HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 76

Chapter 76

Chapter 76

Victoria

L

ཐཱ

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I sat alone in my living room, a glass of red wine going warm beside my laptop while I stared at the one thing that had been sitting in the back of my mind for almost a week now. Bianca Fernandes.

I didn’t know much about her, that was the truth, and it annoyed me more than I wanted to admit. All I had were the basic things anyone could find if they asked around enough. She worked at Adrian’s company, she used to sit at the front desk, greeting visitors and answering phones.

Then some months ago, without any warning, she pulled straight out of that seat and was placed as Adrian’s personal assistant.

I leaned back in my chair and turned that fact over slowly in my mind, the way I do with most things that don’t quite sit right.

Adrian doesn’t move people around without a reason. some years of being with him taught me that much about him, even if the marriage itself ended the way it did. He isn’t sentimental with decisions like that.

If he pulled this girl out of a front desk job and placed her directly beside himself, it meant one of two things. Either she was simply too good at her job for him to overlook or he liked having her close.

“I really hope it is the first one.” I said to myself.

I pulled up the one photo my assistant had managed to find, something from a company event, Bianca standing near a group of colleagues, smiling easily at whatever the camera had caught her mid laugh at.

I studied it longer than I meant to, and something small and sharp tightened in my chest looking at it. I have seen women like that before. The ones who don’t look like competition until suddenly they are standing exactly where you used to stand.

Beyond the job title, I really knew nothing else. No idea where she lived exactly, no idea who she spent her evenings with, whether there was a boyfriend somewhere or a life outside that office that might explain things better. It bothered me, not knowing. It has always been one of my worst habits, letting an unanswered question sit in my chest until I found some way to dig it out.

I stood up and walked toward the window, arms folded, watching the city lights scattered below me, and I let myself think properly. The real problem wasn’t finding out more about her on paper. That part was simple enough, people can always dig a little deeper if you ask nicely and pay well.

The real problem was seeing the two of them together, with my own eyes, watching the way Adrian looked at her when he thought nobody important was paying attention. A file could tell me facts but only watching them in the same room would tell me the truth.

Which meant I needed both of them somewhere natural. Somewhere neither of them would think twice about.

“A charity gala?”

The idea settled into my head so easily I almost laughed at myself for not thinking of it sooner. Adrian never turns down something like that, not when there are cameras involved, not when his family name basically demands a certain kind of visible generosity from him. He would come without much resistance if the invitation looked important enough, exclusive enough, the sort of event where his absence would actually get noticed and talked about.

And a man like Adrian never walks into something like that without his assistant somewhere nearby. If this girl mattered to him beyond the obvious, she would be there too, standing close, and I would finally see it for myself.

I sat back down at my desk, already thinking through everything and the best way to put it. Something involving children maybe, or education, I could organize the whole thing myself easily enough, I have done it plenty of times before, but

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Chapter 76

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putting my own name on the invitation would put me too close to the surface. If Adrian suspected for even a second that I was behind it, he would either refuse to come, or he would come with his guard fully up, and neither one worked for me.

I needed someone else’s name at the top of that card. Someone Adrian trusted enough not to question it twice.

Julian.

His name came to me almost immediately, and once it did, I couldn’t think of anyone better suited. Julian had the right standing, the right reputation, the kind of respectability that made an invitation feel like an event rather than a trap. Adrian would never think twice about something carrying his name.

I picked up my phone and searched his name in my contacts, and I didn’t hesitate before dialing. The line rang twice before it clicked open.

“Victoria.” His voice came through.

“Julian.” I let his name sit there for a second, smiling faintly to myself as I leaned back in my chair. “You owe me and need a

favor.”

“That’s usually how these calls start with you,” he said, and I could hear the quiet amusement underneath it. “What is it this time?”

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