Aaron didn"t know how to answer all of Aiden"s questions. Of course he would be curious after everything that just went down but there was no way he would believe his boss had been reincarnated and was getting revenge for grievances in a different life.
All he knew is that it was going to be a nightmare explaining this to everyone, especially his parents. His mother would want to go shopping with his fiancée immediately. Aaron couldn"t let that happen.
Sending Aiden to Sweden on the next available flight seemed like the best option right now to get him safely out of the way. It wouldn"t even be a lie that "Bethany" was gone in that case.
"Aaron?" he asked expectantly. He was still waiting for answer to his question of "what else did Lacy do to you guys?"
As airheaded as he acted sometimes, Aiden was highly intelligent. His deductive reasoning skills were part of what made him such an accomplished hacker. He knew it was unreasonable to destroy someone"s entire family over a single grievance and that his boss was not an unreasonable man.
"You wouldn"t believe me if I told you," Aaron admitted, his knuckles whitening on the steering wheel from how hard he was gripping it.
He sighed and fiddled with his wig. "You can trust me you know."
"If I didn"t trust you I wouldn"t have put all of my business secrets in one basket. This isn"t a matter of trust." It was a matter of "you might think I"m crazy and lock me up if I told you the truth."
"Then what is it?"
Aaron didn"t like skirting around things. He had done that more than enough in his lifetimes. But he truly didn"t think Aiden would believe him.
"Hypothetically, if someone ruined your life but didn"t remember doing it would you still want to get revenge?"
"That"s random…I guess so. Just because they don"t remember it doesn"t mean it didn"t happen."
"Precisely."
Aiden"s heavily made up face scrunched up in confusion. "Wait, what?"
"All of the people I told you about ruined my life—and more importantly, Keeley"s—but don"t remember it," he said honestly. "The two of us are the only ones who remember. That"s all I can tell you."
The hacker went silent for a while. "I"d call you crazy but you claim Keeley remembers too and she"s one of the most level-headed people I"ve ever met."
Aaron nearly chuckled. "Are you saying I"m not level-headed?"
"No, no! That"s not what I meant. It"s just…why wouldn"t anyone else remember?"
"I don"t know any better than you do. I doubt I"ll ever figure out how this all happened. All I do know is that they are terrible people and need to be stopped," he said matter-of-factly. "Are you still with me?"
"Yeah. You know I"ve always got your back, boss. My family never would have made it through after my dad left if not for you."
One thing Aaron had going for him was that he bred loyalty in his underlings. Any of them would walk through fire if he needed them to.
"Good. And please don"t tell anybody about what we discussed. n.o.body else knows about this."
Aiden"s eyes shone. "n.o.body? Not even Cameron?" When Aaron shook his head he got visibly excited. "I knew I was your favorite!"
Not this again.
"Yes, yes you"re my favorite," he said impatiently to get him to shut up. "Now look up the next flight to Stockholm. Go have your vacation; you"ve earned it."
"You"re the best! Actually, you"re the worst for making me dress up like this so when it all evens out I guess you"re the okayest."Aaron honestly didn"t care where he fell on Aiden"s strange scale as long as he continued doing his work well.
He wouldn"t bother him at all while he was gone unless there was some sort of emergency. It should be fine; when he was gone for a couple of weeks before he kept alerts running on the security monitors for specific phrases.
If one went off, Aiden would be notified and would in turn notify Aaron. It had happened before.
A few minutes later he announced that there was a flight with a three hour layover in England that was leaving in the morning. Aaron told him to book it and shooed him out of the car in front of his apartment building.
Aiden turned around the second he got out of the car and started walking away. "Wait! What do you want me to do with this ring?"
"Give it to your girlfriend for all I care."
"No way; if I ever propose to her it"s not going to be with a secondhand ring!"
"Then go to the jewelry store I got it at and exchange it for something or equal or lesser value. Or just sell it. I don"t care what you do with it; it"s yours."
He could see the wheels turning in the kid"s head at the prospect of selling such a mega-carat ring. He could buy himself all sorts of new toys. Aiden mumbled ideas to himself as he shut the door and walked to his building.
Aaron rested his head on the steering wheel. Dealing with all of this fallout was going to be terrible.
He could only imagine how much of a splash the news of his "engagement" was going to make online. After all, he was one of the most eligible bachelors in the entire city. Everyone would know soon enough.
Even if he completely avoided any social events for the next few months and didn"t leave his apartment except to go to work he would still get bombarded with questions at the office. Dealing with other people was tedious but with his father…one wrong move and he would be exposed.
The fake engagement would end eventually but if he wasn"t married by the time it was, his father would be back on his case about Lacy Knighton. If only that nutcase would marry someone else. Then he would be free to pine after Keeley in peace.
He meant what he said before; he only had one wife. If she never willingly spoke to him again, he would remain alone. No one else on this earth could tempt him into matrimony.