Just Before My Wedding: Trapped By My Ruthless Boss novel Chapter 33

Chapter 33

KISAKEL

Something about it kept snagging at the back of my mind and refusing to let go, no matter how many times I told mysel was overthinking it The way I had fallen asleep so suddenly, so completely, like someone had reached man rehead and switched everything off at once. I was tired, yes. The weekend had been a lot, and I had barely slept, and my body had mery reason to give out on the

But it hadn’t felt like tiredness

It had felt like something else. Something heavier and faster than exhaustion, something that had taken me under without

even letting me decide if I was sleepy or not.

I trusted jace. Whatever he had done

whatever he was still doing- I knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t drug

1. me. To what end? What would be the point?

To have sex with me? I gave him that willingly. All he had to do was ask. And, not that we even had sex that night. Because I checked when I woke up.

To make me sleep over? That wasn’t enough reason to drug me.

In fact, the thought alone felt absurd and embarrassing.

But then why couldn’t I shake it?

I pressed two fingers to the bridge of my nose and tried to pull the memory back into focus. The problem was that it kept some parts clear, some parts dissolving the moment I reached for them. I remembered sitting on fracturing at the edges the couch. I remembered Jace’s voice somewhere nearby. And then there was something else. A fragment that surfaced sometimes and then slipped away before I could hold it still long enough to examine it properly.

Paper.

Something that felt like paper in my hand. And a pen.

And Jace’s voice saying something I couldn’t fully reconstruct

something about signing, or maybe I had imagined it

maybe it was just the kind of nonsense the brain produces in the space between waking and sleep-

But it kept coming back. The same fragment. The same vague, stubborn impression of paper and pen and Jace’s voice.

I didn’t know if it was real. I genuinely couldn’t tell.

And that was the part that bothered me most.

Perhaps I’d have to visit Jace tonight. I needed to ask him, just to get it out of my head.

Maybe it would make me feel better.

***

The moment I closed for work for the day, I hurried to Elgin’s house, dumped my bag on the couch where Gerald had been sitting the night before he died, and rushed to freshen up.

At least, it would give Jace enough time to return home from the office. I didn’t want to go wait for him at home. “Elgin.” I stopped on my way up the stairs when I sighted him sitting alone at the dining and staring into nothing.

Chapter 33

“Elgin”

I called again, but he just turned his head slowly toward me, like the effort of moving quickly was more than he had available right now.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, changing directions and walking toward him.

He was in an oversized grey sweatshirt that swallowed his frame completely, the sleeves pulled down over his hands, paired with loose joggers that had seen better days. No socks. His close–cropped hair was unbrushed for the first time since I’d known him.

He looked back at the table when I reached him.

I pulled out the chair beside him and sat down gently.

“Talk to me,” I said quietly. “What’s going on?”

He was quiet for a long moment. His hands were flat on the table in front of him, both of them, just resting there like he didn’t know what else to do with them.

“He called me,” he said finally. “That night. While we were still at the bar.” He paused. “I saw his name on the screen, and I thought-” He stopped. Pressed his lips together. “I thought he was calling to tell me not to stay out late.” He exhaled through his nose slowly. “I left it, Arel.”

“Elgin-”

“What if he knew?” His voice wasn’t the theatrical one I was used to. It was really quiet. “What if he felt it coming and he was trying to reach me, and I was sitting there being entertained and I just-” He stopped again and shook his head. “Professor Marceau used to say that the calls we don’t answer are the ones that follow us.” He looked down at his hands. “I thought he was being dramatic when he said it.”

“You couldn’t have known-”

“No.” He shook his head again, firmly. “Non. I don’t want to hear that. I know I couldn’t have known. That’s not the point.” He was quiet for a moment. “The point is that I went home with a stranger that night. While Grand–père was-” He stopped. A muscle moved in his jaw. “While he needed me, I was in some man’s apartment getting thoroughly fucked. He pressed the back of his hand to his mouth for a second. “If I had just come straight home. If I had just answered the phone. Maybe I would have-”

“Elgin.” I moved my chair closer and put my arms around him.

Elgin always had something to say. The fact that he just sat there and let

He let me. That was how I knew how bad it was me hold him without a single word said everything.

After a moment, his head dropped onto my shoulder.

“The doctors are wrong,” he said quietly, into the space above my arm. “I know what they said. Natural causes. His heart.” He paused. “But Grand–père’s heart was fine, Arel. He had a check–up two months ago. I spoke with him over the phone when he left the hospital that day. The doctor said he was remarkable for his age.” He took another longer pause. ‘Something is wrong. Something about all of it is wrong, and everyone keeps looking at me like I’m just a grieving boy who can’t accept that old people die and I-” His voice broke slightly at the end, and he stopped and pulled in a breath. “I know what I know.

I held him tighter and said nothing.

Because the truth was, I knew what he knew.

After a moment, I pulled back slightly and looked at him. “Who was Gerald expecting that night?”

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10:34 am PP

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Chapter 33

The question had been sitting in the back of my mind since the moment Elgin told me

Elgin lifted his head slowly. His brows pulled together.

“I don’t know.” He sniffed, straightening slightly in his seat, something shifting in his expression just a fraction, for something more focused. “He didn’t tell me. You know how Grand–pere could be some mes

about certain things. I never pushed. He paused. “I should have pushed”

*Check his phone,” I said. “If he were in contact with whoever he was expecting, there might be something there. A nat number, something we can start from. Maybe if we find the person, we find out what they talked above. Whether ver happened between them. Maybe they had an argument that triggered something. Or. I stopped. Ta starting point. That’s all.”

Elgin looked at me for a moment. Then he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and nodded. “You’re right”

We went to Gerald’s room together.

It was exactly as he had left it. Neat and undisturbed, with everything in its place.

Elgin moved through it carefully, like he was trying not to disturb anything that still held the shape of his grandfather’s presence.

He reached into the drawer beside the bed and pulled out Gerald’s phone.

We went straight to the call log.

Gerald was not a man with a complicated phone. His contacts were few and familiar – the same names appearing regularly. The rhythm of an old man’s social life.

But there were two numbers that didn’t fit. No names attached to either of them. Just digits.

The first had called him once, about a month ago.

The second had called three times within the week of his death. The last call was the day he died.

“Do you recognise either of them?” I asked, writing both numbers down.

Elgin studied the screen and shook his head slowly. “Grand–père always saved contacts. Always. If these aren’t saved, it’s because he didn’t know these people personally.” He paused. “Or because he didn’t want a name attached to them.”

We moved to the messaging app.

And then we both went still at the same time.

There was a text. Sent from Gerald’s phone to the number that had called him the day he died.

Just four words.

“I’m ready to talk.”