How To Lose Your Billionaire Alpha Husband In 365 Days (Or Less)!-Chapter 84: Her Father’s Legacy...

JASMINE’S POV

We pulled into the old Heart building just as the sky began to bruise with dusk. The building looked like a piece of history, its stone and glass rising against the skyline, worn but still strong.

Most of its features were gone, and the sign above the entrance was missing, leaving only faint traces of the letters behind if you looked closely enough.

Sophia climbed out first, hands on her hips as she took it in. "Looks like Gotham real estate post-Batman villain."

"I prefer ’abandoned empire,’" I said, sliding the thumb drive into my pocket. "But sure."

The air around the building felt... heavier, like the silence here had its own teeth. We stepped through the side entrance I’d arranged to have unlocked, security bypassed, old ID still somehow valid.

As we walked through the old halls, our footsteps echoed, and dust floated in the dim light.

Sophia glanced around. "I’m assuming we’re not here to admire architecture?"

"No," I said. "We’re looking for a ghost... or a vault."

She blinked. "So something obvious but not easily identified?"

"More or less."

We arrived at the heart of the building, where there was a large atrium with a tall, curved ceiling and some old office plaques still hanging around. I played the last message my dad sent me once more, watching the video on low volume.

His voice echoed in my mind: "The first door... the one they thought we forgot. The old Heart still beats there. The final key is waiting."

"Final key," I murmured, scanning the open space.

Sophia wandered to the far wall. "Anything look like a door to you?"

"No. But something feels off." I tilted my head. The marble under our boots had a faint crescent engraving on the edge, barely visible unless you knew to look.

Lyra stirred. "That’s not decorative. That’s lunar."

My eyes shifted colour, almost like an X-ray vision, and something caught my attention.

I walked toward it, crouching low. "The lunar inheritance lies where the moon first touched stone," I said aloud.

Sophia glanced back at me. "I don’t think I understand what that line means."

"You wouldn’t. I remember Kaiden found a letter from my father that said only someone of Heart blood could access what’s buried here."

"A vault?" she asked.

I nodded. "Maybe. Maybe something else."

I pressed my palm against the crescent.

Nothing happened.

Sophia raised a brow. "Uh. Secret handprint scanner?"

I shook my head. "This isn’t tech. It’s ritual."

"The lunar inheritance lies where the moon first touched stone," I murmured again, trying to make sense of it.

Sophia tilted her head. "Poetic. But unless the moon’s carrying a crowbar, we’re going nowhere."

One part of my mind thought about Aiden, and I couldn’t help but ask myself if I should have asked him to come instead.

I reached out, pressing my palm against the crescent.

Nothing.

I gritted my teeth and pressed harder, still nothing. No hiss, no glow, no secret latch.

"This isn’t technology," Lyra whispered in my mind. "This is tradition. Sacrifice."

As I leaned in close, a sharp edge from the moon’s crescent sliced my finger.

I hissed and pulled back, watching as a bead of blood welled at the tip of my index finger and dripped, right into the hollow of the engraving.

The stone glowed faintly.

Then pulsed.

With a sound like a heartbeat locking into rhythm, the floor beneath us trembled. The wall with the crescent shape suddenly parted, with smooth stone sliding away to reveal a staircase leading down into darkness.

Sophia stared, wide-eyed. "You just bled a building open."

"Not a building," I said, already stepping forward. "I think... I think it’s a vault."

"... only someone of Heart blood could access what’s buried here," I repeated to myself.

"Okay, that’s spooky," Sophia whispered.

I turned to her. "Still want in?"

Sophia smirked. "If I die, I’m haunting your SUV."

We made our way down carefully, feeling the temperature drop with each step, almost as if we were travelling back in time.

At the bottom of the stairs, there was a door set into the stone wall. It was smooth and matte black, with no doorknob or handle. The only detail on it was a small silver plate that had the Heart crest and the word "VITA" engraved on it.

"Latin," I said, running my fingers across the plate. "It means ’life.’"

"You understand Latin?" Sophia asked, shocked. "Not ominous at all."

I stepped forward.

As soon as my palm touched the metal, the door slid open quietly.

The room beyond was nothing like I expected.

It wasn’t a vault, it wasn’t even a server room or archive... It was a shrine.

I find myself in a round room filled with glowing screens: holograms floating in the air. They show all sorts of things: old projects, videos of my dad in meetings, recordings of him talking, and even bits of my childhood caught on security cameras.

I see myself taking my first steps in the boardroom and, at ten years old, passionately debating trade numbers like it was a matter of life or death.

Sophia stood frozen beside me. "Your dad didn’t just leave you records. He left you himself."

I swallowed around the tightness in my throat. "He knew I’d come here eventually. He left this for me."

As I stepped farther inside, a pedestal rose in the centre of the room, holding a black cube.

I walked up to it, my heart racing. It didn’t look like any technology I knew. There was no screen or buttons, just a smooth, black surface that buzzed with an energy I couldn’t quite understand.

Lyra stirred. "That’s because it’s magic."

My hand hovered.

Then I pressed my palm to it.

The cube shimmered, then cracked open like a flower blooming. A sphere hovered above it, glowing blue-white with lunar symbols etched across its surface.

A projection clicked to life, and then my father’s voice, older and raspier than I remembered.

"If you’ve found this, then they’ve moved against you."

"You won’t have many allies left. But you’ll have this. The full records, every off-the-books project Heart Enterprises ever funded. Every lie we told the public. Every deal made in shadow. Every spell your mother has worked on, perfected and unfinished."

I stared, stunned.

"See this as your well of resources for anything you need. They will come for you, Jasmine. Not just Vale, not just the board. All of them. Because you carry the one thing they cannot erase."

His voice softened. "Legacy."

Sophia whispered, "Holy shit."

The projection faded, but the room remained lit, data still suspended around us like stars.

I turned to her slowly. "I need to call Aiden."

—

AIDEN’S POV

Kaiden’s boots echoed through the stone hall as he entered my office; he had a tablet in his hand, and I could feel the tension rolling off him in waves.

"She’s making moves," he said without preamble.

I didn’t need to look up from the desk or ask who he meant. "Elena?"

He nodded. "She’s been reaching out to some council members. Quiet talks, testing the waters. She’s trying to rally enough votes for a no-confidence motion."

I clenched my jaw, the bone ticking as Ace stirred violently beneath my skin. The thought of Elena was like acid in my bloodstream.

"She’s going after Jasmine," Kaiden continued. "Not openly, though. But the whispers? They’re calculated. She’s saying Jasmine is unstable, that she can’t control her wolf and therefore, dangerous."

"She’s not dangerous," I growled.

"She’s also calling her cursed," Kaiden added in a lower voice. "That part’s spreading fast. You know what that does to pack morale... what it suggests about the Luna bond."

Ace snarled within me, pacing like a storm behind glass. My hands curled into fists against the arms of the chair.

"Let her say one more word about my mate," I said through clenched teeth, "and I will remind the Council why I lead this pack."

Kaiden exhaled slowly. "You’ll have to move carefully. They’re watching you now more than ever."

I stood, suddenly feeling too restless to sit. My hands still burned with phantom energy, claws itching to unsheathe. "I don’t care who’s watching. If she thinks she can break Jasmine down with court whispers and bloodlines, she’s forgetting who the hell she’s dealing with."

Kaiden gave me a look, equal parts warning and respect. "You’re not wrong, Alpha. But if you storm into a Council chamber now, they’ll twist it to fit her narrative."

I turned away from him, pacing the length of the room, mind burning with every angle, every rumour Elena might have planted. "Then we give them something else to talk about. Jasmine doesn’t need to prove anything to them, but if she wants to step into that arena..."

The door opened before I could finish the sentence.

I recognised her scent before she entered the room. Jasmine walked in, looking serious. "You’re going to want to sit down for this," she said in a steady voice.