Billionaire's Betrayal a contracted revenge (Aurelia) novel Chapter 119

Chapter 119

Chapter 119

Aurelia’s POV

It started small.

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A marketing report that should have landed on my desk first went straight to Rieck instead. A budget proposal, the same.

Small things, easy to miss, until they stopped being small.

“Did you see the hiring numbers?” I asked Rieck one morning, walking into his office to compare notes like we always did.

“Selene already showed me.”

“She was supposed to send those to me first.”

“She said she was already in the building.” He shrugged, barely looking up from his screen. “It saved a step.”

“That isn’t the point, Rieck.”

“It is one report, Aurelia.” He finally looked up from his screen, some tiredness in his voice. “It’s not worth an argument. Not this early in the morning.”

I said nothing and just let it go.

“Selene brought this to me directly,” Rieck said another morning, sliding a folder across his desk while I stood in the doorway watching him. “Said it was urgent.”

“Everything goes through me first. That’s how we set it up.”

“She said you were busy.”

“I wasn’t busy.” I crossed the room, picking up the folder to check the date stamp. “This came in yesterday. I was at my desk the whole morning, waiting for exactly this.”

“Maybe she got confused.”

“Maybe.” I didn’t believe it, but I let the word sit there anyway, unwilling to start a fight over one folder.

By the end of the week, it had happened four more times.

Reports. Proposals. Approvals. Things that should have passed through me first kept finding their way straight to Rieck’s desk instead, always with some small excuse attached, always delivered with that same stupid smile that made complaining feel petty.

“You were in a meeting,” Selene said, the third time I asked her about it. “I didn’t want to bother you.”

“You could have waited an hour. I was right down the hallway.”

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Chapter 119

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“I didn’t think it mattered which desk it landed on first.” She shrugged, easy, unbothered. “We all work for the same company, Aurelia.”

“There is a system for a reason.”

“Noted.” She smiled, the same smile she always gave. Lovely on the surface and giving nothing away underneath.

At first I told myself it was just work. Selene was ambitious, eager to impress, cutting corners the way new employees sometimes did when they wanted to be noticed by the person who signed their paycheck.

But Rieck wasn’t just any boss.

He was my husband. And something about how often Selene found reasons to stand in his office, close enough that her voice dropped low, didn’t sit right in my chest no matter how many excuses I gave it.

I walked into his office one afternoon without knocking, the way I always did, a stack of contracts tucked under my arm, and stopped hard in the doorway.

Selene was standing close beside Rieck’s desk, one hand resting casually on his forearm, her head tilted towards whatever document lay open between them. It was the kind of closeness that had no real reason to exist between a boss and an employee discussing numbers.

Both of them turned at the sound of the door, my footsteps clearly louder than I intended.

Selene withdrew her hand slowly, unhurried, like nothing about the moment required explanation at all. “Aurelia. Perfect timing.”

Rieck straightened, something flickering across his face. “Aurelia, we were just going over the budget numbers.”

“I can see that.” My voice came out flat.

“I brought the signed contracts,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt, forcing a smile on my face that didn’t reach anywhere near my eyes. “I thought you might need them for the afternoon meeting.”

“Thank you.” Rieck’s eyes stayed on me, reading something in my expression that he didn’t comment on out loud.

“We were just finishing up.” Selene closed the folder on the desk, unhurried, no rush in her movements at all. “The budget for next quarter needed a second set of eyes.”

“I could have looked at it.”

“You were busy.” Selene smiled. “I really didn’t want to add to your list.”

“My list is exactly what it needs to be.” I kept my tone even, though my grip on the contracts tightened. “Including this.”

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Chapter 119

“Of course.” Selene’s smile didn’t falter. “Next time I will send it your way first.”

But we both knew she wouldn’t.

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“I should get back to my desk.” Selene gathered her folder, unbothered, brushing past me on her way out with that same annoying smile. “See you both later.”

The door closed behind her.

I set the contracts down on Rieck’s desk, my hands not quite steady, the air in the room thick enough to choke on.

“Aurelia.”

“What?”

“That was nothing.” He said it quietly, like he had rehearsed the line before I even walked in.

“I didn’t ask.”

“You didn’t have to. Your face already asked for you.”

“Then answer the question my face already asked.” I crossed my arms, holding his gaze steady. “Why does she always find a reason to be in here?”

“She is the head of marketing. This is her job.”

“Her job doesn’t require her hand resting on your arm, Rieck.”

His jaw tightened. “It was nothing.”

“You keep saying that word.” My voice cracked slightly despite my best effort to keep it level. “Nothing.”

“Aurelia…”

“I need to get back to work.” I turned before he could say anything else, before the tightness building behind my ribs found its way into my voice.

I caught Selene outside the building that evening, just as she reached the parking lot, her heels clicking sharp. against the pavement, the sky already darkening overhead.

“Selene.”

She turned, that smile already in place. “Aurelia. Heading home?”

“We need to talk.”

Something in my voice made her pause, her smile flattening just slightly. “Alright. What is this about?”

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