When the Contract Marriage Ended, He Stayed

###Chapter 80: Why Would She Do This?

In the hotel’s presidential suite, Aiden and Holly sat on separate sofas with their arms crossed, staring intently at Hazel. The setup felt like a formal interrogation. Hazel touched her nose and smiled, trying to ease the heavy atmosphere.

The moment she smiled, Aiden’s expression grew stern. So, she dropped the smile and became serious.

"I really was taken. But the strange thing is, the person who abducted me didn’t do anything to me."

Aiden shot her a cold look. "They didn’t do anything to you?"

Hazel bristled at his words. "Were you hoping they would do something to me?" Aiden’s gaze, sharp as a dagger, shot toward her again. But then she remembered he had rushed all the way here so late at night, and she decided to let it go.

"I was abducted from a taxi. When I woke up, I was in a hotel room. This man came in, just stared at me, then took a phone call and let me go. Until he released me, I was sure he was going to do something to me."

"I don’t even know why he took me. Do you?" Hazel looked at Aiden. "Aren’t you supposed to be so resourceful? If you had people following me, why didn’t they show up to save me the second I was in danger?"

Aiden glanced at Hazel, his face impassive. "I didn’t have anyone following you."

"Oh, really? Then how do you always know my every move?" Hazel waved her hand dismissively. "But that’s not important right now. What I really want to know is why that man did this."

Raina’s words suddenly echoed in Aiden’s mind. ’What if you get there and find out Hazel was never missing? Will you still trust her so much?’ Looking at the perfectly unharmed Hazel before him, Aiden inexplicably connected the incident to Raina.

"Aiden, you’re the smart one, aren’t you? Why don’t you analyze it?"

Aiden sneered.

"What’s with that look? You think I staged this whole thing? Why would I do that? Tell me, what would my motive be? You have to have a motive to do something."

Aiden didn’t answer Hazel’s question. ’I think I already have the answer,’ he thought. ’But why would Raina test me like this?’

’And how could Raina have known what would happen to Hazel, or how I would react?’

’Aiden must be out of his mind,’ Hazel thought. ’Why on earth would I stage something like this?’

Seeing the grim expressions on both their faces, Holly felt it was awkward to stay any longer and decided to get up. "I can see you two still have things to discuss, so I’ll head back to my room. You’re a married couple, so talk things out nicely. Don’t fight."

After Holly left, Aiden and Hazel continued to ignore each other, sitting in silence across from one another. Whenever Hazel caught Aiden looking at her, she would glare right back and mutter under her breath, "What are you looking at?"

Aiden cleared his throat. "You’ve had a scare tonight. You should get some rest."

"Aiden." A sudden flash of insight hit Hazel, as if she’d figured something out. She stared at him intently. "You already know what this is all about, don’t you?"

It had to be said, Hazel could be incredibly perceptive at times. When it came to reading Aiden, she’d always thought she was damn good at it. She could always pick up on the slightest change in his expression and see when something was off—a skill most people lacked.

"What are you talking about?"

"You definitely know what happened," Hazel said, her voice low. "Holly was here before, so it wasn’t convenient to talk. Now that she’s gone, you can tell me what’s really going on, can’t you?" A voice in her head was even telling her that Raina was somehow involved in this.

Aiden met Hazel’s gaze directly, unfazed by her scrutiny. Under the lights, her face looked even more pale and possessed a certain delicate charm. "I’ll investigate it," he said. "You don’t need to get involved."

Hazel suddenly let out a cold laugh. "See? There’s that line again. The last time I was in trouble, you also said you’d investigate. But after you found out what happened, you handled it on your own. Don’t you forget that I’m the victim here."

"Does this have something to do with Raina?"

’If this had nothing to do with Raina, why would Aiden come all this way?’ The thought of Raina made Hazel decisively reject the notion that Aiden had come to Freyburg purely out of concern for her. "Whenever something involves Raina, you get that look on your face."

’What look?’ Aiden wondered.

’My face is practically blank.’

Upon hearing her accusation, he said, "You have a wild imagination. You’re great at making something out of nothing."

"I don’t think I’m making something out of nothing," Hazel said, looking away. "Then you tell me, why are you here? When I said you were worried about me earlier, it was just for show. We both know we don’t want anyone to find out our marriage is just a business transaction."

Aiden scoffed.

"Aiden, even if you don’t tell me, I’ll find out on my own." The thought that this might be connected to Raina made Hazel grit her teeth in anger. ’I really can’t go easy on Raina anymore,’ she thought. ’I thought if I just left her alone, she’d stay quietly by Aiden’s side.’

"Don’t do anything rash."

Hazel smiled. "Then just tell me."

"Do I need to explain myself to you?"

"Of course not. But I’m the victim here. I have a right to know the truth."

Aiden hesitated. He had to admit, Raina’s recent actions were testing his patience. Although his feelings for Hazel were a confusing fog, the moment he heard she was in danger, he had been consumed with worry and felt an overwhelming need to be by her side immediately.

He didn’t want to see Hazel get hurt. He was only keeping Raina around to investigate the truth behind his father’s death. As for loving Raina, he could say he never had. Even with all the women he’d been with, he was certain he’d never truly loved any of them.

Seeing Aiden lost in thought, Hazel frowned. "Aiden, it’s fine if you don’t tell me. But you had better hope I don’t find out this has anything to do with Raina. Because if I do, not even you will be able to stop me from going after her."

Today, she was laying her cards on the table right in front of him.

At this, Aiden couldn’t help but frown. He said in a low voice, "Before I left Kenport to come here, Raina came to see me. She seemed to know I was coming to Freyburg, so she kept trying to get me to stay in Kenport."

"She seemed to know you were coming to Freyburg? Does that mean she knew something was going to happen to me? She tried to keep you in Kenport so you couldn’t come save me? But you came anyway, so she had me released before you found out. Is that why the man who got the call suddenly let me go?"

’Why? Why would Raina do that?’

’How could Raina have been so sure that Aiden would rush to Freyburg the moment he heard I was in trouble? Was she really trying to hurt me, or was she trying to test something?’

Hazel couldn’t make sense of it, so she tried to put herself in Raina’s shoes and think through the whole incident.

’If Raina wanted to get rid of me, doing it while I was here in Freyburg would be the perfect opportunity. It would be harder to connect it back to her, helping her evade suspicion. Then again, she knows she would be the first person anyone suspected if something happened to me.’

*****