Contract Marriage With My Billionaire Boss (Venus and Aaron) novel Chapter 207

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VENUS

I found Aaron in the study with Connor. They were sitting across from each other, the desk between them littered with half-finished notes, coffee mugs, and the strained silence of two men who had already run out of words. The lamp on the table cast a pale, amber light across Aaron’s face; it made the dark circles under his eyes. seem deeper.

Sabine and Colton left, both had work emergencies. They were reluctant to leave but I told them that I’d be fine.

I tended to Sabine Jr and now she and the twins were asleep.

Connor looked up first when I entered. His expression softened a little, but only for a moment. “I’ll give you both a minute,” he said, standing. “I need to talk to Jane anyway.”

He nodded to Aaron before slipping past me and out the door, pulling it shut behind him. The sound of it closing seemed to echo far too long.

Aaron stayed seated, staring at his hands as though they might give him answers. I crossed the room slowly. My pulse was steady now, not calm but contained. I stopped a few feet from him.

“I trust you,” I said quietly.

His head lifted immediately. “Venus-”

“Let me finish.” My voice surprised even me; it was steady, clear. “I trust you,” I repeated, “but your silence hurt me. I needed you to fight for that trust, and you didn’t. I know you’d never do anything to hurt me on purpose, but when you couldn’t tell me what happened, it felt like I was standing on air.”

He stood then, closing the space between us until only the desk separated us. “I’m sorry,” he said, and the words tumbled out again and again. “I’m so sorry, Venus. I’ve said it a hundred times in my head, but it doesn’t sound like enough.”

“It isn’t,” I admitted, “but I know you mean it.”

For a moment, we just looked at each other: two people trying to make sense of a story neither of us remembered writing.

“We have to find out who did this,” I said. “Whoever it was, they knew exactly where to hit.”

He nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. “Connor and I have been trying to make sense of it, but nothing fits. Caroline, Dain, Gerald—they’ve been in prison for years. We haven’t heard from them or their people.”

“Then we’re missing something,” I said. “Someone new, maybe. Or someone we overlooked.”

Before he could answer, a knock broke the stillness.

Connor didn’t wait for an invitation; he stepped in, phone in hand. “Sorry to interrupt, but Jane just called. She’s still in Paris.”

He turned the phone toward us. Jane’s face filled the screen, her hair pulled back, the sharp focus of her expression giving away that she hadn’t slept much either.

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“Venus. Aaron,” she greeted us. “I’ve reviewed the CCTV footage from the hotel. I think you’ll want to see this.”

Aaron straightened, his shoulders tense. “Go ahead.”

Jane angled the camera so we could see her laptop screen. The footage showed a corridor-muted lighting, identical doors. The timestamp in the corner read 10:48 p.m.

“This is the hallway leading to your room, Aaron,” she said. “That’s you entering with your key card.”

The clip showed him stepping inside, pausing briefly before the door shut behind him.

A few minutes passed. Then another figure appeared at the end of the hall-a woman in a fitted coat, her face turned deliberately away from the camera. She moved with purpose, never glancing up, always keeping near the wall.

“She’s avoiding the cameras,” Jane said. “Notice how she stays inside the blind spots?”

The woman reached Aaron’s door, slipped a card from her sleeve, and swiped it. The door opened. She disappeared inside.

“She entered three minutes after you did,” Jane continued. “She stayed just under ten minutes.”

On-screen, the door opened again. The woman exited, head still averted. She walked quickly back the way she’d

come.

“She was in and out,” I said softly.

Jane nodded. “Just long enough to take those pictures, from what we can tell. There’s no footage of her leaving through the lobby, which suggests she used the service exit.”

Aaron’s jaw tightened. “So she stages the photos, leaves, and somehow by the time I wake up, I’m disoriented and my memory’s gone.”

“That’s what we’re trying to understand,” Jane replied. “Because there’s more.”

She switched the footage. New timestamp-around midnight.

“This is two hours later,” she said.

The video showed Aaron emerging from the same door, dishevelled and visibly unsteady. His steps were uneven, his hand trailing the wall for balance. He looked lost, searching for something-or someone.

I felt my stomach twist.

Connor leaned closer to the screen. “He’s clearly drugged. But how? He was fine before he went in.”

“That’s the question,” Jane said. “I thought maybe the woman slipped something into his drink, but the dinner footage doesn’t show her anywhere near him.”

She hesitated, then opened another file. “So I went further back-to the morning before all this happened.”

The angle changed again: same hallway, different hour. Two men appeared in the frame, dressed in the neutral uniforms of hotel maintenance. They carried toolboxes and a folded ladder.

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“The front desk log says they went in for an AC repair,” Jane explained. “But I checked the maintenance schedule-there was no report of any issue.”

We watched as the two men entered Aaron’s room, stayed inside for about ten minutes, then left carrying the same equipment. They walked out of camera range without speaking to anyone.

Aaron exhaled slowly, eyes fixed on the screen. “So the room was compromised before I even got there.”

Jane nodded. “That’s what it looks like. Whatever was used on you-if it was chemical or otherwise-it was probably planted then. I’ve already requested the room records and key-card logs. I’ll send everything once I have it.”

Connor’s expression hardened. “This was premeditated. They wanted the scandal and the confusion. They wanted you to look guilty and helpless.”

Aaron turned toward me. “And they almost succeeded.”

For a moment, the only sound in the room was the faint hum of the desk lamp. I could feel the weight of it settling between us-the realization that someone had choreographed the entire fall.

Jane’s voice came through the phone again. “I’ll keep digging. You’ll hear from me as soon as I have confirmation on who those two men were.”

“Thank you, Jane,” Connor said, ending the call.

The screen went dark, but the image of those men stayed in my mind.

Aaron sank back into the chair, pressing his palms to his eyes. “Someone planned this down to the minute,” he said. “And I walked straight into it.”

I went around the desk and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Then we find them. We don’t stop until we do.”

He looked up at me-tired, frightened, but focused now. “Together?”

“Together,” I said.

Connor glanced between us. “Good. Because whoever did this didn’t just want to ruin your name, Aaron. They wanted to make sure you questioned yourself. That kind of attack is personal.”

He paused, thinking aloud. “We’ll need to start tracing the hotel staff, the maintenance company, anyone with access to that floor. And Jane can cross-reference the card used to enter your room.”

Aaron nodded faintly, already half-lost in thought. I could see the investigator in him waking up again-the man who couldn’t stand a mystery unsolved.

Connor’s phone buzzed, and he checked it quickly. “I need to call her back. She’s uploading the raw footage now.” He looked at both of us, his voice firm but not unkind. “Don’t leave the estate and take care of yourselves and the kids. If someone went this far, they might try again.”

He left without waiting for a reply, the door clicking shut behind him.

The quiet that followed wasn’t like the silence of earlier-it was heavier but steadier, filled with purpose instead of despair.

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Aaron finally spoke, his voice low. “I can’t tell what’s worse-that I was drugged and framed, or that for a moment you thought I might actually be capable of what they’re saying.”

I squeezed his shoulder. “You were right there in front of me, Aaron. Confused, hurting, unable to remember anything. I didn’t know what to think. But I’m here now, and we’re going to figure this out. All of it.”

He nodded slowly, and for the first time since Paris, his expression held something close to relief.

The lamplight flickered once as the wind outside pressed against the windows. I glanced at the clock-past midnight now. It felt fitting. Everything about this moment existed somewhere between night and the edge of morning.

I looked back at him. “We’ll start with those men,” I said. “Whoever sent them, whatever they planted-that’s where we’ll find our answers.”

Aaron’s eyes met mine, steady again. “Then that’s where we start.

And though I couldn’t yet see where the path would lead, I knew the direction had changed. The fear that had filled every room in the house since his return had shifted into something sharper: resolve.

Because this wasn’t just about scandal anymore. It was about the truth. And the truth always leaves footprints, no matter how carefully someone tries to erase them.

I fought so much in the past for the family I have today, and I’ll be damned if I let anyone take it away from me.

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