Aurora stood frozen in the bathroom.
Her phone was pressed to her ear, and her reflection in the mirror showed a panicked woman.
Cassian’s voice wafted through the speaker, smoothly tinged with amusement.
“I was wondering when you would call.”
She sucked a breath to steady her voice before she spoke.
“Stay away from my grandmother.”
“Or what?” he asked.
“You’ll tell on me to your father?”
Aurora’s jaw tightened.
He was toying with her.
He already knew he had the upper hand in this situation.
“That’s what I thought.” His voice dropped to a cruel tone.
“Your grandmother is officially my friend now, Aurora. We had quite a lovely conversation in the elevator, in fact. I have a brunch reservation with her tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll have a rewarding conversation.”
“You wouldn’t.” Aurora’s palm went cold.
“Oh, but I would.”
Her hand tightened around the phone.
Maggie’s health was barely holding up, and any sort of stress could be fatal.
If Maggie found out that Cassian Black was the man behind all their problems, she would rather not imagine what would happen.
And it’s not like she could pack up and fly to Catalina.
She had work waiting for her at the office.
She had just started the job; she couldn’t afford to take leave now.
“Please,” she blurted out before she could stop herself.
“Cassian, please, my grandmother is sick. If she finds out who you are and what you’ve done to our family, it could…It could kill her.”
She hated herself for being vulnerable to him.
There was a short silence.
Cassian finally spoke, his voice serious now.
“Hmm.”
He hummed like he was debating which item on the menu to pick.
“Please,” she added, speaking into the silence.
“Fine. I wasn’t planning to reveal it to her anyway.”
Aurora took a sharp breath, closing her eyes.
“Thank you.”
“What was that? I didn’t quite catch that.”
She knew that he heard her, and he was only toying with her.
She gritted her teeth and repeated it anyway.
“I said thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Don’t think that this means our war is over,” she said sharply.
The corner of his lips twitched.
“Of course,” he said.
And she finally hung up.
“Who was that?”
Aurora nearly jumped out of her skin, turning to look at Amber, who stood in the bathroom doorway with sleepy eyes.
“Was it Cassian?”
“No,” Aurora was quick to say, stuffing the phone into her pocket and moving towards her friend.
“It was just a spam call. Someone was trying to sell me insurance.”
“At midnight?”
“These people don’t sleep.”
Aurora wrapped an arm around Amber’s shoulders and pulled her back to the room.
“Come on, let’s go back to sleep.”
Amber let herself be pulled, but her eyes were still sharp.
“But why did you say thank you, and why were you smiling?”
“I didn’t. You just heard wrong.”
Aurora tucked her back into bed.
“Come on, go to sleep, Amber.”
Amber mumbled something incoherent before she closed her eyes, and within seconds, she was knocked out.
Aurora climbed into the bed besides her.
Her eyes focused on the ceiling.
Her mind immediately went to Cassian.
Something about the way his voice had softened when she begged him made her stomach turn in an uncomfortable way.
A small smile played on her lips, and she closed her eyes, forcing herself to sleep.
It was the next morning, and all three of them sat around the kitchen island.
Aurora and Amber were forced to eat the stale cereal that had been in the cabinet for far too long, while Jude heated up the last of Maggie’s leftovers and ate them, making obnoxious and unnecessary munching sounds.
Rock, paper, scissors was what they played after they all wanted to eat the leftovers, but Jude had won, which was why he was eating them, and they were left to push down the cereal.
“I hate you,” Amber muttered as she chewed through a spoonful of cereal.
“You love me.” Jude grinned, his mouth full of delicious lasagne.
Aurora grabbed the remote, drowning their argument out, and started flipping through the channels.
Morning news was playing.
She switched to a cooking show, to a cartoon, and then back to the news again.
She stopped as the reporter began.
“Terry Webb has been released on bail pending his next court hearing. The Webb Corporation CEO was arrested last week on charges of tax fraud. Investigations are still ongoing, and prosecutors say they expect to file additional charges in the coming weeks.” Read the latest chapters at novelping dot com.
Aurora, Amber, and Jude exchanged a look.
“Have you met Astrid recently?” Jude asked quietly.
Aurora managed a nod, and there was silence for a long moment as they watched the reporter continue to spout off the details of the arrest.
Aurora’s phone began ringing against her lap.
She glanced at the screen, and it was Rhett.
“Hello, Miss Bennett. I apologise for calling on a Saturday, but we urgently need you at the office. There’s an impromptu meeting with the New York clients. The one you prepared the project folder for. We need you here.”
“All right.” Her stomach churned.
“I’ll be there in 30 minutes.”
She hung up and stood to her feet.
“I have to go.”
“Work?” Amber asked, and Aurora nodded.
“What? But it’s a Saturday,” Jude protested.
“Apparently, it doesn’t matter at Black Corp,” Amber stated.
“Yep.” Aurora grabbed her bag and rushed to her bedroom to change, and she came out ten minutes later with her bag hanging from her shoulder.
“I’ll be back soon,” she said, and she was out the door before she heard their replies.
Black Corp was quiet on Saturdays.
The lobby was completely empty except for the security guards, who acknowledged her with a nod as she passed.
The elevators hummed softly while the lights illuminated the luxurious space as she walked down the marble corridor towards her office, where Rhett was already waiting for her.
“Miss Bennett, thank you for coming,” he said as he handed her a folder.
“The clients are already in the conference room. We really need to make a good impression.”
“Understood.”
They walked together to the conference room, where Aurora took her seat at the table and opened the folder to scan the documents.
The proposal she made was standard.
It was for a major project, and she had made sure to cross-check all the numbers, the timeline, and details for implementation.
She listened keenly as the clients talked about the proposal.
She took notes and contributed when necessary, pointing out a discrepancy in the acquisition costs.
“There’s a discrepancy in the report, which will offset the numbers in the funding. It might be a typo, but it was worth clarifying.”
Rhett nodded, taking note.
The clients murmured among themselves just as Aurora leant back in her seat, feeling satisfied.
The door was pushed open, and Savannah Black walked in.
She was dressed sharply in a crisp white suit, with her hair perfectly styled and that perfectly practised smile on her lips.
Her eyes scanned the room in a fluid motion before they landed on Aurora.
“I apologise for my lateness,” she said smoothly to the clients.
Then she turned as she walked to her seat.
“I hope I haven’t missed anything important.”
Aurora crossed her legs under the table.