Billionaire's Betrayal a contracted revenge (Aurelia) novel Chapter 122

Chapter 122

Chapter 122

55 Vouchers

The envelope sat unopened on Dawson’s desk for exactly four minutes before curiosity won.

Inside was a name. An address. A stack of pictures clipped together with a single silver pin, the kind of file his investigator only produced when something serious had turned up.

His investigator’s report was short, but every single line hit hard.

‘Subject: Marcus Ealing. Relationship with Charlotte Reyes confirmed to predate her involvement with Dawson Valerius by approximately six years. Pictures attached show consistent contact over an extended period, including multiple visits within the last three months.

Dawson flipped through the pictures slowly, forcing himself to look at every single one instead of throwing the whole file across the room the way some part of him wanted to.

Charlotte, younger, laughing beside a man with sandy hair and an easy smile. Charlotte again, older, standing close to the same man outside what looked like an apartment building, her hand resting on his forearm in a gesture that was too casual to be new. The dates stamped in the corner told a story that made his jaw tighten with every image.

Six years and Charlotte had never once mentioned a name like Marcus Ealing. Not in passing conversation, not in any of the quiet moments where such things usually came up without effort.

Setting the file down, he stared out his office window for a long moment.

He needed to see this for himself. He had built an entire career on trusting numbers over feelings, evidence over instinct, and this file demanded exactly that discipline now.

A picture could lie about the story. But it couldn’t lie about how close they were. Or for how long.

The apartment sat on the third floor of an unremarkable building, the kind of place a man kept when he didn’t want to be found.

Dawson tried the door out of habit more than expectation, already rehearsing the excuse he would give if a neighbour happened to ask.

Surprisingly, it opened.

Inside, the apartment told its own quiet story. Pictures lined the walls and covered nearly everywhere, some faded with age, others newer.

High school pictures, curling slightly at the corners. Family gatherings, a birthday cake, a graduation gown, ordinary moments that belonged to a life Dawson had never once glimpsed.

And in nearly every frame, Charlotte, standing close enough to Marcus that no explanation could call it concidence

Dawson picked up one picture, studying it under the weak lamp light.

1/4

16:28 Mon, Aug 3

Chapter 122

:

53

B55 vouchers

Charlotte couldn’t have been older than nineteen, her arm wrapped easily around the man’s waist, her smile wide and unguarded in a way Dawson had rarely seen directed at him in the two years they had spent together.

He set it down and moved deeper into the small living room, cataloguing details the way he would review a contract for hidden clauses.

A more recent picture sat framed on the bookshelf, Charlotte’s hair styled the way she wore it now, the two of them standing outside a restaurant Dawson recognized from somewhere across town. Recent enough that the timeline turned his stomach, recent enough that whatever history existed between them had clearly not stayed in the past where it belonged.

Suddenly the front door creaked.

Dawson quickly stepped back and slipped into the narrow hallway leading towards the bedroom, pressing himself flat against the wall as footsteps entered the apartment.

Marcus, phone pressed to his ear, dropped his keys on a side table with a careless clatter, the sound echoing sharp through the small apartment.

“I told you already, I need the money by Friday.” There was a pause, his voice tightening with impatience. “Two hundred thousand. That’s not negotiable.”

Dawson’s heart skipped a beat, his hand curling into a fist against the cool wall behind him.

“You know exactly what happens if you don’t pay.” Marcus laughed, low and humourless, the kind of laugh that came from a man who had made this exact threat before and seen it work. “Your boyfriend will discover what a fool he is. All of it, laid out for him in detail. I don’t think Dawson Valerius handles humiliation particularly well. Men like him never do.”

The floor under Dawson’s feet felt suddenly unsteady.

This man knew his name. Knew exactly what leverage he held, and exactly how to use it.

He waited, breath held, until Marcus disappeared into another room, still talking, his voice fading behind a

closed door.

Dawson slipped out the way he came, down the stairwell, and into the cold evening air.

Charlotte greeted him at the door that evening with a loving hug, her lily perfume thick as always, her smile bright and entirely convincing, as though the last two hours had not happened at all.

“You are home early.” She kissed his cheek. “I made your favourite for dinner.”

“Good.” Dawson kept his voice even and unreadable, revealing nothing of the apartment, the pictures, the voice on the phone still echoing sharp in his ears.

They settled at the table, Charlotte chattering easily about her day, about the nursery colours she still hadn’t decided on, about a boutique that had finally restocked the crib she wanted, about nothing that mattered at

2/4

16:28 Mon, Aug 3

Chapter 122

all.

55 vouchers

Dawson stared at her across the candlelight, searching her face for any hint of the woman in those pictures, the one who had once wrapped her arm easily around a stranger’s waist with a smile she rarely gave him.

He wondered, not for the first time that evening, exactly how much of the woman sitting across from him was real, and how much had been constructed for his benefit alone.

“Dawson.” She reached across the table, her fingers closing over his. “I’ve been thinking. We should set a wedding date. I have waited long enough to become your wife properly.”

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify