Chapter 264: A Wedding Gift

"It's still early," Aaron noted, checking the time. It wasn't even late enough to have dinner yet. "What do you want to do?"

"Well first I want to get all this makeup and hair product off," Keeley admitted. "Then maybe we could watch a movie or something."

That worked for him. Based on her sleeping patterns lately, there was a 92% chance she would fall asleep during it and he wouldn't have to finish watching.

He left her to take her shower while he got changed out of his tuxedo and purple tie that matched her shoes. As he changed, his new wedding ring caught his eye. Unlike his more ornate one previously, it was a plain platinum band.

They were married but nothing felt different yet. Would it ever? He couldn't help but wonder.

She walked into the TV room in a baggy long-sleeved pink tee shirt, her cupcake pajama pants, and striped fuzzy socks twenty minutes later. Aaron's heart thumped erratically. Even though there were bags under her eyes she looked too cute to resist.

He patted the spot next to him on the couch and she curled up next to him after grabbing a blanket to wrap herself in. Normally she sat further away from him because the couch was so massive. This was progress.

"What do you want to watch?"

historical

"We never finished the Harry Potter movies," she said sleepily. "I think we were on number five."

Keeley snuggled closer to him for warmth. Normally he would have loved it but her hair was still wet so it wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world. She was soaking the sleeve of his shirt.

Still, Aaron wasn't about to tell her to move. She had come closer of her own accord and that was a big deal to him.

As predicted, she was out cold twenty minutes in. By that point Keeley had decided it would be warmer if he spooned her so he was trapped between her body and the back of the couch. Reaching the remote at this point was impossible. He had to finish the movie.

It wasn't so bad though because he mostly focused on savoring the feeling of the woman he loved being in his arms. Through her t-shirt he could feel a very slight hardness to her stomach. Their baby was in there.

Aaron held her even closer and pressed a gentle kiss against the back of her neck. He had a family now. He needed to work harder to overthrow Alistair and make sure Keeley would never have to worry about him again.

===

Sunday felt like any other day they had been living together aside from the fact that Keeley had finally moved her things into the master bedroom with him. She spent most of the day doing homework. Midterms may have been over but her workload hadn't changed.

On Monday morning Aaron went to work with his wedding band on the pointer finger of his right hand so it would look like any other ring. Even if he couldn't wear it how he was supposed to he couldn't bear to part with it.

Otherwise it would feel too much like a dream. His ring was tangible proof that Keeley was his wife. Nobody seemed to notice it.

He was going through the stack of reports Cameron left on his desk Friday afternoon when the man in question burst into his office pale-faced.

"What happened?" Aaron asked flatly. It couldn't be good news if he looked this distressed.

"Someone delivered this to me by courier. Look at it!"

Cameron held out a piece of paper, which was quickly snatched away. He read over it and immediately understood his friend's panic. His heart began to race.

It was a share transfer agreement from Emilio to Cameron using an anonymous middleman. Emilio had handed over all 5% of his shares in Hale Investments. This wasn't the problem. The problem was that there was a handwritten message scrawled across the bottom.

'Be sure to congratulate Aaron for me. This is my gift to him. -A Friend'

Aaron slammed the piece of paper on the table. "Is this a legitimate share transfer?"

"I had Aiden check it out before I came up here. Emilio did sell his shares to someone who just gave them to me on your behalf. Whoever this is..they have to know I'm holding onto some of your shares."

Aaron was concerned that someone had figured out his dummy shareholder plan but more importantly he caught onto the fact that this person was hinting at knowing about his marriage over the weekend.

Congratulations and gifts were usually saved for special occasions. There was nothing else going on in his life worth congratulating right now. It couldn't be a coincidence.

"Someone ratted me out," he said grimly.

"Not necessarily," Cameron mused. "This person could have found out entirely by chance. You only told me and Aiden and neither of us said anything. One of Keeley's friends might have mentioned it. Did she specifically tell them to keep it a secret?"

"I'm not sure."

He considered this. Jennica knew a bit about the situation with his parents so she wouldn't go telling anyone. Lydia and Jeffrey lived out of state and weren't friends with anyone else from their old high school so it couldn't have come from them. What about Valentina? Or even Robert?

None of them would have said something to an enemy on purpose. If someone was watching him closely enough, they might have been able to figure it out with minimal information given.

Who had been looking into him deeply enough to guess the truth about the division of the board at Hale Investments? It couldn't be anyone connected to Alistair or he would have come breaking down Aaron's office door already.

He picked up his phone and barked into it the second it was answered. "Aiden! Find out everything you can about everyone Emilio Sandoval has had contact with lately. This is first priority; drop everything else."

"Already on it," Aiden said smugly. "I've been looking since I saw the document. You'll never believe what interesting coincidence I found."

Cameron moved closer so he could hear better after Aaron put the phone on speaker. They both waited anxiously for his news.

"Emilio's last phone call right before he sold the shares was from the same number Lacy calls all the time. He was talking to Graydon Meyer."