Chapter 744
Miles away, Jude Vance sat in front of his television, clutching a printout of Mira’s high school daily routine that Lawrence Lance had dug up for him.
“Damn it, she’s not human,” Jude muttered. “Who the hell lives like this for an entire year p>
Jude considered himself a ruthless overachiever, but even he had never regimented his time to such a suffocating degree.
He wasn’t watching the broadcast out of sheer admiration. He needed to study her. Know thy enemy to win the war.
Looking up at the screen, Jude’s eyes drifted over Mira’s striking, flawless features, and his thoughts took a darker, predatory turn.
“Lawrence,” Jude drawled, “do you think a woman like that is fit to be a proper wife p>
“Marry her? Are you out of your mind? She’s a terrifying force of nature. She’s aggressively dominant. If you tied the knot with her, you’d never be able to touch another woman again. She’d tear your life apart if you tried.” Lawrence gaped at him. He was stunned that the wealthy heir was actually entertaining such a twisted fantasy.
“She’s dominant, sure, but she’s exceptionally capable,” Jude replied, his eyes narrowing calculatingly. “If I married her, she’d secure my inheritance without a doubt. She’d probably multiply the family wealth tenfold p>
“Yeah, she has the capability,” Lawrence scoffed. “But why the hell would she help you? What makes you think she’d be blindly loyal to a guy like you p>
“That’s where you lack vision. What if I offer her the right incentives? What if our interests perfectly align p>
“What kind of incentives? Giving up your side pieces? Or dedicating your life to groveling at her feet p>
“The status of being my legal wife, obviously,” Jude said smoothly. “She’ll be the sole mother of all my heirs. Once kids are in the picture, she’ll fight to the death to protect our empire. As for me? Of course, I’ll still have my flings on the side. But they’d just be toys. I’d never bring them home, and I’d never let them get pregnant p>
Lawrence stared at him, utterly appalled by the sheer delusion. The guy had already mentally drafted their entire miserable domestic existence.
Wait a minute. If Jude actually managed to pull off this deranged scheme, wouldn’t this wealthy heir eventually turn into a massive threat to Lawrence himself?
No, he had to stop him. Or… actually, wouldn’t it be better if Jude collided head-on with Owen Lance? Mira was Owen’s girlfriend, after all. What would Owen do if he found out Jude was scheming to make Mira his trophy wife? Lawrence knew all too well how possessive men could be.
The more Lawrence thought about it, the more brilliant the idea seemed. A sinister smirk crept onto his face.
Back on the broadcast, Mira was calmly addressing the hosts’ question. “The reason I started my own company was actually quite simple. I needed money to survive p>
The faint, helpless vulnerability in her expression instantly shattered the hearts of thousands of mothers and grandmothers watching from home.
“To survive? Were you strapped for cash?” Jasper asked, feigning surprise. “From what we understand, you were the heiress of Melvion City’s elite Mercer family p>
“I was, up until I turned seventeen. After that, I wasn’t,” Mira replied cleanly. “As most people know, I officially severed ties with my family last summer p>
“The public is incredibly curious about that,” Clara pressed gently. “Did your parents initiate the cutoff, or did you walk away? What on earth could have happened to cause such a severe rupture between blood relatives p>
“They were the ones who kicked me out p>
And that was the absolute truth. The
reason Mira had strategically waited
for Adrian
Mercer to initiate the
disownment was entirely for this lic
exact moment in the court of
opinion. Whenever families O fractured, society instinctively sided with the parents who provided food and shelter. If Mira had boldly declared she abandoned them, public sympathy would evaporate, replaced by a vicious backlash. Viewers unaware of the horrific abuse would brand her a
cold-blooded, ungrateful brat. From
that point on, every hardship she faced would be viewed as deserved karma.
“When I left the house, it was around nine at night,” Mira recounted softly. “I only had a backpack. I had absolutely zero cash on me and not a single item of value.
They even confiscated my old cell phone and my beat-up laptop p>
The mood in the studio instantly grew heavy.
“And I had Rachel with me, who had just been severely injured p>
“Rachel p>
“She was our housekeeper. She practically raised me, and we’re as close as mother and daughter,” Mira explained. “By the time we were thrownout, it was pitch black outside. Rachel used her own
ei.ne
meager savings to rent us a cheap“
motel room for the night If it weren’t
for her, we would have been
sleeping on the streets p>
Naturally, Mira omitted the fact that she had meticulously planned her exit and
already secured a pristine apartment in advance.
Across the nation, millions of
viewers vividly pictured the tragic scene: a vulnerable teenager dragging her bleeding, battered housekeeper through the freezing, night, limping away from the only home she had ever known. What if they had been attacked in the dark? It was too horrific to even contemplate.