Se connecterAria stayed in her study long after Marcus ended the call.The alerts on her laptop kept flashing, one after another, but she no longer reacted to them the same way. Her focus had already shifted.What had once looked like chaos now started to resemble structure, patterns hidden inside noise.Slowly, she leaned forward and began organizing everything in her mind.The timing of the leak was too precise. It appeared exactly when Marcus began digging. The spread wasn’t random either. It moved too cleanly, too efficiently, like something guided rather than uncontrolled gossip.Her eyes narrowed slightly.This wasn’t exposure. It was direction.“They’re not exposing me,” she said quietly to herself. “They’re steering me.”She opened her secure system and pulled up a private folder. One by one, she began compiling Marcus’s findings with her own notes.Solen Vale’s movements. The accident timeline. Missing birth records. Deleted hospital files. Fragmented gaps that refused to align naturally
Later that evening, Aria sat alone in her study at home.The room was quiet, lit only by the soft glow of her desk lamp and the scattered city lights beyond the glass windows. From this height, everything below looked orderly, almost peaceful.A sharp contrast to the storm quietly building around her.Her phone rang.Marcus.She answered at once. “Hey. Any update? Did you find anything?”His voice came low and serious. “I found something.”Aria straightened in her chair. “What is it?”A pause followed, along with the faint sound of papers moving on his end.Then, “There’s a problem with your records.”Her brows tightened. “What kind of problem?”“I pulled the original hospital database from the month you and Alessia were supposedly born,” Marcus said carefully. “And your files don’t line up.”Her fingers closed around the phone. “Explain.”“The system lists you and Alessia as twins,” he continued. “That part is consistent across official records.”A beat.“But the timeline isn't.”Ari
The moment Solen stepped into her car, she shut the door harder than necessary. The sound echoed sharply inside the quiet vehicle.“Drive,” she said coldly.The driver started the engine, but Solen barely noticed.Her hands tightened around her phone, fingers trembling slightly.Aria’s words kept replaying in her mind like a broken record: Another car accident? You think I didn’t know?Her jaw clenched.At the office, she had barely kept her composure. Now alone in the backseat, the words hit harder.Aria knew too much.Solen stared out the tinted window as the city blurred past.How? Had someone talked? Had old records resurfaced? Was someone watching her? The questions kept coming, each one sharper than the last.Her phone vibrated. A message from an unknown number.Her stomach tightened before she even opened it: You were told not to provoke her.Her face drained of color. She hit call without thinking. One ring, then the line cut off.No answer.A minute later, another message cam
Morning light filled the Aurelia Nexus tower, cutting through the glass in sharp, clean lines. The office floor stayed quiet and controlled, the kind of place where nothing was supposed to go wrong.Inside Aria’s office, everything was in order, files neatly arranged, screens open with steady data streams. She stayed focused, expression unchanged as numbers and reports moved across her display.Then the door slammed open.Elvira, her assistant, rushed in right after it, breathless. “Ma’am, I’m sorry, she didn’t wait...”But it was already too late. Solen Vale was already inside.Aria didn’t react the way most people would. No shock. No anger. Just a slow lift of her eyes from the screen, as if she had expected it. Not surprise, just fatigue.A few days ago, Richard Vale had shown up, same tone, same warnings, same useless pressure. They still acted like they had a right to her time, as if she belonged to them.And now Solen.Not again, she thought. It wasn’t even midday yet, and she h
By midnight, the city had grown quiet, but inside a private lounge, nothing about the night felt settled.A waiter returned with a glass of iced water. Nolan took it without looking away from Alessia and set it in front of her.“Drink.”No response.Alessia stayed slumped against the leather sofa, one arm loose at her side, eyes closed. Her breathing was slow, uneven, less sleep than exhaustion. For a moment, Nolan thought she had drifted off completely.He leaned back, calm and unhurried. “If you’re going to sleep here, you might as well go home.”Still nothing.He reached for his phone, likely to call someone, but before he could unlock it, her hand reached out and caught his wrist.Her eyes stayed closed. “No need,” she murmured.Nolan glanced at her grip, then at her face.“I have my driver outside.”He gave a faint scoff. “Still your husband. He should be the one picking you up.”That landed. A humorless laugh slipped from her. “For now.”His expression shifted slightly.Alessia
The room fell silent after Augustus spoke. He sat across from Alessia, composed as ever, watching her with unsettling calm.“How long do you think your position as Adrian’s wife can remain stable,” he asked, “when the foundation it was built on no longer exists?”The question hung in the air.Alessia kept her face neutral, though her pulse quickened. “Adrian and I haven’t discussed anything yet.”Victor finally spoke. “So Adrian is still dealing with this alone.”His tone was calm, detached, as if stating a fact.Augustus leaned back. “Which is exactly what I expected.”Before anyone could continue, a knock sounded at the door.Felix entered at Augustus’s permission, composed but tense. “Sir.”“What is it?” Augustus asked.Felix stepped forward and handed him a tablet. “You should see this.”Augustus took it without a word. Victor leaned in slightly.Across from them, Alessia’s chest tightened.The headlines were already spreading, the same gossip Adrian and Aria had seen about the se







