Chapter 3: Things He Should Have Seen
1290 Words
Ethan didn’t leave calmly.
He walked out of Draxen Tower like a man who had just been challenged in a way he didn’t understand—and didn’t like.
Because Aurelia wasn’t supposed to look at him like that. Like he didn’t matter. Like she had already moved on to something bigger.
No.
That wasn’t how this worked.
---
By the time he got back to his office, the order had already been given.
“Everything on Aurelia Virelle,” Ethan said, tossing his coat aside. “Not what I already know. I want everything.”
His head of security frowned slightly. “Sir… we’ve run background checks before. There’s nothing unusual—”
“Then you didn’t look hard enough.”
Left with no choice,
“Yes, sir.”
---
Hours passed.
Ethan didn’t sit.
Didn’t touch the stack of pending documents on his desk.
He did not take any calls.
Because for the first time, something about Aurelia didn’t add up, and he hated not knowing.
A knock came.
“Sir.”
Ethan didn’t turn. “Say it.”
There was hesitation, and that was never a good sign.
“…we found something.”
Now he looked.
“Go on.”
His head of security stepped forward, placing a thin file on the desk.
“It’s… incomplete. Almost like it was intentionally buried.”
Ethan’s eyes darkened.
“By who?”
“We don’t know yet.”
That was worse.
Ethan opened the file. At first glance, it looked like nothing: old records, academic transcripts, and a few archived documents.
Then—
He saw it.
A name.
Not Aurelia Hale.
Not even Aurelia Virelle.
Aurelia V. Laurent.
Ethan’s brows pulled together.
“Laurent?”
“That’s not all, sir.”
Ethan flipped the page… and froze.
*Financial records. *
Not large.
Not recent but precise. Very strategic.
Investments made years ago—quietly, carefully, under different holding names.
Companies that had since grown and expanded
Companies that become… relevant. Very relevant, including one—now directly tied to a subsidiary under Draxen Group.
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“…No.”
Because that would mean—before him, before their marriage, and before everything, Aurelia had already been moving in a world he thought she didn’t belong in.
“That’s impossible,” he muttered.
But the evidence was there.
Undeniable.
And suddenly he realized that every quiet moment, every time she said nothing, and every time she stepped back, didn’t look like weakness anymore. It looked like a restraint.
Ethan shut the file slowly.
“Find out who ‘Laurent’ is connected to.”
A pause. Then quietly,
“Yes, sir.”
---
Aurelia didn’t look surprised when Lucien entered.
“You found it,” he said.
Not a question.
Aurelia closed the folder in front of her.
“He was always going to.”
Lucien studied her, something sharper in his gaze now.
“Most people would panic.”
Aurelia met his eyes.
“I’m not most people.”
No. She wasn’t anymore.
He had known that long before Ethan ever realized it.
Lucien moved closer, his presence filling the space without effort.
“You hid it well,” he said. “The name. The investments. The timing.”
Aurelia’s expression didn’t change.
“I had to.”
“For him?”
A beat.
“For myself.”
Lucien’s lips curved faintly. That answer told him more than anything else could have.
“You were building something,” he said. “Even then.”
Aurelia didn’t deny it.
“Quietly.”
“Why stay, then?”
That question lingered.
Longer than the others. Aurelia’s gaze shifted slightly—not away, but inward.
“Because I thought…” she began, then stopped.
Not a hesitation.
But a correction.
“I chose wrong.”
Lucien watched her carefully.
Because there it was, in her voice and expression, are not weakness nor regret.
Just acknowledgment.
And that made her far more dangerous than someone still clinging to the past.
---
He reached for a file on his desk and placed it in front of her.
Aurelia’s eyes dropped to it.
Then lifted.
“Is this the part where you tell me you don’t trust me?”
Lucien’s expression didn’t change.
“I don’t trust anyone.”
Fair Enough.
“Then what is this?” she asked.
“A reminder,” he said calmly, “that I knew who you were before you walked through my doors.”
Silence. Real this time. She knew that there was something very relevant inside that file.
Aurelia opened the file and for the first time since she stepped into this building—
Her composure shifted.
Because inside—
Were records.
Her.
Photos she didn’t know were taken. Reports she didn’t know existed. Timelines that mapped moments of her life with quiet precision.
It was not invasive, but every detail from this file is carefully recorded and compiled, but not enough to know who she really was. Only the parts of Aurellia Virelle as a strategist that even Ethan didn’t know about.
“You’ve been watching me,” she said.
Not accusing, but something she stated based on facts.
Lucien didn’t deny it.
“For a long time.”
Aurelia closed the file slowly.
“You must have known how f****d up my marriage is.”
“You mean how he cheated and told everyone he should have chosen someone else.”
“How did you—” she stopped after she realized it “…you’ve been watching me so close, did you? And you’ve been waiting for this moment to come”
“I can’t let a treasure go to waste.”
Aurelia realized he’s been eyeing her long before she even decides to stand with him. It has long been coming.
“Why?”
That question mattered more than any of the others.
Lucien stepped closer—close enough that the air between them shifted.
“Telling you sooner,” he said quietly, “would have changed your choices.”
Aurelia held his gaze. Intrigued. She was scanning through his face to get into his mind, but it was too impossible to discern what Lucien is thinking.
“My intention was clear. I am using you to go against Ethan.”
Aurelia said with certainty.
“So am I. I am using your expertise to help me reach the top.”
“But there’s probably something more than that for you to be watching me this whole time and have me investigated. “
“I just have to make sure you pick the right battleground”
Aurelia has been eyeing the Draxen group to go against the Hale group because they have been rivalling, but Draxen never gets past the Hale group.
“And now?”
A pause.
“Now you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.”
The words settled between them.
Aurelia exhaled softly, her fingers resting on the closed file.
“So what now?” she asked.
Lucien’s expression sharpened.
“Now?”
A faint, dangerous smile.
“We stop playing quietly.”
---
Ethan stood by the window, the file still open in his hand.
Aurelia V. Laurent.
A name he had never known.
A woman he had never truly understood.
And a truth that settled deeper with every passing second—
He hadn’t lost her because he had never really had her to begin with.
His grip tightened.
“Lucien…” he muttered under his breath.
Because if there was one thing Ethan understood— it was power.
And now Aurelia was standing beside a man who had more of it than anyone.
That wasn’t a coincidence.
That was war, and one thing he knew, they’re plotting to drag him down.
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD