Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

68 Chapter 68

68 Chapter 68

Damien’s POV 1

The silence in the car stretched between us like a taut wire, heavy with implications I wasn’t ready to fully acknowledge. My hands clenched and unclenched on my knees as I struggled to process what Caleb had just told me. Anna hadn’t been my mystery woman- she’d been a desperate hotel cleaning lady trying to sell stolen goods.

“Tell me more about what she looked like that morning,” I said, my voice hoarse with barely controlled emotion. “Her hair color, her build

-anything you can remember.”

Caleb’s brow furrowed in concentration as he stared out at the passing streetlights. “Her hair… it was definitely blonde, just like it is now.

That awful brassy blonde that screams ‘cheap dye job. As for her build…” He shrugged apologetically. “I’m sorry, but I honestly can’t say

for certain. That cleaning uniform was so baggy and shapeless, and she was hunched over, clutching that pendant like her life depended

on it.”

My heart sank even as a terrible hope began to bloom in my chest. Blonde hair. Anna had always been blonde, even five years ago. But

the woman from that night…

Caleb was staring at me with undisguised confusion, his brow furrowed as he tried to piece together what he’d witnessed tonight.

“Damien, I have to ask,” he said carefully, “why would you hire someone like Anna as your assistant? I mean, from what I saw tonight, she

doesn’t exactly seem… qualified for a position in a major corporation.”

I ran a hand through my hair, suddenly feeling the weight of my mistakes pressing down on me. “You’re right. Under normal

circumstances, I wouldn’t let Anna within a hundred feet of my company, let alone give her access to sensitive corporate information.”

Then why did you?”

The question hung in the air between us, and I found myself staring out at the passing city lights as I struggled to find the words to

explain five years of desperate searching and mounting frustration.

“Because she had something that belonged to me,” I said finally. “That pendant.”

I leaned back against the seat, the familiar ache of longing settling into my chest. “A few weeks ago, Anna showed up at my office lobby,

screaming about being my lover and waving my pendant around like some kind of trophy. She claimed she was the woman from that

she’d been looking for

“And you believed her?”

wince. “I wanted to believe her. God help me, I

made you

gave about that night didn’t match my memories. And her scent…” I shuddered slightly. “Anna smells like cheap perfume and desperation. The woman from that night smelled like spring flowers and something

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hair,” I said quietly, more to myself than to Caleb. “Beautiful chestnut

between my fingers.”

woman,” Caleb said with certainty. “Trust me, there’s no way someone

blonde for

Caleb said with certainty. “Trust me, there’s

for natural

over me like a tidal wave. I’d been wrong. Completely, utterly wrong. For weeks, I’d believed Anna was the

was in my hand before I’d even consciously decided to call Lucas. The beta

sleep.

any idea what time it

without preamble, my voice carrying the alpha

get someone to recover the security footage from the Moonlight Grand

fifteenth, specifically.”

fully awake. “Damien, that’s from five years ago. You have checked that

don’t keep footage that long, and even if

about the difficulties,” I interrupted, my grip tightening on the phone. “Use whatever

you need to pay, call in whatever favors we have. I need that footage, Lucas. All of it—lobby, hallways, elevators,

again, isn’t it?” Lucas asked

The word came out raw, stripped of any pretense. “I think I’ve

tonight,” Lucas promised. “But Damien… even if we find something, after five years, the

intact and useful are-”

it,” I said firmly. “Whatever it

call and slumped back against the leather seat. Beside me, Caleb was watching

for,” Caleb said carefully, “what

what felt like the thousandth time. But now, instead of the bitter disappointment that usually accompanied these memories,

these incredible emerald green eyes-not just green, but this deep, vibrant shade that reminded me

almost black in the dim light, and it smelled like

my eyes to find Caleb watching me

continued, warming to the subject despite the ache in

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