Bound To The Disabled Apocalyptic Tycoon

Jessie pressed the elevator button. The metal doors slid open with a soft chime. She grabbed her suitcase handle, ready to step inside.

"Wait!"

Harley's high heels clicked frantically against the marble floor. She ran forward and slapped her hand against the elevator door, stopping it from closing.

Harley was panting slightly, her cheeks flushed. She forced a sweet, pleading smile onto her face, though her eyes remained hyper-focused on Jessie's collar.

Jessie stared at Harley, her grip tightening on the luggage handle. Her muscles coiled—a physical reaction to the proximity of the woman who had caused her so much agony in her previous life.

"That necklace," Harley said, her voice trembling with a carefully practiced tenderness. "It's so unique. Since you're leaving the family and marrying into the Ramseys, shouldn't you leave a little piece of yourself behind? Give it to me, Jessie. Let me keep it as a sisterly memento to remember you by."

It was a pathetic excuse, and they both knew it. Internally, Harley’s heart was hammering against her ribs. The image of the geometric patterns from that ancient occult manuscript burned in her mind. She needed this talisman. If the text was correct, this relic held the key to absolute protection and limitless fortune. She couldn’t let this country rat walk out of here with it.

Jessie took a deliberate step back into the elevator. She covered her collar with her hand, her body language radiating defensive paranoia.

"No," Jessie said, her voice harsh and protective. "My adoptive mother in the Rust Belt gave this to me. It's the only thing I have left of her. It's not for sale."

Seeing Jessie guard it so fiercely only solidified Harley’s conviction. If this ignorant peasant valued it so highly, it had to be the genuine relic. Her envy flared, hot and consuming.

"I'll buy it from you," Harley offered, discarding her gentle facade as she changed tactics.

Jessie let out a dry, mocking laugh. "You? You're just a fake heiress living on a monthly allowance from my parents. You can't afford it."

The insult hit Harley like a physical blow. Her face stiffened, her sweet mask cracking. "One million dollars," she gritted out.

Jessie shook her head and reached for the 'Close Door' button.

"Five million!" Harley panicked, grabbing the edge of the elevator door with both hands.

Jessie's hand paused over the button. She let a flicker of hesitation show in her eyes—just enough vulnerability to make her look tempted by the money.

Harley caught that flicker. A wave of immense superiority washed over her. Typical country trash, Harley thought, a smug sneer forming in her mind. Uneducated, short-sighted, and easily bought.

Jessie took a slow, heavy breath, acting as if she were making a painful, gut-wrenching sacrifice. "Twenty million. Not a single penny less."

Twenty million was almost Harley’s entire liquid net worth. It would drain her personal savings bone-dry.

But as Harley looked at the geometric pattern on the pendant, she felt a thrill of wild, ecstatic triumph. What was twenty million dollars compared to a literal miracle? This stupid peasant was too ignorant to comprehend its true worth.

Harley pulled out her phone. "Fine. It's a deal."

They stood in the tense silence of the elevator threshold. Harley's thumbs flew across her screen, authorizing the massive, exhausting transfer.

A minute later, Jessie's phone vibrated. She checked the screen: $20,000,000.00 had cleared.

Jessie reached behind her neck. She didn't unclasp it gently. She yanked the necklace hard, deliberately snapping the thin silver chain.

She tossed the necklace at Harley like it was a piece of garbage.

Harley fumbled to catch it, her hands closing tightly around the metal. She clutched it to her chest, her face lighting up with a dizzying, manic joy. She believed she had just pulled off the ultimate heist, swindling her naive sister out of her birthright.

Jessie stepped fully into the elevator. She turned around, looking at Harley's triumphant, gloating face.

As the metal doors slowly began to slide shut, the corners of Jessie's mouth twitched upward into a dark, mocking sneer.

The doors clicked shut.

Jessie looked at her reflection in the mirrored walls of the elevator. The spatial core's energy had already been completely absorbed into her wrist the moment she was reborn.

Harley had just drained her entire fortune to buy a useless, broken piece of scrap metal.

The elevator descended to the underground garage. Jessie pulled her suitcase out and walked toward the waiting yellow cab.

She opened the back door, slid onto the cracked leather seat, and looked at the driver. "Take me to the Ramsey estate in the Hamptons."