Page 100 of Fallen Heir

And then Savannah moved.

I barely caught it from the corner of my eye—a shift, a pull of her body against the crushed frame as she dragged herself out of the wreckage. Blood streaked down the side of her face, but she was moving. Fighting. Refusing to give in.

She collapsed onto the dirt but didn’t stop. Even broken, she still stood.

My chest cracked open at the sight of her.

“Savannah, leave,” I said, my voice low but sharp. Commanding. It wasn’t a plea—it was instinct. I needed her safe. I needed her away from what was coming.

But she didn’t move.

Instead, she whispered his name, her voice raw and barely audible. “Bruce.”

He shifted slightly, his eyes never leaving me, but a crooked smile curled across his lips.

“You should know…” he said, voice slick, “she doesn’t like to obey.”

The words were aimed directly at me.

My jaw locked. Every fiber of my body was braced, calculating, waiting for the opening.

But Savannah was buying us time, and I saw it. She was thinking. Planning. Even now.

That’s when she played her hand.

That’s when her voice broke the silence again—barely more than a breath, but strong enough to cut through the smoke.

“If you kill him… and me… you’ll never get the money.”

I froze.

The words were meant for him. But they were also meant for me. Her eyes flicked to me for a fraction of a second—I didn’t have to see them, I felt them. Just long enough for me to read the truth behind her words. She was bluffing.

Creating an illusion.

Building a pretend world Bruce could believe in.

And I knew exactly what she wanted me to do.

Bruce’s expression shifted as she kept speaking, feeding him lie after lie with flawless control, even as her legs barely held her upright.

“I already moved it,” she whispered. “I put everything into another trust.”

I felt the hook sink into Bruce. His breathing quickened, his grip on the gun tightening. He was desperate enough to believe anything if it meant salvaging the empire he was about to lose.

That was my cue.

I stepped in without hesitation, my voice steady, cold, slipping seamlessly into her world.

“She’s not lying,” I said, locking eyes with him. “My foundation received an anonymous donation.”

Bruce flinched, his mind spinning as he tried to calculate whether it was possible. Whether this nightmare could actually be true.

“It was in the billions,” I added. A mere whisper.

The silence that followed was electric—thick enough to choke on.

I could see the fury tearing through him as his eyes darted between us, trying to decide if this was real or not. But greed made men stupid. And Bruce was no exception.