HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 65

Chapter 65

Bianca

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The weekend came and went without Emma and Adrian going anywhere. Saturday morning, my sister woke up complaining of a headache that wouldn’t let go, and by afternoon she was back to taking her medication on schedule and lying flat on the couch with a cold towel over her eyes.

I didn’t even need to call Adrian to cancel, because he texted first, simple and direct, asking how she was doing, and when I told him she needed to rest, he didn’t push or sulk about it the way I half expected him to. He just said they would go Tuesday instead, that the place wasn’t going anywhere.

Monday morning came with its own kind of chaos. I walked into the office a few minutes before eight to find Lisa standing by her desk with her coat still on, her bag still over her shoulder, looking like a woman who had run out of the house without finishing a single thought.

“Please,” she said the moment she saw me, her eyes wide and a little desperate, “I need you to cover the front desk for me for some minutes. My son’s school just called, he’s not feeling well, and I have nobody else to drop everything for him right

now.”

Of course I said yes, what else could I say so I spent the morning answering calls that weren’t mine to answer, signing for deliveries, smiling at people who walked in expecting Lisa’s face and not mine, all while trying to keep up with my actual work piling silently in my inbox upstairs.

It was a little past eleven when she walked in, I noticed her before she even got to the desk, the kind of woman you notice without trying. She moved like she belonged everywhere she walked into, her hair falling in soft waves that looked effortless but clearly weren’t.

“Good morning,” she said, smiling at me forcefully. “I don’t have an appointment, I’m afraid, but I was hoping to see Adrian if he’s available.”

“And you are,” I asked, reaching for the visitor log, keeping my voice as professional as I could manage.

“Victoria,” she said, extending a hand toward me, her smile widening just slightly. “Victoria Sterling. We’re old friends, Adrian and I. I’ve been meaning to reconnect with him for a while now, life just kept getting in the way.”

There was nothing about her that felt off in the moment, nothing that made the hair on my arms stand up, just an easy, polished kind of charm that made it hard to dislike her even though something small and quiet at the back of my mind was already taking notes.

“Let me check if he’s available,” I said, reaching for the phone, but she lifted a hand gently to stop me.

“Don’t worry about disturbing him,” she said, already reaching into her bag and pulling out a card, holding it out toward me with two fingers. “Just pass this along whenever it’s convenient. Tell him Victoria stopped by.”

I took the card from her, my eyes catching the embossed lettering before I slid it into the drawer beside me, and that was when I saw it, the surname printed beneath her first name, longer than the one she had given me out loud. Sterling- Delacroix. I blinked at it for half a second too long before sliding the drawer shut, filing the detail away somewhere in the back of my mind without fully understanding why it mattered yet.

“I’ll make sure he gets it,” I said, and she thanked me with another easy smile before turning and walking back toward the elevators, her heels clicking that same unhurried rhythm all the way out.

I was still sitting there, staring faintly at the closed drawer, when Lisa came rushing back in, her coat half off already, her face flushed from the cold outside.

Hi Bianca, thank you so much,” she said, breathless, dropping her bag onto her chair. “I really do appreciate this, you have no idea

Chapter 65

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“It’s fine,” I said, standing up immediately and gathering my things, already moving out of her desk so she could settle back into her seat properly.

It was from where I stood, just beside her desk, gathering my bag and my phone, that I noticed something odd. Victoria was still by the elevators, her phone in her hand, glancing up every few seconds toward the hallway that led to Adrian’s office, like she was waiting for someone to come find her, like she expected him to appear and walk her in personally. But nobody came. She waited a full minute, maybe two, before finally giving up and stepping into the clevator, the doors sliding shut behind her.

I frowned slightly, my eyes drifting down to the open reception file sitting on Lisa’s desk, the one logged with notes about who was in and who wasn’t. My gaze caught on a line written in neat handwriting next to Adrian’s name. “CEO not on seay.

I stood there for a second, confused, because I knew for a fact that wasn’t true. I came out of the office not even twenty minutes earlier, had seen him through the glass, bent over his desk with his sleeves rolled up, fully present, fully there.

“Lisa.” I started, about to ask her about it, but she was already on a call, juggling three things at once and I went back upstairs to my own desk.

It wasn’t until that night, after I had checked on Emma, made sure she ate properly, made sure her medication was sitting right beside her water glass on the nightstand, that I finally sat on my bed with my phone in my hand and let curiosity get the better of me.

Victoria Sterling-Delacroix.

I typed the name into the search bar without fully deciding to, my thumb hovering for a second before pressing search

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