Claimed By My CEO Stepdad

Chapter Nine

Aria Pov

The silence that followed our eyes meeting lasted only a second, but it felt much longer.

Victoria stood between us, smiling with complete, oblivious warmth, and the first question that left her mouth cut straight through the air.

“Did you two know each other?”

The words hung there, simple and dangerous.

“No,” I said.

“No,” Alexander answered at the same time.

Our voices overlapped, too quick, too identical in their refusal. Victoria laughed softly, as if the shared denial was nothing more than coincidence.

“Well, that settles it then. Aria, greet your stepdad properly.”

I forced my feet to carry me the rest of the way down the short steps. Every movement reminded me of the night before—the stretch of him inside me, the way my throat had taken him, the blank cheque I had filled with a number large enough to buy silence. Now the same man stood in my mother’s kitchen wearing a perfectly tailored shirt, looking as if he had never touched me at all.

“Good morning, sir,” I said.

The formal title tasted wrong on my tongue. His eyes flicked over my face, lingering for the briefest moment on the carefully covered bruise, then returned to a polite, distant calm.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

His voice was the same low, controlled tone he had used while telling me to open my mouth for him. Hearing it in this room, under these lights, with my mother watching, made something twist hard in my stomach.

“I’m fine,” I answered. “Thank you.”

Victoria clapped her hands together once, delighted. “Perfect. Now come and sit. Breakfast is ready. I want us to start this properly, as a family.”

We moved to the small dining table. Victoria had set out more food than the three of us could possibly eat—fresh bread, eggs, fruit, coffee in the good cups she usually kept for special occasions. Alexander held Victoria’s chair for her first, then waited until I sat before taking his own seat across from me. The position meant I had no choice but to look at him every time I lifted my eyes from my plate.

Conversation began the way ordinary morning conversation does. Victoria asked about his flight. He answered with measured details about delays and meetings, never once glancing at me while he spoke. I kept my hands steady around my coffee cup and focused on the food I could barely taste. The ache between my legs had settled into a low, constant reminder. Every shift in my chair made it quietly present.

Alexander turned his attention fully to my mother.

“You look lovely this morning,” he said.

The compliment was delivered in the same calm, polite voice he used for everything else, yet it landed strangely. Victoria’s cheeks warmed with genuine pleasure. She reached across the table and touched his hand briefly, a small, familiar gesture that made my throat tighten.

“Flatterer,” she said, smiling. “You’ve been gone too long. It’s good to have you home.”

“It’s good to be here,” he replied.

I watched the exchange in silence. The easy way he spoke to her, the way she looked at him with open affection, made the night in the hotel feel even more unreal. This was the man who had held my hair and watched me swallow him. This was the man who had handed me a blank cheque and walked out without looking back. Now he sat in my mother’s kitchen calling her lovely and accepting her touch as if none of it had happened.

Victoria kept the conversation moving. She asked about the company, about upcoming projects, about whether he planned to stay in the city for a while. Alexander answered each question with the same controlled ease. He never addressed me directly again. He never needed to. The weight of his presence across the table was enough.

I forced myself to eat small bites. The bread sat heavy in my stomach. The coffee tasted bitter. Every time Victoria laughed or reached for his hand, I felt the distance between the version of him she knew and the version who had been inside me only hours earlier.

After a stretch of talk about work schedules and travel, Victoria turned her full attention to me. Her eyes moved over my face with sudden focus, as if she had only just remembered I was part of the morning.

She looked at me carefully and said, “You will start work today as the CEO’s personal assistant.”