Chapter 6

Anna's POV

“Aiden, what the fuck are you doing here!?”

The words rang in my mind, but never left my lips. Control, I told myself, Control.

He froze in his steps as he laid eyes on me, but resumed his pace almost immediately—so fast you wouldn't notice the pause. Everything about him was different, his hair was different; not the tousled hair I was used to. The look in his eyes, his aura—every damn thing was totally unrecognizable. Could it be a Doppler? A Doppler wouldn’t freeze because of my presence. He knew me and I thought I knew him.

My heart raced, thumping blood through my body with anger. Anger from the betrayal, from the lies. Was his name even Aiden? Or was everything a lie? Liam seemed to catch on, he had seen Aiden once. He immediately tensed up, with an expression that was pleading to me to remain calm. Calm was the last thing I felt. I wanted rage, to scream and burn this whole mansion down with my fury. But was it worth it? Maybe Liam was right—family was all I had.

Lilian stretched her hand forward and Aiden planted a kiss on it. Until now, I had never seen him in a suit, and I hated that he looked so damn good in it. I hated that a part of me wanted all this to be a lie…maybe it was some kind of elaborate trick.

“Hello, mother.”

Even his voice sounded different—devoid of all the warmth that lingered whenever he called my name. But my body still responded to it the way it always did; a slight shiver and a longing that could never be quenched. Five years of being in love with him had trained my body to react that way. I shifted in my seat, and finally, forcefully peeled my gaze off him.

“Brother,” he nodded in deference. “You didn't tell me we were expecting guests.”

Guests! Did he just call me a guest!?

It irritated me how fluid his acting was. If I wasn't sure I knew him, I'd have been convinced that I was losing my mind.

Lilian patted the empty seat beside her for Aiden to sit. “That's your brother's fiancee, Anna, daughter of the late McClain.”

His gaze flicked to me, and for the briefest moment, I saw an emotion—hurt. No shit, was he hurt? He wasn't even the victim here. I was.

He nodded and relaxed in his seat.

“You're hardly ever around these days.”

“I've been busy, mother.”

Being an HR? I thought.

The rest of the meeting quickly passed in a blur with me unable to take my mind off Aiden. He, on the other hand, seemed to be finding the whole situation quite amusing. Finally, we stood up to leave. They walked us to our car and we drove off.

The journey was quiet at first, then Liam turned to me. “What happened in there?”

“Nothing,” I said curtly.

He smirked. Something seemed to amuse him. “Let me get this straight, for five years you ran away from your family, only to get in bed with the Martinez's son?”

His words struck a nerve, but I held my tongue. He was right, after all. I had been so stupid, so gullible. How didn't I see the signs? How couldn't I tell that he was hiding something?

“Whatever you do, he's in the past now. Stay away from him.”

“I intend to,” I muttered, sinking into my seat and looking out the window. A car suddenly sped past us, tyres screeching and raising dust. It abruptly stopped in front of us and our driver immediately stepped on the brake, jolting us forward.

Ambush? Had Marcus finally found us? We docked low in the car. Liam pulled out his gun and tossed another to me. The door to the car that had cut off our movements flung open, and Aiden stepped out. I felt my anger rekindle.

“What does he want?” Liam asked.

“That's what I intend to find out,” I said as I got out of the car. He walked towards me like a character from an action movie, the wind tousling his suit and his hair. Each of his strides oozed with confidence. The Aiden I knew always cowered—this one was different.

He stopped in front of me and immediately all that anger that had been building up for the past few hours dissipated, leaving a hollow. I felt empty and just wanted him to hug me and hold me tight.

“Human resource manager, for real!?” I spat. In truth, that was all I could manage to say, and I said it without being able to summon any anger. He shrugged, his gaze briefly surveilling our surroundings.

“Say something!”

“I manage the men in our mafia—human resource manager…” His words trailed off, as if he suddenly realized that it didn't make any sense.

“So you're a thug then.”

His gaze clashed with mine. “I'm not a thug.”

“You sure sound like one. Was anything you told me even true?”

“You weren't exactly straightforward with me either,” he whispered, averting his gaze. “To be fair, we both lied to each other.”

“Then why are you here? I'm getting married to your brother, why the fuck are you here!?”

Silence. I turned to leave.

“Anna.”

I turned to face him. What was he going to say? Was he going to explain to me that this was all a huge misconception? Tell me he loved me and wasn't going to sit back and watch me engage his brother? Was he going to show some emotions different from the poker face he had on all day? Was he—

“The ring…”

My thoughts froze. With everything that's happening all he cared about was a stupid ring?

“Fuck you, Aiden. I don't ever want to see you again.”