My Twin And Faincé Betrayed me...So I Married His Rival

Chapter 26

*Andrea's POV*

"It's nice to meet you, Alexander Steele."

My palm was still extended. Patient. Confident. I had learned a long time ago that the hand you stretch out first is the hand that controls the room.

He stared at me.

I was used to being stared at, so I let him. I kept the smile exactly where it was and waited while he did the calculation — the one wealthy people always do when they encounter someone new. Running the numbers. Reading the clothes, the posture, the quality of the watch, the way a person holds themselves when they are not trying to impress anyone because they have nothing to prove.

The rich always recognise the rich.

It takes about four seconds.

He reached out and shook my hand.

I smiled like I had just won something. Because I had.

"You were with them," he said. His voice had gone careful. It was measured this time. He tilted his head slightly, studying me the way a man studies something he can't quite categorise yet. "The group. You were standing with Elena and..."

"Let's talk about Elena," I said.

I started moving slowly, deliberately in a loose circle around him. Not aggressive. Just swirling calmly. Taking up space. Letting him feel that this was a conversation I had walked into knowing exactly where I wanted it to go.

He turned slightly to track me, his eyes narrowing carefully.

"It seems to me," I said pleasantly, clasping my hands behind my back, "that you are still very much in love with her."

There was silence from his end..

"The way you hurriedly crossed that waiting room just to see her." I tilted my head. "I saw the way you reached for her hand. The way you hit that man the moment he put himself between you and her." I stopped in front of him and looked at him directly. "That is not the behaviour of someone who has moved on, Alexander."

He looked at me for a long moment.

"Who are you?" he asked again.

"I told you. I'm Andrea."

"That is a name. Not an answer."

"You're right." I smiled. "It's not."

I started moving again, slow and unhurried, watching him watch me. He was still doing the calculation. Still running the numbers. But something else had appeared behind his eyes now ...curiosity. And underneath the curiosity, something raw and unguarded that he was working very hard to keep off his face.

He was still in love with her. That much was obvious. It was written in every tight line of his jaw, every coiled inch of the frustration he was trying to pass off as composure.

Men like Alexander Steele were not difficult to read once you knew what to look for. They just required patience.

"Here is what I know," I said, keeping my voice light and conversational. "Elena is with a man she did not choose out of love. That marriage is a transaction. A convenience. And yet..." I paused— "there you are, standing in a hospital corridor, unable to look at her without falling apart. While she walks around with another man's ring on her finger and your child in her belly."

Something moved across his face.

I kept going.

"You could just ..... let it happen. Watch from a distance while she builds a life with someone else. Raise your child with a man who is not you." I stopped walking and looked at him steadily. "Or you could do something about it."

He was very still now.

"I'm listening," he said quietly.

"I thought you might be."

He looked at me with a different kind of attention now , sharp and focused, the boardroom version of Alexander Steele showing up behind the heartbroken one. "How do you relate to Elena and me?" he asked. "Why do you care about any of this?"

I reached into my bag. Produced my contact card and held it out between two fingers.

"Contact me," I said. "We will meet somewhere more private and have a proper conversation."

He looked at the card.

Then he looked at me.

I could see him weighing it — the suspicion against the curiosity, the caution against the want. Alexander Steele had not built an empire by trusting strangers in hospital hallways.

But Alexander Steele had also just watched another man stand between him and the woman he loved.

And that, in my experience, overrides almost everything else.

He reached out and took the card.

Slowly. Reluctantly. But he took it.

"Good," I said simply.

I turned and walked away before he could ask anything else. My heels clicking and my chin up like I had just won the battle. Most importantly, my smile was still exactly where I had put it.

I turned the corner at the end of the corridor and the moment I was out of sight I stopped. Reached into my bag. Pulled out my phone and pulled up a number I knew by memory.

It rang twice.

"Yes?" The voice on the other end was brisk and professional. Used to being called for exactly this kind of thing.

I lowered my voice. Smooth and quiet and completely precise.

"I need you to run a full background check," I said. "Elena Thompson. Alexander Steele. And her twin sister." I paused. "Get me everything. Every damn thing about them. And I need it fast."

A pause on the other end.

"Understood. How soon?"

"As soon as you can," I said.

I hung up.

Dropped the phone back into my bag. Straightened my jacket. And smiled at the empty corridor in front of me.

The game had just gotten very interesting.

"Let's see what else you're hiding Elena Thompson".