Taking the Bait
Elora kept her gaze fixed
on the brass key dangling from Tessa’s fingers. The living room was quiet, thick with an unspoken tension that only one
of them truly understood.
Tessa’s eyes flickered toward the polished hallway floors, shifting as raw greed overtook her features. She
looked at the floor-to-ceiling windows, the modern fixtures, and the spacious layout that sat right in the heart
of the city’s most coveted transit corridor. A wide, rehearsed smile spread across her face.
"Elora
, if you really want to get rid of this place, why not sell it to me?" Tessa took a step forward, smoothing her knit
top. "A prime three-bedroom unit like this is worth well over two million on any normal day. Handing a
goldmine like this to some stranger through an agency is just throwing money away. You know how the world works. Good things ought
to stay within our circle."
Caleb nodded in immediate support, stepping up to her side.
Tessa placed
a gentle hand on Caleb’s forearm, her tone dropping into that familiar, suffocating sweetness. "Caleb and I can scrape together
1.5 million in cash right now. We have known each other for years, so there is no reason to be petty
over numbers with your best friends. Besides, once the deed is in my name, you can still stay in the guest room
whenever you want. It works out for everyone."
Elora looked at her. A bitter, icy detachment settled
in her chest. In her previous life, she had swallowed that exact poison with pathetic gratitude, convinced that Tessa was looking out for her
shelter. Tessa had always excelled at disguising outright robbery as sisterly charity.
Elora tilted her head,
letting a flicker of hesitation show on her face. "That sounds like something worth considering."
Tessa’s smile
widened with smug confidence. She took Elora’s hesitation as surrender, just like every other time over the past five years. To
Tessa, Elora was a docile creature who lacked the spine to push back against family.
Right on cue, El
ora’s phone buzzed sharply in her hand.
She lifted the screen, feigning a look of mild surprise
. "Oh. That was fast."
Tessa leaned forward on her toes, her eyes narrowing with sudden vigilance. "What is
it? Who texted you?"
"The agency broker." Elora looked up from the screen, her voice laced with manufactured
reluctance. "I actually think what you said makes a lot of sense, Tessa. But the agent just found a cash buyer.
An investor who wants to close the transaction tomorrow morning. They offered 2.25 million outright."
Tessa’s
face tightened instantly. The color drained from her cheeks, replaced by frantic panic. "Elora, I asked you first! You
cannot just turn around and sell it to some random stranger behind my back!"
"I do not want to," Elora said
, letting out a soft sigh. "But that is a massive difference in price. Tessa, you understand how much money that is, right
? I have to look out for my own future too."
Elora unlocked the phone screen and brought the speaker toward
her mouth, pretending to hold down the button for a voice memo. "The price works for me. Draw up the contract
for tomorrow morning—"
Tessa lunged forward across the rug, grabbing Elora’s wrist with trembling fingers. "Stop! Wait
! Do not send that!"
Elora paused, her thumb hovering an inch above the glass. She met Tessa
’s desperate gaze with a calm, questioning stare. "Why?"
Tessa bit her lower lip so hard it
turned white. She looked back at Caleb, whose brow was furrowed in anxious confusion, then turned back to Elora. "Let us meet
in the middle. 1.7 million. Sign it over to me."
Elora shook her head slowly
, pulling her wrist out of Tessa’s grip with deliberate firmness. "A cash buyer offered 2.25 million, Tessa. I
cannot throw away more than half a million dollars just to be nice."
Tessa gritted her teeth, her chest
heaving as jealousy and fear of missing out warped her face. She pulled Caleb aside, whispering frantically into his ear.
Caleb grimaced, gesturing with his hands as they argued in hushed, panicked tones. They pulled out their phones, rapidly
checking banking applications, checking mutual fund balances, and making rapid calls to family members to secure emergency transfers.
After
five tense minutes of frantic murmurs and tapped screens, Tessa marched back over. Her voice was strained, vibrating with frantic
desperation. "1.9 million! That is every single cent Caleb and I can pull together between our accounts, credit lines,
and loans from our relatives! Take it or leave it!"
Elora tapped the screen to lock her device, the
sharp snap breaking the silence. "Deal. We go to the bank right now."
***
Outside the municipal deed and
banking center, the late afternoon sun cast long, orange shadows across the concrete plaza.
Caleb stood near the stone
fountain, rubbing his temples in visible agitation. "Tessa, are you sure we did not jump into this too fast? We literally
wiped out both our savings accounts. We borrowed money from my parents, your cousin, and drained three credit lines just to scrape
together that 1.9 million."
Tessa scoffed, adjusting the strap of her handbag with an irritated glare
. "Stop being so short-sighted. Do you have any idea what real estate in the city center goes for?
A three-bedroom apartment in that district never sells below two million. Elora is an idiot who has no idea what
her assets are worth. If we hold that deed for six months, we can flip it for an easy profit. Instead of letting some
corporate investor get rich off her stupidity, we took the bargain for ourselves. Use your head for once."
Caleb
fell silent. The logic silenced his doubts, replaced by the shallow thrill of an easy windfall.
Inside her mobile banking
interface, Elora watched the digits refresh. The newly transferred sum settled into her primary balance with a clean, confirmed status
. 1.9 million dollars.
A cold, razor-sharp satisfaction flooded her veins.
The sale price was
slightly lower than market value, but market value was about to become meaningless. In less than a month, the sky would tear
open, the climate would collapse, and high-rise concrete would turn into vertical graveyards. Paper deeds would be nothing more than kind
ling for fires. What mattered right now was pure liquidity.
By forcing Tessa and Caleb to drain every last drop of their
cash reserves, liquid savings, and borrowed family funds, she had effectively neutralized them. When the apocalypse arrived, they would
not have a single dollar left to buy food, water, medical supplies, or weapons. They had spent their entire safety
net on a cement tomb.
And she had no intention of letting them enjoy the ride down.
Tessa stepped out of
the office lobby, clutching the stamped deed folder against her ribs. Even though she had secured the downtown property at a steep discount, her
expression was pinched and sour. She clearly resented the fact that Elora had not yielded to her original 1.5 million demand
.
As the three of them started walking toward the subway plaza, Tessa adjusted her designer sunglasses and cast a sharp look at Elora. "
Now that the business is done, Elora, what was that stunt you pulled during lunch? Didn't I tell
you to be polite to Gus?"
Elora kept her stride steady, matching their pace. "He tried to force me into his car
and grabbed my waist in public. Why would I be polite to someone who sexually harasses me?"
Tessa covered her mouth in
exaggerated disbelief, her voice dripping with condescending pity. "Sexually harasses you? Are you sure you didn't misunderstand the
situation? Maybe you did something that gave him the wrong idea. Why else would a respectable man behave like that out of nowhere?"
E
lora looked straight ahead, a faint, cold smile gracing her lips. The sickening familiarity of the words washed over her. In her previous
life, Tessa had used that exact brand of toxic logic to defend Gus every time he crossed the line.
Back then
, Gus had cornered her, spread vulgar rumors that they were sleeping together, and relentlessly stalked her commute. When Elora had begged
Tessa for help, Tessa had simply dismissed her trauma with sickening justifications.
*If you put aside his bald head
and his gut, Gus is a catch,* Tessa had told her back then. *He is bald because he is intelligent
. He is heavy because he has a big heart. And if he tried to drag you to a hotel on the first date, that just
means he is pure and straightforward. Men who love with that much passion are rare these days. You should be grateful someone
wants you that badly.*
Now, Tessa let out an irritated sigh, shaking her head. "You always look for faults
in other people, Elora. Sometimes you need to look in the mirror and think about whether you did something wrong too
. I told you to treat him with respect, but you embarrassed him. My Aunt Dora called me this afternoon and screamed
at me for half an hour because of your childish attitude!"
Elora replied in an unbothered tone,
"Sounds like your aunt has quite a temper."
Tessa choked on her own frustration, thrown off by Elora’s
complete lack of guilt. She snapped her purse shut with a sharp click. "Whatever. Next time, try thinking about my feelings before you pull
another stunt like that."
Elora nodded smoothly. "Sure. I will remember that."
There would never
be a next time.
Tessa’s face softened slightly, satisfied that she had reclaimed moral superiority. "Good. Since
the apartment belongs to Caleb and me now, start packing your belongings tonight. I want the place empty by Sunday. I am
planning to hire a renovation crew to tear out the floors next week."
"Understood," Elora said.
They
parted ways at the corner of the crosswalk. Caleb gave a dismissive wave, turning toward the residential district with Tessa clinging
tightly to his arm.
Elora did not head home. Instead, she walked to the rental rack near the bus
stop, scanned a bicycle with her phone, and pedaled down a parallel service road. She knew Caleb’s habits
down to the minute. To avoid paying the transit bridge fee, Caleb always took the unpaved pedestrian shortcut through the old
industrial quarter behind the freight yards.
That narrow lane was a blind zone. Old brick walls, broken streetlights, and zero surveillance
cameras.
Elora dropped the bicycle behind a row of metal trash bins two streets ahead. She pulled up the hood
of her black jacket, keeping her face buried in the shadows. The sky had darkened into a deep, bruised navy, and
the temperature had begun to drop.
She slipped into the narrow alleyway, stepping quietly past rusted dumpsters and broken pallets until she
reached the corner where the brick wall jutted out. A single, dying halogen lamp flickered overhead, buzzing softly against the concrete walls
.
Elora leaned her back against the rough brickwork, her breathing slow, even, and silent. She
waited in the dark like a predator that had already memorized its prey's path.
A few minutes later, the
sound of footsteps and voices drifted down the lane.
"I still say we should celebrate tonight," Tessa’s voice carried through
the damp corridor, full of smug arrogance. "Housing prices in that sector are climbing every single month. Try finding another apartment near the hub
for 1.9 million. Only that fool would sell it for dirt cheap."
Caleb’s tone carried
a lingering thread of hesitation. "Still... wasn't it a bit rushed to buy the apartment today? You did not even give
me five minutes to think about it."
Tessa laughed loudly, her tone soaked in mockery. "Oh, come
on! Elora has always been an idiot. I say something, and she believes every word of it like a trained
dog. It is hilarious. This time, we scored the bargain of a life—"
Her voice cut off in a
sharp gasp.
A sudden gust of air stirred the trash bags beside them.
Caleb turned his head toward the gloom
, his brow furrowing. "Tessa? What is—"
A heavy, calculated strike smashed into the back of his neck
from behind.
Caleb’s eyes rolled upward into his head. The strength vanished from his knees instantly, and his
heavy frame dropped forward, collapsing onto the cracked pavement with a dull, sickening thud.
Tessa froze where she stood, her
eyes bulging with terror as the scream caught in her dry throat.
From the deep blackness of the alley, a dark, hooded figure
slowly emerged into the dim halogen light.