"Why are you staring at me? Did you miss my pretty face?" Serena teased, flashing a playful smile and fluttering her eyelashes.
Aiden rolled his eyes, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. "You’ve been busy behind my back, it seems."
"Me? Busy? Well, kind of. Grandma has been running me ragged with all the work," she replied, "Though I enjoyed it thoroughly."
Aiden narrowed his eyes, leaning closer. "I wasn’t talking about Grandma. I was talking about Nathan. What did you do to him? When I left, he hated you, and now you two look like best friends."
Serena feigned innocence, her expression exaggeratedly shocked. "Hated me? Aiden, you wound me! How can anyone hate me? I am so lovable! Just now before you came, he was comparing me to a cheer leader..."
Aiden’s eyes narrowed further, jealousy flaring up inside him. Just what had she done to win Nathan over? Nathan, who was usually as prickly as a cactus, now seemed completely charmed by her.
"Hey!" Serena exclaimed, a playful grin on her face as she hooked her fingers at him, gesturing for him to come closer.. "I can see that curiosity brewing in your mind about how I won him over, but I’m not going to spill those secrets. However, I do have something really interesting to share."
Aiden raised an eyebrow, "Oh? Now you’ve got my interest. What is it?"
She leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "I hired Owen for a contract marriage."
His eyes widened in disbelief. "Wait, what? Owen? A contract marriage? What are you talking about? Did you get your memory back?"
Serena frowned at his reaction. Why did that momentary look that crossed over his face look like a mixture of guilt and fear. But then she ignored it. She was probably imagining things and explained," No. My memory has not returned. Its more like I’ve been having vague dream that I told you about, right? Anyway, I had a dream the other day but it was actually a memory. It seems I had hired Owen to marry me to gain some kind of rights and protect myself from others who might want to snatch the property."
"But ultimately, he tried to fool me and sold me out to those people. I think he’d even planned to kill me so that he would be able to claim everything in my name as my husband. And then I discovered everything and fought with him. It was also after that specific argument that I had an accident."
"What I don’t understand is, why he kept me alive? If I was already on life support, why let me live. He could have simply taken me off the life support and taken all the properties even if he’d failed in getting me to sign the will."
Aiden hesitated, choosing his words carefully. "I think I have an answer to that."
Serena’s eyes snapped to his, her curiosity piqued. "You do? How?"
"Because he was extorting money from someone," Aiden explained quietly, his voice low and cautious. "Whoever wanted you dead, there was someone else—someone who wanted to keep you alive. That person was paying Owen regularly, probably unaware that you were on life support."
Serena looked at him then.." You do? How?"
"Because he was extorting money. Whoever wanted you dead, someone wanted to keep you alive as well. Probably. That person was paying Owen regularly, probably unaware that you were on life support."
"How do you know this?"
"Even though you didn’t want to know, we’ve kept digging into his past. It is how I reached his bank details. We are... still tracing the whereabouts of where the money was coming from but it is a private account..." Of course, Aiden was not going to tell her that he had his suspicions about the person who had been sending the money.
Serena frowned! "No wonder he came running over when he realized that his parents had sold me off and I’d awakened! Poor guy. His parents had sold his golden goose..."
"Do you remember anything else then?"
Serena sighed," Nah. Nothing more than this..."
***
"Whose number is this?" Sidney asked the man in front of him and the man hurriedly explained," Sir, this number is registered under the name Ella Hawk. And the picture though a bit blurry, seems like Miss Serena."
Ella Hawk? Sidney frowned. He remembered the little girl from a few years ago. But how did she know that he was looking for Serena? And what did she hope to get from him. Was this some other attempt to blackmail him and exhort money?
But now, he was sure that his Serena was somehow the same woman married to Aiden. He clenched his hands in anger. Of all the people that Serena could have ended up with, how did she get together with Aiden!
Aiden Hawk! Even though this man had saved his life, Sidney was not willing to ever look at him as an ally. Aiden Hawk would forever remain his enemy. But how did Serena end up with Aiden. Hadn’t she loved and eloped with Owen? And why had she not returned to claim her inheritance like she was supposed to? She was officially wedded to Aiden, wasn’t she? Then why not return to claim the things for which she had chosen to marry?
He needed to find a way to reach Serena. It wasn’t as if Aiden would take him there if he asked and neither would Serena be welcoming of him. He looked down at the number again. Ella Hawk... She was going to meet him today. She’d succeeded in doing what her father had failed to do. She’d won his favour...
"When does she want to meet?"
"She’s agreed to meet in the evening, Sir. But we have yet to choose a place."
Sidney nodded. "Bring her here... and prepare something special..."
The butler who had been standing quietly until now, quickly nodded his head and walked away.
"Serena...I will reach you soon enough and then, I’d like to see how you escape."