Billionaire's Betrayal a contracted revenge (Aurelia) novel Chapter 99

Chapter 99

Chapter 99

Aurelia’s POV

“I was just like you. So enjoy it while it lasts.”

སྙ

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Her words wouldn’t leave me alone, circling through my mind long after the strange woman at the hotel bar had vanished into the crowd.

I had gone to fetch our drinks, waiting near the counter while the bartender worked, when she appeared beside me out of nowhere, tall and striking, her dark eyes fixed on me with an intensity that made my skin prickle.

She wore her confidence like a second skin, the kind of woman who had clearly never once doubted her welcome in any room she walked into.

“You are his wife,” she had said, not a question.

“I am.” I had studied her, trying to place the familiarity in her face, some echo I couldn’t quite name, some resemblance to a memory I didn’t yet have. “Do I know you?”

“Selene.” She had smiled then, slow and knowing, the kind of smile that held more history than she was willing to share. “I was just like you. So enjoy it while it lasts.”

Before I could ask what she meant, she had turned and slipped into the crowd, gone before I could follow, leaving me standing there with two drinks in my hands.

I had spent the rest of that night replaying her words over and over, turning them for some hidden meaning I couldn’t quite understand.

Was it a warning? A threat? Simple bitterness from an old flame who had never gotten over him? Or something else entirely, something closer to a truth she wanted me to see coming before it arrived uninvited.

I hadn’t told Rieck. I still didn’t know how.

The next evening, over dinner at home, I finally worked up the nerve to ask the questions that had been bothering me since that night.

For a moment I nearly lost my nerve entirely, content to just watch him eat in comfortable silence. But Selene’s smile kept turning over behind my eyes, the shape of her mouth, the confidence in her voice, and I knew I wouldn’t sleep tonight without at least trying to understand what those words had meant.

I studied Rieck across the table, the candlelight flickering over the sharp line of his jaw, and wondered how many women before me had sat exactly where I was sitting, wondering the same things I wondered now.

“Tell me about the girls you dated,” I spat, keeping my voice light, casual, the way I had learned to phrase things when I wanted the truth without asking for it directly.

Rieck raised an eyebrow over his glass. “That is an odd question.”

1.4

16:24 Mon, Aug 3

Chapter 99

“I’m your wife. I think I’m allowed to be curious.”

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He considered that for a moment, then shrugged, the closest thing to indulgent I ever saw from him. “There were a few, in high school. Nothing worth remembering.”

“Like Selene?”

His whole body went still.

He set his glass down slowly, his pale eyes sharpening on my face in a way that made my heart skip a beat. “How do you know that name?”

“I saw an old picture of you once. High school pictures.” The lie came smoother than I expected, though guilt curled tight in my stomach the moment it left my mouth. “Someone had written her name on the back.”

“Selene is forgotten history.”

“I hope so.” The words slipped out before I could stop them, sharper than I intended.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.” I looked down at my plate, but he was already leaning forward, studying me the way he studied a problem he intended to solve.

“Don’t tell me you are insecure.”

“Not at all.” I met his eyes then, steady, refusing to let him see the small nervous flutter still living under my ribs. “I am just trying to get to know my husband.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Who you dated. Maybe about Selene.”

He exhaled slowly, leaning back in his chair, his fingers tapping once against the end of his glass. “Our relationship lasted three months.”

“Why did it end?”

“Selene was full of herself. She came from a prominent family, old money, the kind that made her think the world owed her something.” Something flickered across his face, distaste more than heartbreak. “Most of all, she was a bitch.”

I raised an eyebrow. “And I’m not a bitch?”

He laughed, a sound I rarely got to hear, the tension in his shoulders finally easing. “No,” he said. “You are not.”

He stood from his chair and crossed to my side of the table, tilting my chin up with two fingers the way he always did when he wanted my full attention.

“Was that all this was about?” he whispered. “A ghost from years ago?”

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16:24 Mon, Aug 3

Chapter 99

AGE

E4

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“Maybe I wanted to know if I measured up.”

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