She Married A Nobody, And Nobody Dared Touch Her Again

Chapter 008

Meanwhile, the Arthur Caldwell residence had never felt like a home.

Too big for the few who lived there, too cold to be called comfortable, and tonight, too quiet for a room holding more than a dozen people at once.

They sat and stood around the spacious main hall, not a trace of warmth on any of their faces. More than a dozen people from the other branches of the Caldwell family, all gathered for the same purpose, a purpose that had long since stopped needing to be said out loud.

The only sound came from the chandelier above their heads, a faint hum that felt far too loud in the middle of that silence.

Arthur was the one who broke it.

"Those ten hitmen..." His voice was low, measured, but something was boiling underneath it. "Ten hitmen I paid a fortune for, that I trusted to finish one simple job. And what did we get?" He looked around the room, one face at a time. "Caden's dead, sure, but Sera's still breathing. Which means all that money went straight down the drain."

Megan stood across the table, her hands balled into fists on the wooden surface.

"We spent forty-two days putting this plan together." Her voice was sharper, more controlled, but she couldn't completely hide her frustration. "Forty-two days. We confirmed the location, the camera blind spots, the patrol schedules, the route she takes every night. Everything was calculated down to the last minute. And even with all that, they still failed. Are they really the great hitmen everyone's been whispering about?! We were willing to hand over six percent of the Caldwell fortune just to get access to them, and for what?! They're useless!"

Silence.

Gerard, Megan's husband, shifted in his seat. Of everyone in the room, he was always the coldest, the one who never wasted energy on anger.

"Crying over the failure won't change anything." His voice was flat, like he was reading a report. "The mission failed, and we can't turn back time. What we need to talk about now is the next step, not who to blame."

A few people shifted uncomfortably. Not because they were offended, but because Gerard was right, and right in a way nobody enjoyed.

Layla, who had been standing in the corner with her arms crossed the whole time, finally spoke.

"The next step can't start until we deal with one major problem." Her gaze drifted to Daniel, still slumped in a chair by the wall, head tilted back, not fully recovered from the light hit that had knocked him out earlier. Then her eyes returned to the room. "That man. The one standing next to Sera tonight."

No one responded right away.

"He's strong," Layla went on, her voice quieter now, more careful. "Way too strong for someone who looks like that. One hit, and Daniel was out cold." Her eyes swept the room. "If he stays by Sera's side, he's going to be a problem."

A longer silence this time.

Lara was the one who broke it, her voice lighter than it should have been for a topic like this.

"Should we ask them for help again?"

The word "them" dropped into the room like a stone into water. The ripples made no sound, but everyone felt them. Every head turned to Lara, then shifted in the same direction.

Arthur.

"No," Arthur said firmly. "We don't rely on them any more than we have to. They're not allies, they're creditors. Every favor we ask for comes with a price we'll have to pay later. And when Sera's finally dead and the Caldwell fortune lands in our hands, I don't want to find out we have to hand half of it over to them as compensation for their contribution."

The room nodded, one by one, silent but in sync.

Because that was the whole point. The Caldwell fortune was the goal. The less they had to split it, the better. And relying on outsiders meant opening a door that would be very hard to close again.

"Then we've only got one option." Angela stepped forward, her voice measured and direct. "And didn't we already prepare this plan from the start, as a backup in case the hit on Sera failed?"

A few people exchanged glances.

Lara was the one who said the name.

"Tristan Kane."

The name rolled off her lips easily, like a card she'd been holding for a long time, just waiting to be laid on the table.

Angela continued, her tone unchanged.

"Sera's ex-boyfriend from high school. The Kane family carries a lot of weight in Brighton, and more importantly, Tristan has already said he's willing to work with us to kill Sera and take the Caldwell fortune."

Arthur nodded. His eyes moved to Daniel once more, to his son's still-pale face in that chair, and his jaw tightened.

"Call Tristan first thing tomorrow morning. Have him come to the Caldwell estate to propose to Sera. Not as some ordinary guest. He needs to come fully prepared, like someone who's been planning this proposal for a long time. Make it look sincere, well thought out, not last-minute." He paused. "And send one of our people to keep an eye on the proposal from the inside. I want a firsthand report, not secondhand gossip."

A few people took notes. A few nodded.

Then Arthur shifted his gaze to Daniel once more.

His hand clenched into a fist.

Slowly, but visibly.

"And one last thing." His voice dropped an octave, into something that felt more dangerous than shouting. "Tell Tristan to bring enough bodyguards. I don't want that bastard causing a mess." His eyes didn't leave his son's face. "He'll be there. And I don't want a single one of us coming home looking like my son."

The room was silent for a few seconds.

Then, one by one, the heads in the room nodded.

Plan B was ready to roll.