Pampered by my Billionaire CEO Husband

Her name left my parted lips, my voice filled with surprise and disbelief as my gaze remained on her. My eyes were running wild with emotions and I didn’t know exactly how to describe what I was feeling at that moment. It was almost like a mixture of relief, joy but also sadness, anger and betrayal as the memories from before came flooding my mind in an instant.

I felt my heart skip a beat and it felt as though time had come to a pause. I couldn’t believe my eyes, what are the odds that I would see her again? Since when has the world become so small? By some odd twist of fate, I ended up at the boutique she was working at.

Her eyes grew wide and shock flashed past her face for a fleeting moment when she realised she was looking right at me. Within the next second, a soft gasp emerged from her throat and a flustered look masked her features. Before I knew it, the glass she was once holding slipped out of her hands and fell onto the ground, shattering upon hitting the ground.

"Aurelia, careful!" Xavier yelled out as he reached out to grab me by my shoulders within a split second, pulling me back to his side.

The loud sudden sound caught everyone’s attention as they immediately whipped their heads around, their eyes darting around in search of the source of the noise. Realisation washed over them when they looked down to see broken pieces of glass scattered everywhere.

"Are you okay?" He asked as a mixture of concern and worry was swirling in the depths of his dark brown eyes. He hadn’t even noticed it was Serena who was standing before our eyes when that was all I could think about at that moment as my mind continued to buzz with thoughts.

"Yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry," I muttered under my breath.

"Oh my god, Serena!" Julia shrieked, her high-pitched voice slicing through the air as her brows furrowed together to form a frown on her face. Her eyes flickered over to glance at Serena with a look of disdain plastered across her face. "Serena, what is wrong with you? Can’t you be more careful? I know you are new but gosh... You are so clumsy and careless all the time, no wonder nobody wants to hire a stay-at-home-mum like you," she continued to complain and sneaked in a snarky remark, her tone carrying a sharp edge to it while the rest of her colleagues laughed along, mocking her as if she wasn’t standing right in front of them.

I watched as Serena bit her lower lip, as if she was trying to hold back the words sitting at the tip of her tongue. Instead, she bowed and apologised over and over again.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to happen. I will clean it up immediately," she said, turning a deaf ear on the insults Julia was hurling at her.

Julia scoffed loudly this time as she rolled her eyes in a dramatic manner. "Yeah, you better," she sneered with a disdainful scorn. "After all, you created this mess. You can’t be expecting us to clean up after you, right?" She spat the words out like they were poison in her mouth as she glared at Serena.

"Hey, are you done yet?" I asked and I arched an eyebrow at Julia as our eyes met, my voice laced with a hint of anger. She looked at me, taken aback by the sharpness in my tone. She simply stared at me, not uttering a single word as silence lapsed between the both of us momentarily. "Is this how you speak to your colleague? You remind me of the popular mean girl who peaked in high school, so now you are out here bullying your own colleagues?"

She let out a breath as she looked at me with disbelief written all over her face as her mind tried to register the words that have left my mouth. "What?" She muttered under her breath as the frown on her face deepened. She stepped forward, closing the distance between us. "Are you talking about me?" She asked as she jutted out her finger to point at herself, raising a brow at me.

Tension continued to brew in the air as Serena’s eyes darted between us with an anxious look etched onto her face.

"Yeah, you. Who else could I be talking about?" I confirmed as my voice remained unwavering and I kept my gaze steady.

"Excuse me miss, but I was just teaching my colleague to be more careful in the future," she explained, defending herself. "Besides...Why are you even defending her? Do you know her or something?"

"I –"

The words barely left my lips when I felt someone grab me by my arm. I turned to see that it was Serena who was looking at me as she shook her head lightly. "Aurelia, it’s fine. Julia is right, it is my fault, I need to clean this up."

A low and mocking chuckle erupted from Julia’s lips. "Exactly, she knows it herself," she laughed as a smirk tugged at the corners of her lips.

Without fighting back or saying another word, Serena quickly excused herself to the back. When she returned with the broom and dustpan to sweep up the mess, her colleagues had already disappeared to the back, leaving her to deal with the mess alone. They didn’t even bother staying to try and help me. Seeing this, I quickly grabbed the broom out of her hand.

"No, let me help you."

She looked up to meet my gaze, her eyes filled with emotions as tears began to fill the brim of her eyes, threatening to fall at any second now.

"Why are you helping me?" She asked, as she lowered her voice to a hush whisper.

I let a smile grace my lips. "Why not? You are still my friend. I’m not going to let you clean it up alone."

She sucked in a deep breath as she tightened her grip on the dustpan she was still holding onto. "But I betrayed you," she said, her voice shaky. "I selfishly took the money they offered and basically handed you to them. I don’t deserve to be called your friend," she continued as her voice cracked towards the end.

"You blocked me. You wouldn’t answer my calls and texts. But I know you wouldn’t do this to me for no reason. There must be a reason you did what you did. So tell me," I pleaded as I looked into her eyes. "Tell me I was right. I know you, you are not that type of person."

Her eyes were filled with so much guilt and shame and she couldn’t look at me for another second longer as she averted her eyes to look at the ground.

"You don’t know me, Aurelia. You barely know me, how would you know what kind of person I am? I was too ashamed to face you back then," she admitted.

"No, I know you. You won’t do this to me."

***

Third Person POV

Flashback

"There was this woman..." Aaron spat the words out like they were poison in his mouth, disdain and contempt swirling in the depths of his eyes as the memories flooded his mind in an instant. He turned to face Stella this time, his arm still slung around her shoulders as they lay in bed under the dim lights. "She was the reason I was arrested by the police last night," he snarled as his features hardened and he clenched his jaw tightly.

A loud scoff erupted from his throat as a smirk tugged at the corners of his lips. "But little did she know that she couldn’t put me behind bars. They released me because there wasn’t sufficient evidence. Idiots," he cussed.

Stella sat up straighter this time, adjusting her posture as she looked at him with concern evident on her face. A frown crept onto her face, resting between her brows. "Who is she? Do you know her?" She questioned.

He let out a breath as his brows were furrowed together in concentration. "I don’t. But she looked so familiar, I swore I had seen her somewhere before. I just couldn’t think of it right now."

"That’s alright," she said as her gaze softened. "All that matters is that you are safe now, and she can’t do anything to you," she muttered under her breath, her tone soft and gentle. She reached up to cup his face in her hand and gazed into his eyes lovingly, letting the corners of her lips twitch upwards into a sweet smile.

As soon as the words left the tip of her tongue, his eyes lit up and a gasp of realisation emerged from his throat.

"I remember now!" He exclaimed with confidence. "It’s... it’s the woman you said that seduced your boyfriend," he finally revealed.

Stella felt as though her whole world had stopped spinning for a split second and disbelief was written all over her face as her eyes grew wide with shock. Realisation dawned upon her at that moment, she knew exactly who he was referring to.

How small can the world be?

She looked up to meet his gaze.

"Aurelia?"