Chapter 117

Lucian’s POV

For the next few days, I tried to continue on as normal, putting all thoughts of Aria and Dr. A behind me. The two were both gone, so I couldn’t confront them to find out the truth.

I had Ben and others in my employ searching for answers, but until they returned to me, I wouldn’t know the full truth. If there was even anything for them to find.

After reading Aria’s journal, I had gathered just a few things of hers that I recognized and returned the diary and items to my room. Once those things were safe, I gave permission to the housekeepers to do as they would to Aria’s room.

It hadn’t taken them long to fully clean Aria’s room. Thought they righted her furniture and placed new sheets on the mattress, very few more of her personal items survived the destruction. The room wasn’t Aria’s anymore – more of a shell of what it had once been. I had taken the lock off the door, seeing the room now as nothing more than another guest room.

The diary entries haunted me though, long after I’d finished reading them. Even now, I couldn’t help but think back on how much Aria cared for me and how much I had disappointed her.

I hadn’t wanted to waste the flowers I had bought for Aria, so half of them sat in a glass vase on a table in the entryway to my house. The others were in a vase on the top of the coffee table in the sitting area of my office.

Looking at those multi-colored roses and remembering what the florist said, I wondered if they would have made a difference if I had been quicker. If I had gotten them to Aria before she disappeared…

Perhaps it was foolish to speculate. If Aria truly did leave the pack lands, then she likely wanted nothing more to do with me. Even if I could find a way to get her the flowers now, even if I could talk to her, I severely I could change her mind and bring her back.

A knock on the door to my office drew my attention up to the door, where Ben was standing, waiting for permission to enter.

I waved him forward, granting it.

“We have news, Sir,” Ben said. “Looking into Dr. A, we’ve uncovered something striking.”

I didn’t know what could be more striking that what we already knew. They’d been looking into Dr. A for some time, even with my new directive to search out a connection with Aria. I’d thought it foolhardy, that we’d already uncovered everything there was to be uncovered.

Still, I was willing to hear out whatever Ben had to say. “What is it?”

“Surprising news,” Ben said, approaching. He handed me a piece of paper. It looked like a bank statement.

“What is this?” I asked.

“Dr. A’s bank account,” Ben said. “She closed it, just before her departure, but with our authority, we could check the records. Look here…”

Leaning forward, Ben pointed to a specific part of the statement. Namely, Dr. A’s name. Only, it wasn’t written as Dr. A. Instead, it read only as Aria.

“Aria,” I read aloud, still not trusting my foolish heart. Perhaps I was imagining this connection. If I was, Ben would quickly correct my mistake. Instead, he stayed quiet, watching me.

“Yes,” Ben confirmed. “Dr. A’s account was opened under the name of Aria.”

It could be a coincidence. There were plenty of women named Aria. A name on a bank statement didn’t mean that my Aria and Dr. A are one in the same.

But this was one more point on top of a mountain of points. How many similarities had to line up before something stopped being a coincidence?

“It doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” I said.

“No, Sir,” Ben agreed verbally, but his face said otherwise. For him, this was one coincidence too many.

Perhaps I wouldn’t be so stubborn about this if I didn’t know Dr. A was pregnant. That was the one thing I couldn’t get around. Even the scent difference could be explained away.

But the pregnancy?

I couldn’t believe Aria was pregnant. If she was, she would have told me.

…Unless the baby wasn’t mine.

A small growl escaped me, furious enough that it caused Ben to take a step back.

I closed my eyes and tried to regain control over myself.

Aria wasn’t pregnant. She couldn’t be.

She and Dr. A were not the same person.

Though where before I needed proof to confirm they were the same person, now I needed proof to properly convince myself they weren’t.

Standing, I grabbed my suit jacket off the back of my desk chair and pulled it on.

“Ready the car,” I said to Ben.

Ben seemed surprised. “Where are we going, Sir?”

“Cathy’s house,” I said. “She might be the only one around here who knows the truth, and I will have it from her.”

Ben drove the sedan to Cathy’s house, and I walked up the familiar pathway and rang the doorbell. When Cathy answered, she had more color in her face this time. Whatever sickness she’d had before seemed to have passed.

“Something I can help you with, Alpha King?” she asked me, annoyance in her eyes.

I half-wanted to start throwing accusations around, but without proof to back up my claims, I wasn’t certain she would give me a straight answer. I had the folded up bank statement in my inside jacket pocket, but it didn’t feel like enough.

“I want to see Aria’s room,” I said.

“She’s gone,” Cathy told me.

“I would see what she left behind.”

Cathy stared at me for a long moment. Then, with a sigh, she backed away from the door, allowing me entrance into the home.

“This is a mistake,” she told me, as she led me down the hallway. “You are only going to hurt yourself. Aria’s gone. You have to let her go.”

Cathy led me to Aria’s room. She stayed at the door while I went inside.

The room was mostly cleared out, with only a few hairbrushes on top of the dresser and a few sweaters hanging in the closet. The bed was made, the alarm clock set. I glanced at the desk, curious, and then opened a drawer in the same spot she had kept her diary in back at our home.

Inside, I found a couple of letters. The one from Matt declaring his love for Aria was on top. Beneath it was some type of poem Jasper had written, as well as an attached photo of the two of them together.

As I knew she was in love with Jasper, it seemed odd for her to have left these behind.

Pain burned inside of me, seeing these items. Aria was so popular with men. She could have had any man she wanted, but she chose me. If only I had appreciated that when I’d had the chance.

I hadn’t, and now she was gone, free to fall in love with whoever else she wanted.

And there was hell all I could do about it.

Cathy watched me curiously but didn’t say a word.

There was no more evidence in here that Aria could be Dr. A, so I’d have to confront her with the little that I had.

“Cathy,” I said. “You know more about this than you’ve told me. I need you to be honest with me know. What do you know about Dr. A and Aria?”