Chapter 91

The crystal vase shattered against the wall, water and roses exploding across the cream-colored paint.Rose grabbed the next item within reach, a heavy silver photo frame and hurled it at the television where her parents' faces still filled the screen.

"Liars!" she screamed, her voice raw. "Filthy, worthless liars!"⑨

The frame cracked the television screen, splitting her father's image in two before the picture went black.

Rose stood in the middle of Herod's penthouse living room, chest heaving, hair wild around her face. The elegant space lay in ruins around her, furniture overturned, glass broken, papers scattered across the floor.Her hands trembled with rage as she searched for something else to destroy.

"Fourteen years!" She kicked over a side table, sending a lamp crashing to the floor. "Fourteen years playing the perfect daughter! The supportive sister! And they throw it away for her?"

She grabbed a leather-bound book and tore it in half, pages fluttering around her like wounded birds.

"After everything I did to make them love me! After everything I endured in that house, pretending to be grateful,pretending to belong!"

Her voice broke on the last word, anger momentarily giving way to something darker and more painful. She pressed her hands against her eyes, wvilling away the burning tears.

Behind her, the elevator doors opened silently. Herod Preston stepped into the chaos, surveying the destruction with raised eyebrows.

"I take it you've seen the press conference," he said dryly.

Rose whirled toward him, eyes blazing. "Did you know? Did you know they would do this?"

"If I had known your parents would suddenly develop backbones, I would have taken preventive measures."

Herod carefully stepped over broken glass, making his way to the bar. "The timing is... unfortunate."

"Unfortunate?" Rose laughed, the sound harsh and brittle. "They've ruined everything! My parents, who l controlled for years. Stefan, who I owned completely. All of them turning against me for Camille!"

She grabbed a half-empty bottle of wine and drank directly from it, red liquid spilling down her chin.

"And those journals! Those damned journals I thought I'd destroyed!" She slammed the bottle down. "How did they get them? How did they know what to say? Someone helped them. Someone gave them information."

Herod poured himself a whiskey, seemingly unbothered by her outburst. "Alexander Pierce, most likely. He's been surprisingly resourceful."

" want him destroyed too," Rose hissed, pacing like a caged animal. "Him, Camille, Victoria, my parents,Stefan, all of them. I want them to suffer for this humiliation."

She paused by the window, staring down at the street where reporters had gathered outside the building.News of her parents' accusations had spread quickly, drawing media vultures hoping to catch her reaction.

"I can't even leave," she whispered, a new note of panic entering her voice. "They're waiting for me down there. Cameras. Questions. All those people who believed me yesterday, now looking at me like I'm a monster."

Herod watched her,swirling his drink thoughtfully."Sit down, Rose."

"I don't want to sit!"she snapped. "I want to..."

"Sit. Down." His voice hardened, the casual facade dropping momentarily.

Something in his tone cut through her rage. Rose sank onto the edge of a chair, shoulders still rigid with fury.

Herod took the seat across from her."Do you know why most revenge plots fail?"

"I don't need a lecture," she seethed.

"Emotion," he continued as if she hadn't spoken. "Uncontrolled emotion leads to mistakes. Mistakes lead to failure." He sipped his whiskey. "What's happening right now is you losing control."

"They betrayed me!" Rose's fists clenched on her knees. "My own parents. Stefan.After everything..."

"Yes, yes, they're terrible people." Herod waved his hand dismissively. "The question is not whether you have the right to be angry. The question is whether your anger serves our purpose."

His calmn only infuriated her further. "How can you sit there so coldly? Kane Industries stock is recovering.Camille's reputation is being restored. Everything we worked for-"

"Is a minor setback," Herod cut in. "One battle in a larger war."

Rose laughed bitterly. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one they're calling a liar and manipulator on every news channel.Your life isn't being torn apart in public."

"No," Herod agreed, something flashing in his eyes. "That happened to me ten years ago, when Victoria Kane systematically destroyed my family. I know exactly how public humiliation feels."

He set his glass down carefully. "The difference is that I channeled that feeling into something productive. A plan. A purpose. Not..." he gestured at the destroyed room, "this childish tantrum."

Rose flinched as if he'd slapped her.

"Now," Herod continued, "we have two choices. We can abandon our efforts because of this setback, or we can accelerate to phase two."

Rose drew a shaky breath, struggling to pull herself together. "What exactly is phase two? You've been vague about the details."

"Because until now, you didn't need to know them." Herod stood and moved to his desk, retrieving a tablet from the drawer. "The Phoenix Grid project breaks ground in two weeks. The site is prepared, construction crews ready, permits secured."

He handed her the tablet, open to technical specifications. "These are the modified blueprints for the power distribution.nodes. Our contact inside Kane Engineering has already substituted them for the originals."

Rose stared at the diagrams, not understanding the technical aspects but recognizing the importance of what she was seeing. "So the project will fail?"

"Not immediately," Herod said, a thin smile appearing. "The system will operate perfectly during the demonstration and initial testing. The flaws will only manifest under full load conditions, approximately six to eight weeks after installation."

"And when it fails?"

"Catastrophically." He took the tablet back. "Not dangerous to human life, I'm not that reckless, but catastrophic from a business perspective. Complete system failure across multiple cities simultaneously.Hundreds of millions in damages. Stock collapse. Regulatory investigations."

Rose's breathing slowed as she absorbed his words. "And Camille takes the blame."

"As project head, she bears ultimate responsibility." Herod nodded. "Particularly when evidence emerges that early tests showed potential problems..... problems she supposedly ignored."

"Evidence you've manufactured," Rose guessed.

"Already planted in Kane Industries' secure servers, timestamped months ago." Herod looked pleased with himself. "When investigators dig, they'll find exactly what we want them to find."

Rose felt her anger transforming, cooling into something harder and more focused. "And the timing? After today's disaster, they'll be watching us more closely."

"Which is why we let them believe they've won." Herod moved back to his chair. "You disappear from public view. Retreat. Appear defeated. Let Kane Industries recover, let Camille bask in her vindication, let your parents think their betrayal saved their precious daughter."

He leaned forward. "And then, just when they feel safest, everything collapses around them."

Rose stared at the floor, seeing not the scattered debris of her outburst but the future Herod described.Camille's fall from grace. Victoria's empire crumbling. Her parents watching helplessly as the daughter they chose suffered public disgrace.

"How long?" she asked finally.

"Two months, perhaps three." Herod shrugged. "Patience is essential."

"And what about me? I can't even leave this building without being mobbed."

"You won't need to for a while." Herod gestured toward the room beyond. "The penthouse has everything you need.Food delivered. Private elevator. Security. Consider it a strategic retreat."

Rose stood, moving back to the window. Below, more reporters had gathered, their cameras pointed up at the building.

"They think they've won," she said softly, pressing her palm against the cool glass."Camille. Victoria.Alexander. My parents. Even Stefan. They're all celebrating right now, congratulating themselves on exposing me."

"Let them celebrate," Herod said, coming to stand beside her.Victory makes people careless. And we need them careless."

Rose turned to him, something new hardening in her expression. "Two months is a long time to wait for revenge."

"Not compared to ten years." Herod's voice carried the weight of his decade-long quest against Victoria."True revenge isn't about immediate satisfaction. It'sabout complete destruction. Taking everything from your enemy, not just their possessions, but their sense of security. Their trust in the world. Their belief in themselves."

His words resonated with something deep inside Rose, the part of her that had watched Camille from the shadows all these years, plotting, waiting, building toward the moment when she could take everything her sister had.

"We move to phase two," she said finally, herdecision made. "But I have conditions."

Herod raised an eyebrow. "Which are?"

"I want Camille to know it was me in the end. Not just suspect, but know with absolute certainty that l destroyed her again." Rose's voice strengthened. "And I want to be there when it happens. I want to see her face."

"Risky," Herod noted. "But possibly arrangeable."

"And my parents," Rose continued. "They don't just lose social standing. They lose everything. The house.Their money. Their reputations."

"Collateral damage is expected in war," Herod agreed smoothly.

Rose's mind cleared, her earlier rage transforming into cold determination. "And Stefan. I want him ruined most of all. He betrayed me after everything I did for him. Everything I sacrificed."

"Your priorities seem somewhat tangled," Herod observed. "I thought Camille was your main target."

"They all are," Rose said simply. "Different branches of the same tree. Cut them all down, burn the roots,salt the earth."

Herod studied her with new interest. "You continue to surprise me, Rose. MMost people underestimate the depths of your...commitment."

"Most people underestimate me entirely," she replied. "It's what makes them so easy to manipulate."

She looked around at the destroyed room, suddenly embarrassed by her earlier loss of control. "I apologize for the mess. I'll have it cleaned up."

"Don't bother." Herod dismissed her concern with a wave. "It's just things. Replaceable."

"Unlike reputations," Rose added, a thin smile forming. "Those, once truly broken, never quite recover."

Herod moved to his desk and pressed an intercom button. "Jackson, have the penthouse cleaned. And inform the security team downstairs that no press is to be allowed into the building under any circumstances."

He released the button and turned back to Rose. "Phase two requires preparation. We should begin immediately."

Rose nodded, the last embers of her rage cooling into resolve. The initial plan had failed, yes. But the war was far from over. Camille had survived the first attack, just as she had survived the parking garage.But this time,Rose wouldn't make the same mistake.

This time, she would destroy Camille so completely that no amount of support from Victoria Kane or Alexander Pierce could save her.

"What do we do first?" she asked.

Herod smiled, pleased by her renewed focus. "First, we disappear. Let the world think you've been defeated.Let them lower their guard."

"And then?"

"Then we strip away everything Camille values.... piece by piece. Her new identity. Her position at Kane Industries. Her relationship with Alexander. Her precious Phoenix Grid." His voice hardened. "By the time we're finished, she'll wish she had died in that parking garage."

Rose moved to the bar and poured herself a proper drink, leaving behind the half-empty wine bottle of her earlier frenzy. The smooth burn of whiskey steadied her as she raised her glass.

"To phase two," she said quietly. "And to complete destruction."

Herod clinked his glass against hers. "To patience. And to perfect timing."

Rose sipped her whiskey, letting the warmth spread through her chest. The day's humiliation still stung, but Herod was right. Emotion was a liability in a game like this. Cool heads prevailed. Patient predators caught their prey.

And Rose Lewis was nothing if not patient when it came to destroying her sister.