The Billionaire's Mistake

MISTAKE 118

Chapter 118: Must keep up the lie

Hazel blinked, momentarily stunned. "My... sister? You mean Anya? But I've never even met her, and you know it is because she is not my..." "Shut it! If I say she is, then she is." Shaina replied, her attention focused on the safe's contents

"Someone has paid a lot of money for the to show.. same face as me,

but her daughter is married Into the Shaw family. If anyone can help us with a Mafia problem, it's them."

I can't believe she has the

Hazel's mind reeled with this new information. She'd always known there was no sister. Her

mother had made it up. Some paid her? Well, she did not care as long as they could use her.

"Are you sure they're that powerful? I mean, how do you know they can help?"

Shaina didn't answer immediately. She was staring into the safe, her face a mask of shock and disbelief. "No," she whispered. "No, no, no!"

"Mom? What's wrong?" Hazel asked, alarmed by her mother's sudden panic.

Shaina began tearing through the bedroom, yanking open drawers and upending boxes. "It's gone," she muttered, more to herself than to Hazel. "It can't be gone. Where is it?" Hazel watched in bewilderment as her usually composed mother descended into frantic searching. "What's gone? Mom, you're scaring me. What are you looking for?"

Shaina whirled to face her daughter, her eyes wide with fear and frustration. "The leverage," she said, her voice cracking. "I've lost our leverage."

"Leverage? What leverage?" Hazel asked, struggling to keep up with the rapid turn of events.

Shaina sank onto the bed; her energy

uddenly depleted. She looked up at Hazel, tears glistening in her eyes. "I abandoned Anya when she was a child," she confessed, the words

heavy with long-buried guilt. "I wasn't sure she'd be willing to help us, so II took something from her father's safe. Something to bargain with if she refused."

Hazel stared at her mother, shocked by this revelation. "You stole Mafia family?"

from Anya's father? From a

miserably. "It was insurance. A last resort. But now it's gone, and without it... She trailed

own problems suddenly seemed to pale in comparison to the web of secrets and danger

their side,

I sent you to Appletown to inspect the orchard. Why have you not gone yet?" The old woman screamed,

felt she would soon meet Anya as long as she could find

was just going

in the Rose Mansion,

he approached her. "I need to go on a trip to inspect a factory

118 Must keep up

eyes filled with

are you telling me this?" Anya asked, her tone

Anya's skepticism, understanding her reluctance to trust him after the

you'd like to come with me." Daniel

her heart fluttering with uncertainty. She couldn't shake the feeling that Daniel was up to something. "Are you going to bring the trip here? Is

"No."

she wondered what Daniel

He knew

filled with excitement. "Let's pack up. We'll be gone for

days."

her belongings and prepared for the trip ahead, Daniel couldn't help but feel Chepan 116

anticipation building

Anya out of the

journey to Appletown for the factory inspection, Anya couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement coursing through her veins. It was her first time traveling by helicopter, and she was in awe of

never seen a city from this angle, the towering buildings and bustling streets a stark contrast to the quiet solitude of the Shaw family estate

quickly gave

into our room first," he said, and

that she would have her own room, but

with disbelief.

nodded, a smile playing at the corners of

do to you?" Daniel asked, his voice casual as he led

can't he do to her?

she couldn't help but feel slightly uneasy.

he would really only book one