BILLIONAIRE SAW HIS PREGNANT EX-WIFE SERVING TABLES—THEN ONE SENTENCE FROM HER DESTROYED EVERYONE IN THE ROOM

“What did you know?” he asked.

Belle’s face tightened. “About what?”

“Naira.”

Her eyes flickered for only a second.

But Caspian saw it.

Three years earlier, he would have missed it. He would have called it stress. He would have trusted the polished concern in her voice.

Tonight, after seeing Naira pregnant, exhausted, and still dignified in a uniform, something inside him refused to sleep again.

Belle forced a soft laugh. “You’re emotional.”

“I asked you a question.”

“And I’m telling you this is not the place.”

Caspian stepped back from her for the first time.

Belle looked afraid.

Not heartbroken.

Afraid.

The difference mattered.

The investors rose from their table. One approached with a careful smile.

“Caspian, perhaps we should reschedule.”

Caspian did not even look at him. “Do that.”

“This deal is time-sensitive.”

“So is the truth.”

Whispers moved again.

Belle’s face burned with embarrassment.

Caspian turned toward the back hallway where Naira had disappeared. He wanted to follow her, but her warning held him in place.

Don’t.

For once, he listened.

He walked out of the restaurant alone.w

By midnight, Veil Meridian Group was dark except for the executive floor. Caspian entered his private office, removed his coat, and opened the locked drawer he had not touched in years.

Inside sat the old scandal file.

Naira’s file.

For three years, that folder had been the wall between his pain and his guilt.

Now it looked thin.

Weak.

Almost childish.