Graydon Meyer loved seeing individuals’s true colours—particularly once they normally hid behind a façade. Watching a supposedly refined socialite like Lacy Knighton chuck her cellphone throughout the room in anger was a real pleasure.

“That is fairly a mood you will have there. Why do you appear angrier about this girl than his precise fiancée?” he requested curiously.

“She modified him,” she hissed. “That girl ruined Aaron!”

Ruined? Quite the opposite. The previous Aaron had been nothing however his father’s puppet. This one was far more attention-grabbing. In an odd method, they had been like allies.

He had no intention of serving to this horribly spoiled girl get what she wished. Aaron deserved much better than a wolf in designer sheep’s clothes like Lacy. His true purpose in approaching her was to see what she knew.

She had been disappointing. She knew nearly nothing concerning the man she was supposedly head over heels in love with firsthand, counting on gossip and secondhand statements from Alistair Hale.

Though…this new growth alone may need been value bringing her onboard. Keeley Corridor. Graydon hadn’t identified a factor about her earlier than this and he thought he knew all the main gamers in Aaron’s life.

Alistair and Roslyn Hale. Cameron Singleton. Aiden Quinn. The opposite dummy shareholders. Bethany Carlisle. Lacy Knighton, the perpetual thorn in his aspect. He wanted so as to add this new lady to the checklist.

The place did she slot in if Aaron had a fiancée? Lacy appeared to suppose these two had been genuinely in love. Was Keeley Corridor actually only a good friend?

As Lacy continued ranting about who is aware of what, he tuned out and determined to discover their relationship on Fb a bit extra. Since he wasn’t associates with both of them, the knowledge was restricted. He may solely see photographs the 2 of them had been tagged in.

One other picture caught his eye. Aaron was standing amongst a bunch of people that had been consuming cake, together with each Aiden and Keeley. Aiden had his arm round Aaron and Keeley was fortunately consuming her cake. All of them appeared pretty chummy.

How did Keeley know Aiden? She seemed to be shut associates with Cameron’s bride so it made sense that she would know him.

Aaron solely had a pair dozen Fb associates whole—the truth that they shared a handful of them needed to imply one thing. Graydon was tempted to ship a good friend request himself if not for the truth that he knew it might be turned down. Aaron did not know he existed, in any case.  

Lacy claimed that Keeley had ruined Aaron…wasn’t the timing of distancing himself from his household and excessive society an excessive amount of of a coincidence? What if—and it was a fairly large if—he left for her?

Her Fb profile examine the identical as each fundamental feminine in her twenties. She appeared common in each method attainable though she regarded fairly fairly when she smiled.

Assuming Aaron started making his plans to kick Alistair Hale out of the corporate due to Keeley that left the query of the place Bethany Carlisle match into all of this. Was she a pawn like all of his different “associates”? Did they’ve an settlement to fake to be engaged to appease Alistair?

Based on his supply on the board, Aaron was awarded a further 10% of his father’s shares for getting engaged to a socialite. If he had identified what Alistair was planning on doing beforehand, a pretend engagement can be fairly shrewd.

It might additionally doubtlessly shield a girl he was eager about who wasn’t part of excessive society. A girl, for instance, like Keeley Corridor?

Everybody who hung out round Aaron commonly reported that he was a taciturn, expressionless ice dice. However the almost-smile in that picture with Keeley had been unmistakably smooth. This was getting higher and higher.

That’s, if his hypotheses had been appropriate. All of this was conjecture based mostly on phrase of mouth and some Fb photographs. It was nonetheless value trying into.

Graydon wished extra details about this girl. If she had really captivated the nice Aaron Hale, she simply turned essentially the most attention-grabbing individual on this planet.

===

Keeley lay sprawled out on the enormous sofa/mattress hybrid in her pajamas consuming goldfish crackers at 6:27 PM as a result of she was drained from inputting and quadruple checking knowledge half the day. Her mind had gone numb.

Molly and Dinah had joined her and sniffed on the Goldfish curiously every time she by accident dropped one. She was too drained even to have her hand-eye coordination work correctly.

She thought she heard her title being known as within the distance and paused her film to listen to higher. Aaron will need to have simply gotten house.

“I am within the TV room!” she hollered, too lazy to rise up.

He confirmed up within the doorway a second later and raised his eyebrow. “Somebody appears to be like comfy. How lengthy have you ever been there?”

“Solely about ten minutes.”

“You possibly can flip something right into a nest surprisingly shortly.”

She caught her tongue out at him earlier than dramatically laying her arm throughout her face. “I am exhausted, okay? My mind is totally fried. You are by yourself for dinner.”

Aaron glanced on the frozen TV curiously. “What are you watching?”

“The primary Harry Potter film. I am solely ten minutes in; I may rewind it if you wish to watch too,” she provided. He had stated he is perhaps eager about watching them sooner or later.

He smiled as he loosened his tie. “Thanks, I am going to take you up on that. Let me go change and get some meals first. You need something?”

She held up her snack bag to point she was good.

5 minutes later, he rejoined her in his personal pajamas with some reheated leftovers. Seeing her questioning stare, he shrugged.

“You regarded comfy. I wished to be comfy too.”

Keeley pressed play and heard the acquainted opening music as she dug round in her bag for one more handful of crackers. It was arduous to consider that the Aaron she used to know was sitting right here now, in his pajamas whereas the solar was nonetheless up, watching a preferred film together with her. He actually had modified.