Aidan started at five in the morning.
It was a Saturday, he had nothing to do and had all the time.
He made coffee, sat at the desk and opened his laptop.
He typed into the search bar: LUXE production rumour— source.
He had been doing this since yesterday.
Pulling threads.
Reading between lines.
Looking at the specific details in the original article.
Someone had fed that story.
Someone with access to information about LUXE’s operations.
Not deep access; they had gotten the facts wrong enough that Evelyn had dismantled them in under an hour.
But enough access to make the story look credible from the outside.
He read the article again.
He sat back.
He thought about who in Milan had both the motive and the reach to plant something like this.
He thought of her, an evil chuckle left his lips.
He picked up his phone.
“Aidan.” Jane’s voice was bright, almost like she was expecting the call, sooner.
“Did you plant the story?” he said.
A pause.
“Good morning to you too, husband,” Jane said.
“Jane.
Answer the question.”
”What story?”
”Don’t act dumb now…The LUXE production story.
The one that went up a day ago.” He paused.
“Did you do it?”
”Why would I–”
”Oh, let me see…Because you’ve been in this city doing things I didn’t ask you to do and going places you had no business going.
You are capable of anything, you know” His voice was level.
Controlled.
“So I’m asking you directly, wife.
Did you plant that story?”
”You cannot seriously believe I care enough about Evelyn’s little company to orchestrate some media attack.”
Aidan’s jaw tightened.
“Answer the question, Jane”
”Oh my God.” She laughed.
“This is unbelievable.
You’re calling your wife interrogating her because your ex-wife had a bad week online?
No, Aidan.
I don’t have anything to do with her rumors.”
”Jane, if I find out you did–”
”Oh spare me that.
You’ll what?” Her voice shifted.
The brightness dropped.
“What exactly will you do, Aidan?
You’ll be angry?
You’ll give me one of your looks?” A short laugh.
“You’ve been playing the hero in this city for weeks.
Staying in Milan for a woman who tore up your contract and has made it very clear she wants nothing to do with you.” A pause.
“And now you’re calling me at five in the morning.
You should be ashamed of yourself.”
”I should be ashamed.” Aidan admitted.
“Yes.
You have a wife, Aidan.
I am your wife.
But you’re in Milan chasing a woman who you clearly left and acting like I’m the problem.”
”I’m telling you one time.
I promise you that.”
”You’re shameless,”
”Jane —”
”No.” Sharp.
Final.
“Don’t call me again today.”
The line went dead.
Aidan sat with the phone in his hand.
Then he put it face down on the desk.
Then he hit the table with the side of his fist — once, hard.
“Fuck!” The sound brought Priya to the door within thirty seconds.
She opened it without knocking.
She looked at him.
She looked at the phone face down on the desk.
She looked at his hand.
“Are you okay, sir?” she said.
“Fine.”
”Maybe I should come back later”
”It’s fine, Priya.
You can come in.”
She looked at him for a moment.
Then she stepped into the room fully and closed the door behind her.
She did not sit down yet.
She stood near the door with her tablet under her arm.
As someone who had been watching him for three weeks and had decided that today was the day.
“I need to talk to you properly.”
His stomach tightened immediately at her tone.
“Look at this,” she said, sliding her tablet to him.
He looked.
It was the AS Tech dashboard.
A summary of the last three weeks — calls missed, meetings rescheduled, decisions delayed, emails that had been read and not responded to.
Numbers he would normally have handled before they even became numbers.
His board had flagged three agenda items as unresolved.
Two investor calls had been pushed twice.
A report that should have been reviewed and signed off was sitting in a folder untouched.
He looked at it for a while without speaking.
“The board is asking questions,” Priya said.
Her voice was even.
Just honest.
“Not to your knowledge yet, but they are asking.
And I can only reschedule things so many times before people stop accepting the reschedule.” She paused.
“I need to know what we are dealing with, sir so I can help you manage it.
But I can’t help you manage something you won’t tell me.”
Aidan looked at the numbers on the screen.
He thought about all the things he had been carrying since he came to Milan.
“Everything is choking me,” he said.
He hadn’t planned to say it.
It came out the way things came out when they had been held too long.
“Everything,” he said again.
“I messed up so badly, Priya and I don’t…I don’t even know where to start with how badly.
I look at her and I see everything I threw away and I can’t undo it.
I can’t go back.
I can’t fix the thing that’s already done.”
He looked at the table. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“But I can’t leave either.
I tried to tell myself I’m here for the deal, that it’s business.” He shook his head.
“It’s not just business, Priya.
Not really.”
Priya said nothing.
She let him talk.
“She doesn’t deserve what I did to her,” he said.
“She doesn’t deserve me showing up six years later thinking I can — what?
Fix it?
You can’t fix six years.
You can’t fix what I said to her, what I let happen.” He looked up.
“So your sleepless nights are because of her?” Priya said quietly.
“Because of both of them.”
Priya blinked.
“The little boy?,” Priya said.
“Yes, Leon.
I keep….I look at him and I can’t explain it.
The way he talks, thinks, the way he —” He stopped.
“What if he’s mine, Priya?
I know what I’m saying.
I know how it sounds.
But what if that boy is actually mine?”
Priya looked at him, wide eyed.
“What does your gut tell you?” she said.
“”It’s telling me…he might be.”
Silence.
“You can just…find out,” Priya said.
“She’ll never agree to a —”
”I didn’t say ask her,” Priya said.
“I said find out.” She stood up.
She picked up her tablet.
“Leave it with me.”
”Priya —”
”The board call is at eleven,” she said.
“Please be ready for it this time, Mr Aidan.”
She walked out.
Aidan pulled the laptop toward him.
He opened the board briefing document and started reading.
For the first time in three weeks he was actually reading it, calmly.
Priya walked to the end of the corridor.
She scrolled through her phone.
She found a contact she had not used in years.
She pressed call.
“Dr.
Sheena,” said the voice on the other end.
A woman who sounded calm and professional.
“It’s Priya Mehta,” she said, keeping her voice low.
“I need to ask you something sensitive.” She paused.
“I need to know the most discreet way to establish a biological connection between two people without the knowledge of one of them.”
A pause on the line.
“That’s a complicated request, Priya,” Dr.
Sheena said.
“I know,” Priya said.
“That’s why I’m calling you.”
She looked back toward Aidan’s door.
He’s not going to do it himself, she thought.
Someone has to.