Chapter 3

"You had just left last Friday when Ms. Robertson came to work in your heels. I asked her why she was wearing your shoes, and she said..." Margot's voice caught. She swallowed hard. "She said Mr. Godfrey told her those heels suited her and that you wouldn't mind." She looked up, her eyes red. "Ms. Aiken, do you really not mind?" I looked at Margot, who was more upset than I was. I smiled faintly, though there was no real emotion behind it. "Those heels never fit me right. If she likes them, she can have them." Before I left, I hadn't known that Tristan and Scarlett were already fooling around. The company was gearing up to break into a new market, so I didn't have the bandwidth to keep an eye on Tristan. Besides, he'd had a mistress living near the office. Seeing how bold Scarlett was, I figured the mistress must already be out of the picture. "Wipe your tears," I said, pulling a tissue and handing it to Margot. "I won't be around next week. Keep an eye on things at the company." Margot froze. "Where are you going?" I didn't answer. I only looked out the window. The sunlight was perfect, just like that afternoon seven years ago when we got our marriage certificate. Back then, Tristan went to the Aiken residence alone. He knelt in Dad's study for three hours, begging him to accept him. "Mr. Aiken, I know you don't approve of me. But Riley trusts me, and I swear I won't let her lose." Despite that, Tristan was still thrown out eventually. But that day, Dad stood by the window for a long while. In the end, he took Tristan's flawed proposal, revised it himself in the study, and secretly mailed it to me. Bringing up the past would only cheapen genuine kindness. But if I didn't say anything, Tristan would really believe he'd been a genius from day one. He thought all that data, connections, and money were things he'd earned entirely on his own. Not long after Margot left, Tristan called me from his car. "You really scared Scarlett," he said with a soft laugh. "I'll need some time to settle her down. I'll come back later. Leave the door unlocked for me." I fell silent for a moment before asking, "Didn't we agree you wouldn't get another woman pregnant?" There was a brief pause on the other end of the line. "Pregnant?" His voice stayed calm. "Scarlett went to a private obstetrics and gynecology hospital. She wouldn't do that for no reason." Tristan fell silent for a moment, then let out a low laugh. "You checked on her?" "It's on the company's accounts," I said evenly. "500 thousand dollars for a prenatal checkup package was filed under employee benefits. Mr. Godfrey, you were quite generous with approving it." He sounded like he genuinely didn't know. Maybe when he approved the payment, he didn't bother checking what it was actually for. His tone softened as he coaxed me. "Riley, it was an accident. She's young and doesn't know better. She thought getting pregnant would mean something." "So?" I asked. "I'll handle it," he said firmly. "Don't worry. No one's going to threaten your position." "Tristan." "Yeah?" "Do you remember," I asked slowly, "how we lost our first child?" His breathing stopped on the other end. "Enough, Riley! That was a long time ago. There's no point in digging up the past." "Right," I said, smiling faintly, almost wistfully. "It's all in the past." All of it was now in the past—the child who never made it into this world, the vows he'd sworn on his knees… and the thing he never let go of... "Get some rest," he said. "Once I calm her down, I'll come home." With that, he hung up. I raised my hand and, for the first and last time, blocked him. Then, I replied to the message that had been waiting for me all week. "Everything's been handled. I'll be at the wedding on time."