Billionaire's Betrayal a contracted revenge (Aurelia) novel Chapter 91

Chapter 91

Chapter 91

Aurelia’s POV

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I stood frozen in the living room, staring at the banner still scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

‘RIECK VALERIUS STEPS DOWN AS CEO, NEW LEADERSHIP ANNOUNCED

My eyes read it three times before I actually understood the words.

“Rieck,” I said again. “What is going on?”

“It’s nothing,” he mumbled, walking past me to shut the television off himself, like the picture had offended him personally.

“Nothing? Your name is on the news, Rieck. It says you stepped down.”

“The board pressured me. Dawson’s construction stock has been climbing. And mine took a hit. The board wanted a cleaner face at the top for a while.” He said it flatly, like a report he had memorized on the drive home. “It is only temporary.”

I saw his jaw, the way it tightened at the edges when he lied, a small thing I had learned to read the way other people read weather. “Temporary?” I repeated.

“Yes.”

“Then why won’t you look at me when you say it?”

His eyes flicked to mine, held there a beat too long, then moved away again towards the window. “I’m looking at you.”

I didn’t believe him. Not one word. But I also knew that no amount of pushing tonight would crack him.

“Why now?” I asked instead. “Why you, of all people?”

“Aurelia.” My name came out low, almost a warning. “I told you. It’s handled.”

“That is not an answer either.”

“I would rather spend the evening with my wife than argue about a company,” he said, and something in his voice tried so hard to sound easy that it only made the strain under it louder.

“You can’t just say that and expect me to drop it.”

“I can try.”

“Rieck.” I stepped closer, close enough to see the faint shadows under his eyes, the kind that came from nights spent staring at ceilings instead of sleeping. “You built that company. I have heard you talk about it. Every brick, every contract, every late night. You don’t just walk away from something like that because a board asked nicely.”

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16:22 Mon, Aug 3

Chapter 91

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They didn’t ask nicely.” A muscle in his jaw ticked once. “They voted. It wasn’t my decision to make.”

Then whose was it?”

He didn’t answer that one. But then his phone buzzed on the table between us, once, twice, and he didn’t even glance at it.

“Aren’t you going to answer that?”

“No.”

It buzzed again. And again.

Whoever was calling him didn’t plan on stopping soon, but Rieck stood there with his arms crossed and his eyes fixed somewhere past my shoulder, ignoring it.

He is hiding something bigger than a job title.

Rieck left the next morning before I woke up, gone by the time I came out to the kitchen.

No note. No message on my phone. Just an empty chair at the counter where he usually sat with his coffee.

The maid set a plate of eggs in front of me, still warm, steam curling off the toast beside it. “You should eat, Mrs. Valerius.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You barely touched dinner last night either.” She lingered a moment, wiping her hands on her apron, worry pulling at the corners of her eyes. “Is everything alright?”

“I have nowhere to be,” I said, which wasn’t really an answer, but she nodded like she understood anyway and left the plate there in case I changed my mind.

I sat with my hands wrapped around a cup of tea that had long gone cold, turning the same thought over and

over.

Rieck was no longer in charge of his own company. A man like him, who built Rooffe Construction out of nothing, who never once mentioned handing it to anyone, had just stepped aside overnight and expected me to believe it was nothing.

Something was going on. Something bigger than stock prices and board meetings.

I thought of Hebvron’s cold, patient eyes, of the way he always seemed to know things before anyone told him, and a small, sharp suspicion started to take root in my chest.

Without thinking, I stood up, pushed the eggs away untouched, and reached for my coat.

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16:22 Mon, Aug 3

Chapter 91

Rieck’s office was on the fortieth floor of Rooffe Tower.

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I had been here before, sometimes on his arm, sometimes as decoration rather than a person with a reason of her own.

But today I walked in alone, and the receptionist barely looked up before waving me through, like my face was already known and already tired of being questioned.

The elevator ride up felt longer than it should have. I saw the floor numbers climb, my reflection pale in the polished doors, and tried to imagine what I would say when I finally reached him.

I had none of it planned by the time the doors opened.

The door to his office was open. I expected an empty room. maybe a box of his things half packed on the desk, some quiet proof that a man had been forced out of the life he built.

I didn’t expect to find Hebvron sitting in Rieck’s chair.

He looked entirely at home there, one hand resting on the silver head of his cane, the leather creaking soft under him as he leaned back.

“Aurelia.” He said my name like he had been expecting me all morning. “Come in.”

“What is going on?” I asked, stepping inside. “Why are you sitting in his chair?”

“Fixing a broken company.” he said simply, as if that explained everything.

“So you got him fired?”

“I would call it a necessary decision.”

“Necessary for who?”

He studied me for a long moment, the way he always did. like he was weighing exactly how much truth I could carry before it broke something in me. The company had grown weak under him. Distracted. A man can’t run an empire and guard a wife at the same time, not when both need his full attention. I just made sure the empire didn’t suffer for his distraction.”

“His distraction?” I repeated. “You mean me?”

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