Contract Marriage With My Billionaire Boss (Venus and Aaron) novel Chapter 93

Chapter 93

AARON

The silence in my office was rare and for once, welcome.

281

Bi vouchett’s

No ringing phones. No back-to-back meetings. No crisis clawing at my attention. Just the distant hum of New York City outside, muffled by the thick glass of the penthouse windows. The world below was alive, pulsing and urgent, but in here, for a breath of a moment, it felt like time had stopped.

I leaned back in my chair, phone in hand, scrolling through messages I had already read twice, maybe three times. It was ridiculous. Obsessive. But I didn’t care.

The last message from Venus sat like warmth in my palm, buzzing under my skin.

VENUS: We’re going fabric hunting again. Gianna nearly committed murder in front of a cashmere wall. It was glorious. Also: I didn’t buy anything today. Aren’t you proud?

Not that she ever spends my money.

I saw the card I gave her laying on my table.

ME: That depends. Did you at least threaten to?

VENUS: Sabine nearly tackled a vendor over gold thread. I did my part by eating three macarons and looking expensive.

A smile tugged at my lips. An actual, honest-to-God smile.

She sounded happy.

For once, she sounded free.

Even with shadows still nipping at her heels-Ashford, the stalker, the weight of the contract binding us together like threadbare promises-she was blooming. London had softened her edges, made her lighter, and it made something deep in my chest ache.

I was proud of her.

And completely, utterly screwed.

Because somewhere between fake vows and late-night silences, between shared rooms and unspoken truths, I’d crossed a line I couldn’t uncross.

I wasn’t just falling for her.

I had fallen.

Not the convenient, shallow kind of affection I’d trained myself to offer in every past entanglement. This wasn’t about control, or possessiveness, or the way her body made mine forget logic. This was something else. Deeper. More dangerous.

It was in the way she looked at me when she thought I wasn’t paying attention, like I was more than the worst thing I’d done. It was in the way she laughed, unapologetic and alive, despite everything the world had taken from her. It was the way she

hadn’t let the darkness win.

It was the way she kept choosing to live.

And God help me-I wanted her to keep choosing me.

12:17 Mon, Jan 5 G M

Chapter 93

$81

I 55 vouchers

Not the version of me the world saw. Not the CEO, not the name in Forbes. But the man underneath all of that. The one who stayed awake at night watching surveillance footage because he couldn’t stand the thought of her walking through life unprotected.

The one who was starting to believe in forever.

I planned to tell her.

When she came back, I would tell her. No games. No conditions. Just the truth. Whether it ruined everything or stitched the cracks between us tighter.

Before I lost her to someone else.

Before she slipped through my fingers entirely.

A sharp knock pulled me out of the spiral.

My PA, poked her head in, tablet in hand. “Sir, I have someone requesting an appointment with you directly. Says it’s urgent.”

I looked up, brows pinched. “Name?”

“Colton Ashford.”

The name hit like a chord snapped.

I sat up straighter, the calm vanishing from my blood like mist in the sun. “Did he say what it’s about?”

“No. Just that it’s a matter of personal interest.”

She hesitated. She didn’t ask, but it was clear on her face.

Should I turn him down?

I considered it. Briefly.

But you didn’t dismiss men like Ashford.

You watched them. You invited them in and studied the cards they kept close to their chest. You didn’t blink.

“Schedule it,” I said. “Tomorrow morning. And let Connor know. We’re not going in blind.”

“Understood.”

As the door closed behind her, I leaned forward, elbows on the desk, fingers steepled. My thoughts churned.

Colton Ashford. We’d never crossed paths in business. Not directly. His name had come up in reports here and there- export tycoon with polished fingers and dirty roots. Legit on paper but with just enough red flags to raise suspicion. Dubai. Brazil. Shell companies.

But never anything conclusive.

Never anything that bled into my world.

Until now.

Until Venus.

Why her?

12:17 Mon, Jan 5 G MJ’

Chapter 93

Why now?

165 vouchers

The Next Morning

The conference room was colder than usual. Glass, steel and marble floors that echoed with every movement.

Connor stood beside me, arms crossed, unreadable. He’d spent the last twelve hours combing through every known associate of Ashford. His ties. His movements. His accounts.

Nothing suspicious enough to explain this.

The door opened.

Ashford walked in like he owned the air we breathed.

Sharp navy suit. No tie. Blond hair swept back in that insufferable I-woke-up-rich way that made people trust him.

“Mr. Sinclair,” he greeted, extending a hand like we were old friends.

I shook it. Brief, firm and controlled.

“Let’s not waste time.”

He offered a tight smile and took a seat. Connor remained standing.

“You’ve had my wife followed,” I said.

Straight to it.

Ashford didn’t flinch.

“They’re not my men.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not. I hired someone to watch her, yes. But not to harm her.”

“You understand how that sounds, don’t you?” I asked, my voice calm but laced with steel. “A man with no history of business with me or my wife suddenly tailing her across international lines,

His eyes darkened. “I didn’t know who she was. Not at first.”

“Then why the surveillance?”

He was quiet for a beat.

Then he said, carefully, deliberately;

“Because I saw her photograph. And she looked exactly like my mother.”

Connor’s spine straightened. The air in the room shifted.

I didn’t move.

“I ran a background check,” Ashford continued. “Found out she was raised by people who weren’t blood. People who… exploited her. From what I gathered, it wasn’t a happy upbringing. But the moment I saw her… I knew.”

12:17 Mon, Jan 5 GM.

Chapter 93

“You knew what?” I asked tightly.

His eyes met mine.

“She’s my sister, Sinclair.”

The world tilted.

“I believe Venus is my biological sister.”

Silence.

A beat passed. Then another.

My fingers curled slowly against the table.

“You expect me to believe you?” I said, voice dangerously low.

སོ ཝཱ, 181

156 vaucliers

“I have proof,” he replied, calm as the sea before a storm. “DNA. My mother’s birth records. There was a child. A daughter. She was taken when I was Twelve. My parents-our parents-never wanted her or maybe they did. They were broke and running on fumes, they couldn’t afford to raise another child. But I did. I wanted my baby sister. As soon as I had the resources to, I started searching for her.”

Connor stepped forward, voice sharp. “You’re saying Venus was kidnapped?”

“Given away,” Ashford said. “To people who weren’t fit to raise goldfish, let alone a child. But yes. That’s what I’m saying.”

I rose slowly from my chair, blood thundering in my ears. “And you think tailing her, tracking her, was the best way to approach this?”

He didn’t flinch. “Would you have let me near her if I’d called first?”

Fair. Infuriating. But fair.

“I didn’t want to scare her,” he added. “But I needed to be sure. Before I brought her into a past she didn’t ask for.”

I stared at him. At this man who had just upended everything.

Venus had a brother.

Biological.

Alive.

And he had been watching her.

Protecting her, in his own twisted way,

The ground didn’t just shift.

It cracked.

And we were standing on a fault line.

To Be Continued

12:17 Mon, Jan 5