood at the conference room door, a professional smile fixed on his face.
Victor Ashford, director of the Aurelia Group Finance Division—and Victoria’s most trusted aide.
He was also one of the key figures who had framed my father all those years ago.
“Good morning, Mr. Ashford.” I pushed up my black-rimmed glasses and offered him a timid smile. “I’m Chloe Bennett. Professor Whitmore recommended me.”
“Chloe Bennett?” He studied me with faint interest. “That’s an unusual name.”
Of course it was. I had chosen it using the “Chloe” from the name Eleanor had once called me by.
The moment I stepped into Yunrui Tower, everything that had once been familiar suddenly felt strange.