Chapter 6 The Grey Enterprise?

Sitting in Lucien’s office, Octavia scrolled through her phone to get some social media she usually did.

It hadn’t been more than one week since Ariadne had signed their divorce paper and moved out, yet it was said that she was already taking over the Albrecht household as their future new madam.

The sound of the study door opening drew the noirette away from her phone. Raising her gaze, her eyes landed on Lucien as he stepped in, looking stressed, she could tell.

Lucien was a wrapped walking present, a gift given from God to bless this world, a magnet for women and money, and envy to men.

With Auburn long hair, Deep Ocean blue orbs, perfect natural lips, broad shoulders that Octavia found the most attractive, and with a height that towered above most men. A best choice that any women could dream about.

Watching him walk towards his work table without sparing a glance her way- probably caught up with producing a new business idea that will most definitely skyrocket Albrecht Empire’s profits. Octavia placed her phone away and called out.

“Lu?” On hearing his name, the redhead stopped his march forward and looked back, his facial features softening a bit the moment his eyes landed on the woman on his couch. “Everything okay?”

Lucien kept quiet for a second, it was as if his brain wasn’t processing what he had just heard.

Unlike her usual confident badass look, Octavia was looking more mellowed. Dressed in a calm peach colored gown that hung barely above her knees, her usual thick make up was replaced by a rather moderate one and her hair twisted into plain but beautiful locks.

Lucien wasn’t complaining about her strange change to a docile look, rather, he found it awfully similar to… his Ex wife.

Somehow, he was currently thinking of the woman who he had egged on to sign their very own divorce papers more and more these days.

Why were memories of her suddenly lingering in his mind? When she was still living with him, he never once deemed her as someone to be noted.

Not even on the night of their wedding, nor their engagement ceremony.

It was as if Alexandra was the only one looking forward to the marriage and trying her best to make it work. This piqued his curiosity.

Why had she agreed to marry him?

Was it for his money? The status and wealth that came along with it?

But during the years of their marriage, Alexandra never seemed like a big spender and didn’t bother taking the black card he had left for her-the dream of most girls.

Neither did she have any intent to expose her identity as the young madam of the Albrecht family and enjoy the prestige and power that came with that title.

So, why…?

“Lu?” Octavia’s honey smooth voice drew him out of his trance. In his time of not answering, the noirette had risen from her seat and walked over to him, placing a comforting arm on his shoulder. “Were you listening? Is everything okay?”

Containing the sigh that threatened to escape his lips, Lucien forced on a smile and nodded, giving his lover what he believed was a satisfactory answer before strolling to his chair and plopping into it, ready to begin work for the evening.

However, Octavia was not pleased with this answer and her face visibly darkened, unbeknown to Lucien.

She had only just gotten rid of one obstacle, and she was not going to let another get in her way.

“Work seems busy.” Octavia said as she walked up to her lover, easily slipping onto his laps and placing a passionate kiss on his lip.

Lucien felt somewhat disturbed by this but easily brushed it off as he arranged some files and answered. “Yeah, work’s been busy.”

“Investors?”

“No.” Lucien didn’t raise his gaze and gave a perfunctory answer.

Octavia didn’t give up there, she was about to pry further, thinking that way, she’ll be able to reduce some of the weight her Fiancé carries on his shoulder, but just as she was about to press on, Lucien reached for some files and due to his Assistant’s lack of arrangement skills, the whole thing fell off, some spilling on the floor.

“Shit!” He cursed out under his breath, about to reach for the papers below when Octavia stopped him.

“I’ll get those ones, you handle the table.” She informed as she rose from his lap, bending down to gather the spilled papers on the ground.

Lucien felt a wave of contentment wash over him as he watched the woman who he was going to spend the rest of his life with.

Octavia truly was the best partner for any man.

Or so he thought.

“All done.” The noirette announced, rising up with papers in her hand and giving them to the male in front of her.

Just as she was giving out the files, her eyes caught one, and a particular name drew her attention. Without handing that one document… rather a letter back. She sank back onto his lap, about to read it when to her surprise, it was snatched away at lightning speed.

The action angered Octavia’s heart, but she still held on to a smiling face, after all, Lucien wasn’t one to hide things from her. So what was so important about that single letter?

It was a company letter, that she was sure of. So why the need to keep it away from her eyes.

“I haven’t seen you use that name in quite a while. Italy… you used it while you studied in Italy… right?”

Lucien suddenly stared at Octavia with a displeased look on his face. It was the first time Lucien’s expression had held something other than affection and care towards her.

Unconsciously, the noirette shrank back, stuttering the moment she decided to speak. “T-the name on that l-letter. I was just K-kind of surprised you still use it.”

Octavia felt her heart pounding wildly as Lucien’s gaze didn’t change nor flatter, and the proximity between them wasn’t helping either.

She couldn’t tell what the male was thinking, and this further drove her over the edge.

“I’ll leave you to work now, let me check up on how the preparations for dinner are going.” Octavia shot up from his lap, suddenly desperate to leave his sight.

In less than a minute, she had covered the distance between the door and his table and was gone. Moments after, Lucas came rushing in.

“What is it?” Lucien demanded in a deep voice.

“You told me to run a new background check on madam… I mean Ms. Ariadne. She indeed is an orphan. She grew up in a small and run down orphanage located in the outer banks of Seattle. However, the names of her deceased parents are unknown. The director at the orphanage personally said that Ms. Ariadne had not once mentioned or talked about her family.”

Lucien’s facial expression hardened up and the assistant hesitated with his next words.

“However, the location of Ms. Ariadne is still unknown. It almost seems like she has totally vanished off the face of the earth. B-but, don’t worry, we’re still trying our very best to find her location.”

Lucien felt a fire in his chest burn, and without realizing it, he almost snapped. “I don’t recall hiring incompetent people. One job… you had one freaking job.” His voice stayed low yet sounded more threatening than when someone raised their voice.

“I’m sorry sir.” Lucas cowered. “I take full responsibility for the delay. During our investigation, I got distracted.”

“What could be more important? Speak.”

The assistant rushed forward and flipped open the cover of his tablet, fumbling a few times with the device before presenting a news article to his employer.

“Someone else seems to have gotten the deal with Mr. Heinrich ahead of us.”

Lucien’s brows formed a poker.

How could someone else do what he couldn’t?

“Grey Enterprise?” He muttered as his eyes landed on the name of the company which had secured the deal.

“Yes. A week back someone had taken up total succession over Grey Enterprise. Sources say it’s the daughter of the Grey family who had appeared after years of disappearance.”

This news made Lucien scrunch up his face. Not only did a story like that sound far fetched, it sounded almost made up.

And how could someone like her secure a deal that had taken him months.

Was she that capable or was it something else?

“Run a background check on her; scrape up everything you can find.” Lucien demanded as his gaze lingered on a spot on his wall.

Whoever this daughter of the Grey family is, she was someone he had to be wary of.