Chapter 70
A lie
ConTEent bel0ngs to N?v(e)lD/rama(.)Org .
I kept staring at n, blinking my eyes in disbelief. “Let me get this straight… You made a perfect clone
of Can’s phone, and then you erased all the nude pictures and the video from it?”
“That is correct,” Norton confirmed.
“And this phone is the one that the FBI agents have taken?”
“Yup.” n grinned wickedly. “And the original is still in our hands, and we canplete the retrieval of
data that got erased by the burner app?” “Yes,” they replied simultaneously. I copsed on the sofa and
burst out intoughter, relieved and happy to have those two freaks by my side. Aren stood beside me,
smiling and gesturing a thumbs-up to n and Norton. I smiled at my husband and shrugged. “I guess,
we will notify Jack if we find something useful.” “Good idea.” Aren nodded before turning to the boys.
“Good job, guys.” “It was the right thing to do,” Norton said, confidently raising his chin.
I knew I owed them a good dinner with high-quality alcohol, at least for what they did. As soon as Aren,
Neil, and thewyer left, I hugged both of them.
“Thank you, guys. I’ve no idea what I would do without you,” I said, on the verge of sobbing. “Chill babe!”
n chuckled. “You are our boss’s wife. It is only natural that we’ll make sure that no fucker messes with
you.” Norton nodded, approving n’s words before he sat back behind his desk. “We still have work to
do,” he said, shifting his eyes to aputer screen. He was right. There was a chance thatputer
geeks working for the FBI would discover that what those agents took was a mere copy of Can’s
phone, and they woulde back to search for the real one this time. We had to make sure that we
retrieved all the files we could before that happened.
All three of us worked relentlessly for the next hours, correcting algorithms to get the best possible
results. Finally, it all started to pay off… “I got one message!” n eximed. “It was sent two days
before your kidnapping, and it was sent to an unidentified recipient, supposedly a burner phone.” “Let me
see it,” I said, pushing myself to ride my office chair closer to his screen and then read the message
aloud, “I’ve given the universal key to your man just like you wanted. Just remember that afterward, Cora
is mine.”
Chills ran down my spine. I was d that the message appeared to be one more piece of evidence of
Can’s involvement in my kidnapping and the whole attack, but it had little use
when Can had already died. My excitement gave way to a wry smile. We needed to dig deeper, hoping
to recover something with a name or a ce at least. After another hour, I dug into an iing message
from two weeks ago. I read it to the boys, “I know you want him dead just as much as I do. He will pay for
what he has done to my family. I’ll make sure he pays.” “Wow… this guy is serious!” nmented,
widening his eyes. “You should show it to your husband. Maybe it will give him a clue.”
My lips stretched into a grimace. “I doubt it. It’s not too specific, and the thing about the family… Aren
must have taken a lot ofpanies over the years. I bet there must be thousands of families who hate
him for losing their jobs or their wealth.”
“Fuck, you’re right.” n lowered his head and turned his eyes back to the screen. Before midnight, we
retrieved a few other text messages, but none of them brought anything new. I was starting to feel that
we were running in circles. The mastermind behind the attack was wise enough not to use any specific
names in the messages, giving us little to no information about who he was. If it weren’t for the fact that I
had talked to him, I could have assumed that the perpetrator might have been a woman as well. I heaved
a sound of frustration as I finished reading another nothing changing text. “Maybe we should call it a
day?” Norton suggested.
“I’ll second that.” n raised his wobbly hand. “Fine…” I muttered, blinking at the screen with my
exhausted eyes. I texted Aren. He asked me to wait a few more minutes so that we could go home
together. I did as he asked me to. I went down to the parking lot and sat in the car. The fifteen minutes
passed, and Aren didn’te down. I shrugged, thinking that he must have answered ast minute
phone call. I used that time to read a few articles on my phone, but when it was almost 1 AM and he
wasn’t there, it got me slightly worried. I was about to call him when he showed up, walking out of his
private elevator and heading toward the car. He looked pale and nervous. I could see that something
was clearly off, but as he got inside the car, he gave me a warm smile as if nothing had happened. “Are
you all right?” I asked, stroking his cheek. “Of course.” He chuckled, touching my hand on his cheek.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” He lied. I knew him well enough to know that. Perhaps he didn’t want to worry me,
but I hated not knowing what was going on. Besides, it scared the hell out of me to see him that nervous.
I had never seen him in any other way but confident. What kind of news could have made him this
anxious?
As we drove up to the street, he suddenly yelled to Marcus, “Stop!” Marcus pulled over, and Aren got out
of the car and started looking around as if he was searching for something or someone on the still-
crowdy Manhattan sidewalk. If I tried to ignore his previous behavior, then this time I couldn’t. I got out of
the car and frowned at him. “Aren, what is wrong? Don’t lie to me. If we are in any danger, then just-”
“There is nothing wrong. We are not in danger,” he assured, still looking around on both sides of the
street.
“You are lying. Tell me what’s wrong,” I urged, crossing my arms over my chest. “Nothing that concerns
you, God damn it!” he yelled, making me dumbfounded.
That hurt like a punch in the stomach. It wasn’t because Aren raised his voice at me, but he excluded me
from knowing something, something that bothered him. After I had spent the whole day trying to find out
who wanted to kill him, doing everything for him, those words sounded especially painful. I got inside the
car. He got back a few secondster. We stayed silent all the way to the penthouse. After Aren closed
the door behind us, I went to the kitchen to get some water. He followed me.
“I didn’t mean to yell at you, sunshine,” he murmured, hugging me from behind.
“It’s OK.” I guess it was time for me to lie. “You just surprised me…”
He nuzzled my back and left a couple of kisses on my spine. “I had a lot of work today, and then on the
sidewalk, I thought I saw someone.”
I chuckled faintly. “It must have been someone terrifying. You looked like you saw a ghost.”
“It was someone who wasn’t supposed to be here. That’s all,” he said, stepping away from me.
I restrained my curiosity to ask him more questions. I just hoped that he would tell me himself once he
calmed down. I smiled and wanted to put my arms around him when suddenly, he stepped away from
me. “Let’s just… spend this night alone, shall we? It was an extremely long day.” I nodded, pretending
that his words didn’t feel like a p in the face. I had to take a thirty minute shower before I finally
regained myposure and was ready to drift into a dream, or at least that was what I thought… Iy in
bed tossing and turning for hours, getting more and more frustrated. I hated the feeling that there was
something unfinished between me and Aren. Before I realized it, I was standing in front of his door, ready
to knock, when suddenly I heard his whisper. I pressed my ear against the door. “Aren?” I asked faintly,
but he didn’t reply. I waited a few more seconds before I heard him calling, “Lanfen!” The tone of his
voice was painful. It scared me enough to open the door and run to his bed. “Lanfen! Buyao zou, Lanfen!
“he kept calling out while his eyes were closed. His hands were reaching out, trying to grab the air above
him. He kept crying out that one name as if he was in agony. I sat on his bed and gently stroked his
cheek, hoping to calm him down.
“Lanfen… Lanfen…” he muttered in sleep.
My heart ached for him. “Aren, wake up,” I whispered. “You are having a nightmare; wake up.” He
opened his eyes with a heavy gasp. Tears flew down his cheeks uncontrobly while his face was
completely pale. “You had a nightmare, handsome,” I said softly as I wiped away his tears.
He didn’t say a word; he just grabbed my hand and kissed it. I sat there on his bed, stroking his hair,
smiling at him, and trying to give himfort, even though I was all shaking inside. I led an inside battle
as each corner of my mind was upied with one question: who the hell was this Lanfen?