Billionaire's Betrayal a contracted revenge (Aurelia) novel Chapter 93

Chapter 93

Chapter 93

Rieck’s POV

“My father,” I said, setting the phone down on the counter. “He needs me at the company.”

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When I finally turned from the window, I saw rage in Aurelia’s face before she even spoke a word.

“He needs you?” she repeated. “The same man who took your company from you is calling you back to it?”

“Apparently my insights are needed on some matters.”

“That isn’t fair, Rieck. He relieved you of your position. He humiliated you in front of the entire board, in front of the papers, in front of me. And now he thinks he can just call you back like nothing happened?”

“It’s fine,” I said, though the words tasted flat even to me.

“It is not fine. None of this is fine.” She crossed her arms, her chin up the way it did when she was too angry to cry. “He strips you of everything you built, and the moment it suits him, he snaps his fingers and expects you to come running.”

“I am not running anywhere. I am walking into a meeting.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I do.” I picked up my coat, avoiding her eyes for a moment, because the anger in her face was too close to my own for comfort. “But getting angry with me won’t change what he wants, and refusing to go will only give him a new reason to punish us both.”

She said nothing to that, but I saw the hurt cross her face before she buried it.

I softened, just a bit, the closest thing to an apology I ever let myself give. “This is how my father works. He pulls, and he pushes, and he never explains why. Getting angry about it will not change that.”

“It should.”

“It won’t.” I put on my coat from the chair, my jaw tight. “I will be back before dinner.”

She caught my sleeve before I reached the door. “Just be careful. Whatever he wants from you in there, it won’t be simple. It never is with him.”

“I know how to handle my father.”

She didn’t say anything else, but her eyes followed me all the way to the door, sharp and unconvinced, and some part of me carried that look with me the whole drive to Rooffe Tower.

The stares started the moment I stepped through the lobby doors.

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Chapter 93

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Employees who used to nod at me with something close to fear now quickly looked away, whispering the second my back was turned, like I was a ghost still wandering hallways that no longer belonged to me.

A security guard who had once opened doors for me without being asked hesitated a full second before doing it, like he wasn’t sure the gesture was owed anymore.

I kept my back straight and my face blank, the way I had learned to do long before any of them knew my

name.

Elara caught up to me near the elevators, her heels clicking fast against the marble floor.

“Mr. Valerius.” She fell into step beside me, her voice lower than usual, almost apologetic. “I am so sorry for what happened. I didn’t expect it. None of us did. Your father took the whole board by surprise.”

“I’m sure he did.”

“There was no warning. One day you were signing the eastern contracts, the next the announcement was already drafted. I only saw it after it went out.” She hesitated, glancing at me sideways. “If there is anything I

can do…”

“There isn’t.” The elevator doors opened, and I stepped inside without looking back at her. “I have things under control.”

She didn’t look like she believed that any more than Aurelia had.

And neither did I, if I was honest with myself, though I would sooner walk into a Ridgeline blizzard barehanded than admit that out loud.

The conference room smelled the same as it always had, cold coffee and old carpet and the faint taste of recycled air.

My father sat at the head of the table in the chair I had sat in for six years, one hand resting easy on the silver head of his cane, like he had been born into that seat rather than stolen it.

He didn’t stand when I entered. He didn’t even look up right away.

I took a seat halfway down the table instead, an ordinary member among the other board seats, and felt every set of eyes in the room track the movement like it was the most interesting thing that had happened to them all year.

Tommy, the senior board member who had spent months trying to pressure Dawson, stared at me with something close to satisfaction, like my fall was a lesson he had been waiting to see proven.

The meeting dragged on for the better part of an hour, numbers and projections and quiet murmured concerns about the eastern site that used to be mine to manage.

My father spoke like he had run this room for years, dropping bylaws and precedent into the conversation the way other men dropped names.

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Chapter 93

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I answered when asked. I offered my insight when it was requested, clipped and direct, the way I always had. and saw the room lean towards my answers even while my father sat in my chair.

That was the game, I realized. He wanted them to see that the company still needed me, even stripped of my title, so that every ounce of value I still carried would flow back to him instead.

It was clever, in the cruel, patient way everything my father did was clever, and I hated how well it worked, seeing men who used to fear me now glance at him for approval before they even acknowledged my answers.

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