Chapter 7 Too Much Of A Coincidence.

The next day at Albrecht Empire, inside the dark exterior of Lucien’s office stood the head manager of the PR team, the woman cowering in her booth under Lucien’s piercing gaze.

“My question was simple; under whose order were those posts made?”

“M-Ms. Barrette, Sir. She informed us that you were aware and had given full permission to allow it air.”

‘Octavia?’ The redhead squinted his eyes.

What was her intention by releasing such a post?

“Get out.” He ordered and in less than seconds, the manager was scrambling out, happy to be out of the intimidating man's presence.

Just as the door closed, Lucien picked up his office phone and dialed the HR number. On the first beep, as expected, the line was answered.

Without a second to spare, he commanded. “Fire the PR manager and have someone take over immediately.”

After that, he hung up and was back to work, scrambling through letters and files until a certain one caught his attention.

He peeled it open and read through what was written, the contents written on it enough to pull a smile to his lips.

Overthrow the current president? Were the people sending him this letter that much of knuckle heads?

Although, after hearing the new president was female, he had expected such a retaliation; he had to say she was a rather capable one.

It hadn’t been more than two weeks since her inauguration and Grey Enterprise was already clawing at the Albrecht Empire’s back, fighting for the number spot.

Lucien acknowledged her worth. And if he wasn’t careful, Grey Enterprise just might regain its top stop.

Like he was ever going to let that happen.

Tossing the letter into a pile of scrap, Lucien moved towards his office table, peacefully plopping down into his chair.

The door flew open with a hasty knock the next second, and his assistant Lucas rushed in.

Lucien watched as the male approached his table, neatly dressed in a black suit and a singular file held close to his chest.

“What is the meaning of this?” Lucien asked, his voice low, yet more threatening than when it’s usual high.

“Forgive me Mr. Albrecht.” The assistant was quick to apologize, not wanting to lose his current job. Before he began his next sentence, beads of sweat poured down his forehead, almost peeling in his pants under Lucien’s intimidating gaze.

The young master himself was like an angel dragged straight out of a famous painting, but the dark interior of his working space, coupled with the charcoal dark suit Octavia had picked out for him, could make any person, man or woman, feel Intimidated by his presence.

So it was no surprise that Lucas was barely holding his crap together.

“Lucas, I don’t remember demanding an apology. What is the meaning of this?”

Several chills ran down the assistant’s spine at his employer’s menacing gaze. He always knew the man wasn’t one to take lightly to morning nuisance and mistakes.

Lowering his head, Lucas finally found half of his courage and spoke. “The background check you asked me to run on the new president Grey a few days ago is complete.”

“Bring it.”

Lucien demanded, Lucas rushing in lightning speed to deliver the file.

Silence descended in the room as Lucien flipped open the document. At the top right corner of it, a picture was displayed in the size of a passport photo. Even though the picture was somewhat blurry, Lucien could make out the features of a woman dressed in a black leather suit.

The picture only captures half of her face, but there was no mistaking it- those eyes, they looked so much like the gray ones that previously used to stare up at him with love and admiration.

An instant memory of that woman, his ex wife, flashed before his eyes.

The side photo of Chairwoman Grey also looked so much like Ariadne, except the hair color, that confused Lucien because she was blonde but Ariadne was a brunette.

Lucien stared at the photos for seconds more, trying to pick out every similarity Ms. Grey had with his ex wife before reluctantly drawing his gaze away from the picture; he then went on to read her detailed information.

Alexandra Grey.

Only daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Grey.

Born on the 27th of March 1995.

Current President of Grey Enterprise and owns Sixty four percent of the company’s shares.

Spouse- N/A…

Without reading any further, Lucien slammed the documents shut, the action startling his assistant.

The coincidences were few, like their date of birth. But their names were different and so were their backgrounds.

There was no way Lucien would buy that silly story of a girl returning from nowhere after several years of disappearance. Furthermore, why did it so happen to be the time Ariadne had left him?

The coincidences were too much.

Come to think of it, if Ariadne and Alexandra were the same people, that would explain how she had gotten so much money to buy him a Patek Philippe watch without his help.

“How…?” Squinting his eyes, Lucien muttered out. His self questioning was heard by his assistant who answered without thinking twice.

“It also came as much of a surprise to me when I learnt the Grey family had an elder daughter. But, seeing as her identity was constantly kept a secret, what were we to expect?

Private tutors had been hired for her and several shops came to the Grey manor in the event she ever needed anything. It was kind of strange how they had raised her in a rather confined way ever since she was small.

If not for the sources already planted within the company, I doubt we would have been able to get a single picture of her, when there’s not one on the internet.”

As Lucas wanted to report more, his talk was cut short by the tone tempo of his employer.

“How thoroughly has this been investigated?”

Lucas buffed his shoulder, confidence pooling in his tone. “By our best men, Sir. However, the information gathered there had cost me more than we had budgeted. I had to pull some really hard strings to get that.”

“Good job.” Lucien complimented as he once again flipped open the documents and examined the woman in the picture.

Lucas’s day felt a little better after his boss’s compliment. It was a very rare thing to receive praise from ‘The Lucien Albrecht’.

While Lucas was busy relishing in the feeling of being praised, Lucien’s gaze darkened on the photo displayed on his tablet’s screen.

His mind refused to believe that this very woman was the same person he had been married to for years, despite the many connections.

Lucas had soon come to notice the staring contest which was being held between Lucien and the picture, he took a step forward and voiced.

“What should be our next action, Sir?”

The questioned male kept silent for minutes, his gaze dancing in between the crumbled up invitation and the photo displayed.

As much as he didn’t want it, something constantly kept pulling him back towards his past, the woman who he had gotten rid of without second thoughts.

Finalizing his decision, Lucien finally spoke. “Send a reply to Daniel and Benjamin Grey.

"Inform them that I’d be participating in the meeting tomorrow.”