Chapter 4
1735words
"Do you remember that rainy night? I do. —S.C."
Jax was warning Serafina. He knew about the Sophia Chen matter and was using it to threaten her. This meant two things: first, they must have had some kind of understanding or conspiracy back then; second, he now felt threatened, so he was making a preemptive move.
Good. What I needed was distrust and panic between them. When two accomplices start to suspect each other, the crack grows wider and wider until everything completely collapses.
But this wasn't enough. I needed more pieces on the board, more power.
---
Two weeks later, I decided it was time to give Leo a real test.
The temptation of money and sex can only take a person so far. To make Leo completely switch to my side, willing to risk his life to betray his master, I needed a stronger motivation.
Fear.
---
"I want to take you somewhere," I told Leo on the phone Wednesday night.
"Now?" His voice carried a mixture of confusion and excitement. Since we started this "relationship," he had become increasingly captivated. "Is it your place?"
"No. It's a... special place. Important for our future."
An hour later, we met at the entrance of Woodlawn Cemetery in Queens. The cemetery at night was shrouded in heavy darkness, with only scattered streetlights casting pale beams.
Leo's expression changed when he saw the surroundings. "Isabel, this... what kind of place is this?"
"Follow me," I didn't explain, walking straight into the depths of the cemetery.
We walked for about ten minutes, passing countless gravestones and tombs. No one spoke, only our footsteps echoing in the silence. Leo grew increasingly nervous, his breathing becoming shallow and rapid.
Finally, we stopped in front of a simple gravestone.
**Sophia Chen**
**1992-2009**
**Beloved Daughter**
**"Too pure for this world"**
Leo stared at the gravestone, confusion written all over his face. "I don't understand. Isabel, this is—"
"She didn't commit suicide," I said calmly, my voice particularly clear in the night's silence.
Leo's head jerked toward me. "What?"
"Sophia Chen. You remember her, don't you? West Bridge College, 2009. The media reported that she jumped from the school building due to depression." I turned to him, my eyes cold as ice in the moonlight. "But that was a lie."
Leo's face turned pale. "What are you saying?"
I took a folder from my handbag, just like the one I had given to Maria two weeks ago. "She was pushed. By your precious Serafina."
Leo's hands began to tremble. "No... impossible..."
"Open it and see." I handed the folder to him.
Under the dim streetlight, Leo opened the first page. It was the police report of the incident from that year, but this report had never been made public. It clearly stated: The bruises on the victim's body were inconsistent with a fall, evidence of struggle was found at the scene, and non-victim fingerprints were discovered on the rooftop.
"This... this can't be true." Leo's voice was barely audible.
"Turn to the next page."
A screenshot from the surveillance camera, though blurry, clearly showed two female figures on the rooftop—one was Sophia, and the other was undoubtedly 17-year-old Serafina. The timestamp showed three minutes before the accident occurred.
"Turn to the next page."
This was the most conclusive evidence: a piece of fabric from Sophia's shirt that perfectly matched the designer suit jacket Serafina had been wearing that day. DNA tests confirmed this, but the results had been buried.
Leo's legs gave way, and he collapsed onto a small bench nearby. "My God... did she really...?"
"Serafina confronted Sophia on the rooftop about certain rumors. The situation escalated, and during the pushing, Sophia lost her footing and fell off the building. Then the Sterling family's money and influence stepped in to disguise the murder as suicide." I sat beside him, my voice gentle but extremely serious. "Sophia died from a severe physical attack, not depression."
Leo stared at the documents, his entire worldview collapsing.
"But why... why do you know all this?"
"Because I'm a victim too." I allowed a flash of genuine pain to cross my eyes. "Sophia was my friend. We were bullied by the same group of people. It took me years to find this evidence."
Leo looked at me, fear and understanding mingling in his eyes. "So you... all of this is..."
"Revenge? Yes." I didn't deny it. "But the question now, Leo, is do you want to become Sophia?"
He froze. "What do you mean?"
"Do you think Serafina and Jax know you're passing information to me? What do you think they'll do to a traitor who knows too much when they find out?"
Leo's hands clenched into fists, his knuckles white as bone.
"They'll kill me..." he whispered.
"Unless you kill them first." My voice was like silk wrapped around a blade. "Metaphorically speaking, of course."
I took out another envelope from my coat. "I can give you a new identity, five hundred thousand dollars in clean money, and a private jet to Dubai. A brand new life, far away from this cesspool."
Leo stared at the envelope as if it might bite him.
"But I need you to do something for me."
"What?"
"I need concrete evidence that Serafina killed Sophia. Photos, videos, documents, witnesses. Anything that could bring her down for murder." I leaned closer. "You've worked by her side for so long, you know where she hides her secrets."
Leo's breathing became rapid. Fear and greed battled on his face.
"She... she does have a safe, in her home office. And there are some old phones and documents there. But..."
"But what?"
"If I get caught..."
"You won't." I stood up, looking down at him. "Because you're smarter than they are. You crave success. And," I smiled, a smile that looked predatory in the shadows of the cemetery, "you have me."
Leo looked up at me. In the moonlight, I must have appeared like an avenging angel.
"If... if I get these things, will you really make me disappear?"
"Completely disappear. The person Leo Rodriguez will cease to exist, and Sophia Chen will get the justice she deserves."
Leo stood up, looked at Sophia's tombstone, then at the envelope in my hand. Greed ultimately won.
"Fine. I'll do it."
---
Three days later, Leo's transformation was dramatic.
He was no longer that pathetic wretch desperately trying to impress me. Fear and purpose had given him a dangerous edge. He began systematically approaching Serafina and Jax, not as a friend, but as a predator.
"I've got something," he texted me on our disposable phone Saturday night.
We met on a secluded bench in Central Park. Leo looked haggard but triumphant, with a feverish intensity in his eyes.
"What did you find?"
He handed me a USB drive. "Serafina's private files. She did keep records of the Sophia incident, including photos from that day and letters from her father handling the aftermath."
My heart raced, but I kept my expression calm. "What else?"
"Something better." Leo leaned in, lowering his voice to a whisper. "I recorded Jax and Serafina discussing it. They thought I was asleep, but I was recording. Jax said he helped dispose of certain evidence."
Perfect.
"Very good. Now, the final step."
"What?"
"You need to confront them with this intelligence. Separately."
Leo's face turned pale. "Are you crazy? That's suicide!"
"Not confrontation. Blackmail," I corrected. "You tell Serafina you know the truth about Sophia, and you need money to keep silent. Then you go tell Jax that Serafina wants him to take the fall, and he also needs to pay for your loyalty."
Leo stared at me as if I had grown two heads. "You want me to blackmail both of them at the same time?"
"Exactly. Then sit back and watch them destroy each other." I smiled. "Their paranoia will do the rest of the work for us."
"But what if they unite against me—"
"They won't," I interrupted. "The relationship between Serafina and Jax is already fragile. Add some mutual suspicion, and they'll tear each other apart like rabid dogs."
Leo was silent for a long time, processing the implications of this plan.
"You really are a monster, Isabel," he finally said, but there was no judgment in his tone, only awe.
"I'm a survivor," I corrected him, standing up. "Soon, you will be too."
---
Leo's blackmail operation began.
He approached Serafina first, intercepting her at her favorite high-end spa. According to his report, she initially tried to bluff, but when he played the audio clips, her composure crumbled. She promised to give him two hundred thousand dollars, to be paid in installments.
Two days later, he went to Jax, telling him that Serafina was planning to push all responsibility onto him, that she was ready to sell him out to save herself. Jax's reaction was violent as expected—he threatened to kill Serafina, but Leo "persuaded" him to purchase his continued loyalty with money.
Within a week, the two former allies began to suspect each other. Serafina was convinced that Jax was plotting against her. Jax was certain that Serafina was preparing to betray him.
Their communication became tense and accusatory. They began avoiding public appearances together. Their united front, the one that had protected them for so many years, started to crumble.
Leo reported these developments to me, his excitement evident. He thought he was the mastermind, believed he was successfully playing both sides.
Poor fool. He didn't know he was merely my disposable weapon.
When this phase of the plan was complete, Leo Rodriguez would also need to... disappear. But for now, he remained useful.
I stood at my apartment window, watching the lights of the Braxton house. The civil war had begun. The spirit of Sophia Chen had finally awakened from her grave to claim vengeance.
The phone rang again. This time it was an urgent message from Maria:
"Miss Vance, terrible news! Mrs. Serafina locked herself in her room after returning home tonight and has been making phone calls. I heard her mention a name—Dr. Julian Davenport. She seems to be investigating something."
My fingers paused on the screen for a second.
Interesting. She's started to make her move.
