One Night With A Mysterious Billionaire (The Heiress's Revenge)-Chapter 86: Lucas plan.

Lucas dropped the phone the moment the line cut off, the faint echo of the disconnected call lingering in the silent room like a warning.

"Are you going to pay him the remaining money?" Gerald asked, his voice calm but probing. He had heard every word Mr. Smith said, thanks to the phone being on loudspeaker, and there was no mistaking the implication behind the question.

"No, I don’t plan to," Lucas replied nonchalantly.

He walked toward the drink cabinet with an ease that contrasted sharply with the tension in the room. Opening it, he retrieved a bottle, poured himself a drink, and downed it in one gulp as if it were water. Gerald watched him quietly, his sharp eyes studying his son, waiting, patient, calculating.

"Why the change of plan?" his father finally asked.

Lucas paused for a brief moment, his back still turned, before pouring himself another glass. "I don’t want Cynthia involved anymore," he said, his tone firm but controlled. "She is losing control, and I don’t want you threatening her either. Let me handle it."

Gerald’s brows furrowed slightly. "Why do you care all of a sudden?"

Lucas let out a slow sigh before turning to face him. He took another sip, then another, as though gathering his thoughts, or perhaps steadying something deeper.

"I have always cared," he admitted, his voice quieter now but no less intense. "But I didn’t say anything when you forced her into this because I thought she loved me too much to leave me." He paused, his jaw tightening. "But now... I’m not so sure anymore."

He walked over and sat down, leaning forward slightly, the glass still in his hand.

"I don’t want to keep using her," he continued.

"She belongs to me, and no one else. I will handle it myself."

Gerald studied him for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Alright. So what is your plan?" he asked, his curiosity now piqued. "Let’s hear it. I look away for a few days, and you come up with something bold enough to kidnap Lena."

Lucas chuckled lightly, a sound that carried no real humor. "Relax. This plan is foolproof. It is not going to fail."

He leaned back, crossing one leg over the other, completely at ease.

"It has always been my backup plan," he began. "I started planning it from the moment Cynthia kidnapped Lena. I know everything about her, mean everything. At first, I wasn’t going to go through with it when I found out their relationship was just a contract. I thought they would go their separate ways eventually."

He paused briefly, his eyes gleaming with something darker.

"But I changed my mind when I realized that Raymond actually loves her... deeply. She might even be the second person he loves most after his mother."

Gerald stared at him, disbelief evident on his face.

"So you decided to kidnap the same person he loves so much, even when you know how impulsive he is?"

Lucas chuckled again, this time more openly. "It is precisely because of his impulsiveness that I kidnapped Lena."

He leaned forward, his voice dropping slightly, as though savoring every word.

"This is going to bring back his hidden trauma, the death of his mother. He will be so terrified of losing the second person he loves that he will lose control. He will act out of character. He will go crazy searching for her, and in his desperation, he will dive headfirst into danger."

A slow, sinister smile spread across his face.

"And that is where he will die... alongside the love of his life. Just like Romeo and Juliet."

Gerald felt a chill run down his spine as he looked at his son. For a brief moment, he questioned whether this was the same boy who once depended on him for everything, who always wanted him to fight his battles.

So he had been pretending all along... hiding behind weakness, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Gerald shook his head slightly, almost at his own foolishness.

"That is not how Romeo and Juliet died," he said after a moment.

Lucas tilted his head slightly. "Not the same reason?"

Gerald nodded.

"Hmm... then maybe it is another Shakespeare play," Lucas said dismissively. "I am probably mixing them up." He waved it off. "Whatever. Who cares anyway? My plan is flawless, you see, Father."

He clasped his hands together, his confidence unwavering.

Gerald exhaled slowly before asking the question that truly mattered. "Won’t it be traced back to you? You know your grandfather would not let whoever kills his golden grandson go unpunished."

There was a trace of bitterness in his voice when he said golden grandson. The resentment had always been there, deep-rooted and festering. His father had never seen him as worthy, never intended to pass the company to him. Instead, all his attention, all his pride, had shifted to Raymond.

From the moment that boy was born, it was as if Gerald had been completely replaced.

Lucas smiled calmly.

"Don’t worry, Father. Relax. That is where Mr. Smith comes in."

His smile widened, turning almost cruel.

"Magnus Smith is a greedy bastard, one who would gladly walk himself to death because of his greed. When I learned about Lena’s family situation, I decided to use it to my advantage."

He lifted a finger, as if lecturing.

"I subtly reached out to him. To him, it felt like he was the one initiating contact. He thought he was the one leaving messages for me, but in reality, I gave him the opportunity to do so."

Gerald’s eyes narrowed slightly as he listened.

"When the time was right, I pretended to respond," Lucas continued. "Then I struck a deal with him, offering money to carry out the plan. I made sure he was the one who hired the men, arranged the kidnapping, and even handled the transportation."

He raised a phone into view.

"The only thing I did was communicate with him, and I did that using a burner phone."

Gerald was visibly impressed, though he tried not

to show it too much.

"The money was transferred through offshore accounts," Lucas added smoothly. "Untraceable."

He leaned back again, completely relaxed.

"I also plan to break Lena psychologically by revealing her heritage, the little information I could gather. It is not everything, but it is enough."

Then his expression darkened further.

"And to make things even more... interesting, she is pregnant."

Gerald’s eyes widened slightly.

"Isn’t it marvelous?" Lucas continued, almost amused. "Having her followed turned out to be the right decision. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known."

His tone turned colder.

"She will lose the pregnancy. It is all part of a carefully orchestrated plan."

Gerald remained silent, listening.

"If Raymond survives the initial attack," Lucas went on, "he will never be the same. When he learns about the miscarriage, he will completely lose his mind. He will do everything in his power to find the culprit."

A slow, deliberate pause.

"And he will trace it back to Mr. Smith."

Lucas smirked.

"There will be no direct evidence, of course. But knowing Raymond, he will freeze whatever remains of the money I paid. That will flush Smith out."

Gerald nodded slightly, following along.

"With his funds frozen, Smith will come to Vegas looking for me, desperate for his balance, with no other way to contact me. And that is when he will fall right into Raymond’s hands."

Lucas’s smile turned sharp.

"He will accuse me, naturally. But there will be no proof. Nothing that ties me to it."

He leaned forward slightly.

"And that is assuming the first plan that involves killing Raymond, fails."

Silence filled the room for a moment.

"You should always have up to three plans," Lucas added calmly. "Just in case the first one fails."

Gerald swallowed hard. It truly felt like he was seeing his son for the first time.

"Alright," he said finally, his voice quieter now.

"Let’s do it your way."

Without another word, he turned and hurried out, as though he needed distance, from the plan, from the room... or from his own son.

******

In an abandoned warehouse, the air was thick with dust and silence.

Lena stirred.

A dull ache spread through her body as consciousness slowly returned. She tried to sit up, but something held her back. Her movements were restricted, heavy, unresponsive.

Still half-asleep, she struggled, trying to push whatever was restraining her, but she couldn’t move her arms and her legs.

Her eyes snapped fully open in panic.

That was when she saw it.

Ropes.

Her body was bound tightly, leaving her completely immobilized.

"No... no... no... not again," she muttered, her voice trembling as fear crept in, cold and suffocating.

Her breathing quickened as she tried to recall how she got there.

Fragments of memory flickered in her mind.

She had been sitting... waiting for her father.

Waiting.

But he never came.

Then she remembered feeling dizzy, suddenly, inexplicably dizzy. Her vision had blurred, her head spinning. She had decided to leave... to take a taxi.

And after she got in...

Everything went blank.

Her heart pounded violently against her chest.

The only question she couldn’t answer, no matter howhard she tried, was how she ended up here.

And more importantly...

Who was responsible for her kidnapping?