Chapter 14
1167 Words
By the time Alex returned to the penthouse, the city was already drowning in darkness.
The meeting at Glanton Industries had ended hours ago, yet his mind was still trapped inside that conference room, replaying the same moment over and over again. No matter how many times he tried to focus on something else, he kept seeing her standing there with a tablet in her hands and that calm, unreadable expression on her face.
"It's been a long time."
He had imagined that reunion a thousand different ways over the years.
Sometimes she had been angry.
Sometimes she had been crying.
Sometimes she had thrown herself into his arms.
Never not even once had he imagined she would simply look at him, address him as "Mr. Carter," and move on as if he were nothing more than another business associate.
That hurt far more than he cared to admit.
The penthouse was silent except for the faint hum of the air conditioner. Alex loosened his tie and dropped into the chair behind his desk, staring at the file his assistant had placed there earlier that evening.
For several moments, he didn't touch it,he just simply looked at it.
A plain black folder.
And yet somehow it felt heavier than any business contract he had ever signed.
Finally, he opened it.
The first few pages contained basic information about Asia.Her Educational records,Employment history,Public achievements and Awards she had received during her years at Fletcher Group. He found himself reading every line carefully, almost greedily, trying to piece together the years he had missed.
She had done well for herself.
Better than well.
The woman he had seen today was respected.
A small smile almost tugged at the corner of his mouth.
That sounded like Asia he thought to himself.
Even when they were younger, she had never been the type to settle for mediocrity.
Just Before he fully processed his previous thoughts his eyes landed on a single line.
Asia Richmore Fletcher.
The smile disappeared.
For a long moment, he simply stared at the name.
“Fletcher”.
The realization settled slowly, like a stone sinking into deep water.
Somewhere during the years they had spent apart, Asia had fallen in love with someone else. She had built a life and married a man that wasn’t him.
The thought shouldn't have affected him.
After all, neither of them owed the other anything anymore.
Years had passed.
Yet knowing those facts and accepting them were two very different things.
Alex leaned back in his chair and rubbed a hand across his jaw, suddenly feeling far more exhausted than he had an hour ago. He wasn't angry,He had no right to be angry.
But there was an ache sitting quietly inside his chest that he couldn't seem to ignore.
He turned the page.
Almost immediately, something else caught his attention.
His brows furrowed.
Former Executive Director, the word stood out instantly.
It didn't make sense.
Everything he had observed during today's presentation suggested a woman at the height of her career. She had commanded the room effortlessly. Even some of Glanton Industries' senior board members had been visibly impressed by her.
Women like Asia didn't walk away from positions like that without a reason.
His eyes narrowed.
"What happened there?" he asked quietly.
His assistant, who had been waiting nearby, glanced up.
"Sir?"
"This position." Alex tapped the document. "Why is it listed as former?"
The assistant hesitated.
"We're still gathering information, but from what we've learned, Mrs. Fletcher resigned recently."
Alex frowned.
"Resigned voluntarily?"
The hesitation that followed was answer enough.
Interesting.
He closed the file for a moment and stared out the window overlooking the city below. Thousands of lights stretched across the skyline, but his attention remained fixed on the questions forming in his mind.
A successful executive suddenly resigns and shortly afterward, she appears at another company.
Something had happened.
And the only question was what.
When he opened the file again, another report slipped loose from between the pages.
His assistant immediately noticed.
"That section concerns the incident from months ago”.
Alex glanced down.
"What incident?"
The assistant looked surprised.
He had assumed Alex already knew.
"The shooting, sir."
Everything inside the room seemed to stop.Alex's eyes slowly lifted from the report.
"The what?"
The assistant shifted uneasily beneath the weight of his stare.
"Mrs. Fletcher was shot months ago. The incident received considerable attention within Fletcher Group, although the details were kept away from the media."
For a second, Alex genuinely thought he had misheard him.
Not with the woman he had seen standing confidently inside that conference room earlier.
His fingers tightened around the edge of the document.
"Explain."
The assistant immediately did trying to breakdown what he knew of this incident.
And with every detail, Alex felt something inside him grow colder.
The bullet had nearly reached her heart.
She had almost died.The realization hit harder than he expected.
Because for one horrifying moment, all he could think was that if today's meeting had happened a few inches differently...he never would have seen her again.
Never would have gotten the chance to ask the questions that had haunted him for years.
The thought left an unpleasant feeling in his stomach.
"What about the investigation?" he asked.
"It's ongoing."
"No suspects yet?”.
"None that have been publicly identified."
Alex fell silent,something about the entire situation bothered him.
One his assistant had been trying very carefully not to mention.
Alex noticed immediately.
"What else?"
The assistant hesitated.
"There's... one more thing."
Alex waited.
"It was widely discussed within Fletcher Group that Mr. Fletcher was absent during most of Mrs. Fletcher's hospitalization."
The room went quiet.
For several seconds, Alex said nothing.He simply stared at the report in front of him.
A woman is shot.
She nearly dies.
She spends days recovering in a hospital bed and her husband is nowhere to be found.
No matter how he looked at it, the picture didn't sit right.
Slowly, Alex closed the file.
His expression revealed nothing.
But when he finally spoke, his voice had changed.
"Find out everything."
The assistant straightened immediately.
"Sir?"
"Everything about the shooting and why she resigned”.
Alex's gaze settled on the closed file.
"And most importantly on Kelvin Fletcher."
This time there was no hesitation.
"Yes, sir."
After the assistant left, Alex remained seated for a very long time.
The city lights continued to glow beyond the glass windows But his thoughts were somewhere else entirely.
For years he had believed the hardest part would be finding Asia and now he was beginning to realize that finding her might have been the easiest part of all.
Because the woman he had reunited with today was carrying wounds he knew nothing about.
And for the first time since walking into that conference room, Alex found himself wondering not where Asia had been all these years but what had happened to her after he was gone.
- Writer
