Chapter 6: The Ultimate Surprise

Sebastian’s POV

Something was wrong with my company FrosTech. I had felt it long before the reports ever confirmed it. 

It had been going on for years, causing instability in the company, making me struggle to keep the company afloat. 

And if I was going to be honest with myself, it all started shortly after the scandal with Ariana six years ago.

I felt it normal for us to go through tough times, considering our most productive strategist had left. But with the instability reoccurring for years, I was almost out of ideas and even options.

No matter how much I tried to manipulate, it was there in the numbers, and soon, investors started asking questions.

Even my executives began avoiding eye contact with me during meetings or explain a loop in the reports.

These were just tiny inconsistencies, easy to dismiss. But if there was one thing I knew, nothing inside FrosTech happened accidentally. 

Or even in the tech business.

“No,” I whispered inaudibly.

This wasn’t going to happen under my watch. Though it was happening under my watch.

I stood by the large windows of my office, looking across the city below. My reflection stared back at me and in a split second, I thought I looked older than my age.

I told myself it was just exhaustion and nothing more.

“Sir?”

I turned slightly as my head of security entered the office carrying another file.

Another problem, I thought.

“What is it now?” I asked with a furrowed brow.

The man placed the documents on my desk carefully.

“We traced some of the missing funds from the New York branch.”

“And?”

There was a short pause before he spoke up.

“They disappeared into the crypto market… decentralized and untraceable.”

My jaw tightened that very moment.

Crypto market. Again.

“That makes the third breach just this quarter,” I said with a cold sigh.

“Yes, sir.”

Silence settled across the office.

Three breaches. Millions of dollars disappearing all of a sudden without trace, and they happened too precisely to be just random. 

Someone inside the company was bleeding FrosTech dry… slowly and rather smartly.

They were really careful enough not to trigger any immediate collapse within the company, but deliberate to weaken us at the same time.

And I still didn’t know who it could be, let alone catch the thief. That was the part that was eating me alive.

Because whoever they were, one thing was certain, they understood the company really well. Who among my executives could be responsible for this? I questioned myself without an answer.

Another thing was that the timing was always right. As if they knew where and when to strike. Which meant one thing.

“This isn’t sabotage from the outside,” I muttered.

The head of security hesitated slightly. “You believe it’s internal, sir?”

“I know it is.” I replied, my gaze hardening with certainty.

The question was not if someone in the company was betraying me. It was who. And lately, my paranoia had increased greatly, turning into my closest companion.

“Double surveillance on every executive,” I ordered. “Discreetly. I want every communication monitored.”

The man nodded immediately. “As you wish, sir.”

“And Noah?”

“Yes, sir?”

“If anyone leaks this situation publicly before I find the source…”

I let the silence finish the threatening sentence for me.

The man swallowed hard. “Understood.”

The moment he left, I exhaled slowly, turning and pressing two of my fingers against the transparent, hard glass.

For the first time in years, FrosTech, arguably the most powerful tech-com company in the country felt vulnerable.

And I hated how it made us look. How powerless it made me feel.

***

The next morning, I had a summit to attend. Leaving Camilla still in bed without saying a word to her didn’t feel like it usually did.

Not ten minutes had passed when I arrived the summit did I find the most unexpected thing there.

The tech summit hall buzzed with conversations and camera flashes, filled with some of the most powerful names in the industry.

Investors, innovators, CEOs… everyone important was here tonight. Including me.

Normally, events like this were exhausting, just a parade of desperate startup companies trying to impress people as successful as me.

But tonight felt different, as the moment I stepped into the main conference hall, I noticed how people showed attention to a small group.

A little irritated that such attention wasn’t given to me… as it always did until recently... I looked at their presentation when they emerged on stage and was totally taken by surprise.

The projector read…

“SINTECH GLOBAL, THE FUTURE OF TELECOM… IN LOS ANGELES AND THE ENTIRE WORLD.”

My jaw tightened at the words.

SinTech again.

The company had become impossible to ignore these past months. Rapid growths, sudden expansions that required months of planning normally, strategic acquisitions executed with suspicious speed. 

Whoever was behind this new company knew exactly what they were doing. And I hated not knowing who it was.

“Mr. Frost.” Someone said beside me.

But I barely acknowledged the greeting, which I realized came from one of the investors trying to approach me.

My attention had already shifted toward the stage area where movement suddenly stirred among the new group.

Then I saw her.

I almost didn’t recognize her, and at first, I thought it was just resemblance. But as I watched from a distance speaking to people around her, I was sure it was her.

But how is it possible? My mind buzzed with questions I couldn’t answer, nor did I ever imagine would surface.

The woman may have dark brown wavy hair, a slimmer figure and a super calm composure, but there was no doubt in my heart… it was Ariana.

The realization unsettled me instantly as I strained to make sure it was really her. But every second my eyes remained on her proved it really was her.

My heart almost stopped in my chest. She was alive. And here. In Los Angeles.

For six years, she had vanished completely. No public appearances or any traceable means. Nothing.

I had assumed she had disappeared for good. It didn’t matter much to me anyway. But now it seemed it does, as she stood across the room like a ghost dragged out of my past.

Only… she didn’t look like the Ariana I knew. Not exactly. 

The dark brown hair softened her appearance a little, but everything else about her seemed upgraded.

There was confidence in the way she carried herself now… proud, effortless confidence.

Not fragile and uncertain like the woman I remembered as my wife. She looked and sounded nothing like the broken woman who walked out of the Frost mansion years ago at the thought.

Then came a voice from the stage microphone.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the host announced smoothly, “please welcome one of the fastest-growing innovators in global technology…”

Applause echoed loudly across the room.

“The CEO of SinTech Global, Mr. Kylan Sinclair…”

A dark-skinned man stepped onto the stage beside Ariana, immediately commanding attention with unsettling ease.

Kylan Sinclair.

Of course. I’d heard of him. I just didn’t realized he’d grown the audacity to walk into my city and start up something without approaching the likes of me.

Then the voice continued.

“…along with SinTech’s CFO and co-owner, Ms. Aria Forbes.”

The world around me dulled briefly.

Aria Forbes. Not Ariana Frost.

My jaw clenched slowly as applause filled the room again.

She stepped forward toward the microphone without hesitation, composed against the attention of hundreds of powerful people watching her.

And not once did she look shaken… even when she turned to me and our eyes met. If anything, she looked prepared.

Like she had expected this moment.

“Thank you all for being here tonight,” she began her speech smoothly.

Her voice, my God, it still sounded the same. And it pulled memories from places I had buried years ago.

Years ago, before the scandal, before the divorce, Ariana had stood beside me while we rebuilt FrosTech together.

Except now, she stood beside someone else. Repres

enting another company. And one which threatened rivalry with their sudden emergence in the city.