Billionaire's Betrayal a contracted revenge (Aurelia) novel Chapter 121

Chapter 121

Chapter 121

Aurelia’s POV

“Sit down, Aurelia.”

Something in Rieck’s voice made me pause in the doorway because he never asked me to sit.

Not like this, not with that weird look on his face.

“What’s this about?”

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“You have been doing too much lately.” He gestured to the chair across from his desk. “The hiring, the scheduling, the reports. All of it, on top of everything else.”

“I can handle it.”

“I know you can.” He leaned back, studying me. “That’s not the point. You deserve a break. A real one.”

“Since when do you worry about my workload?”

“Since always.” He rubbed a hand over his jaw, something tired in the gesture. “You wake up early. You work late. I don’t think you have taken a single full day for yourself since the hiring started.”

“That’s just how work is, Rieck.”

“Not anymore. Not for you.” He studied me for a moment, something unreadable in his expression. “You have earned some rest, Aurelia. Let me give you that much.”

I crossed my arms, still unconvinced. “This feels very sudden, Rieck.”

“It has been building for a while now. I’m only just now saying it out loud.”

“I don’t need a break, Rieck. I need to keep working.”

“Aurelia.”

“This isn’t about me being overwhelmed, is it?” My voice grew louder slightly. “Is this about Selene? Are you trying to remove me quietly so she has less to complain about?”

“This has nothing to do with Selene.” His answer came quickly, though his face gave nothing else away.

“Then what is it about?”

“You” He met my eyes directly. “Only you.”

“Rieck, 1

Im not questioning your ability,” he interrupted. I’m asking you to rest. For your sake, not the company’s.”

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Chapter 121

“For how long?”

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“A few weeks. Maybe less.” He reached across the desk, his hand covering mine. “I need you rested more than I need you exhausted at your desk every night. Please.”

“And what happens to my work while I am gone?”

“Selene can cover that side for now. The rest can wait, or go through you at home if it is urgent enough.”

Something about that answer felt wrong, though I couldn’t tell exactly why at the time.

“Fine.” The word came out smaller than I intended. “A break. Temporarily.”

“Thank you.”

The apartment felt too big that afternoon, every room echoing with nothing to fill it.

I had spent so many weeks filling my days with work, that the sudden empty hours felt almost unbearable.

I made tea that I didn’t drink. I flipped through a magazine without reading a single page. I tried calling an old friend from the orphanage, someone I hadn’t spoken to in months, but the call went straight to voicemail.

By mid afternoon I gave up pretending to relax and wandered into Rieck’s study instead, needing something to occupy my hands if not my mind, and started tidying the papers scattered across his desk.

Just then a folder caught my eye. It was tucked under a stack of contracts, unlabeled and out of place among the neat organization of everything else.

I shouldn’t have opened it. I told myself that even as my fingers pulled it free.

Inside were photographs. Reports. Pages of notes in a handwriting I didn’t recognize.

My own face stared back at me from one of the photographs, taken from afar, one I didn’t remember posing

for.

I immediately started flipping through the pages, reading words that made less sense the more I read them.

‘Subject shows unusual healing rate. Heart placement abnormal. Bloodline markers consistent with extinct

strain.

I sat down slowly on the edge of his desk, the folder heavy in my lap.

This was an investigation. About me. Dates going back weeks, notes on my ankle healing faster than expected, notes on the gunshot wound from months ago, even a mention of the strange green flash in my eyes I had barely noticed myself.

My own husband had been investigating me in secret. All this time, while I trusted him completely.

But why?

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Did he think I was dangerous? Did he think I was lying to him about something? Or was this just another version of the same distrust that ran through everything in this family, Hebvron included?

I thought back to every version of Rieck I had known since our first meeting. Cold at first, guarded, slowly turning into something I had let myself trust completely.

Had all of it been real, or had some part of him always been watching me the way this file watched me, cataloguing and measuring instead of just loving.

I thought of the strange questions he had asked lately.

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