Chapter 61: A Month

Pepper POV

It had been almost three days since Tony disappeared, and I was starting to feel like we were running out of options.

Rhodey had been doing everything he could through the military, using every contact and resource available to him, while I handled things at Stark Industries and tried to keep Tony’s disappearance from becoming public.

Every few hours, I called Rhodey, hoping he would finally have something new to tell me, but so far, there had been nothing.

Then Helen contacted me.

She told me Chris wanted to meet and that he believed he might be able to help find Tony.

I didn’t know how Chris even knew Tony had been kidnapped.

Very few people knew what had happened, but Helen was one of them, so I assumed she had told him.

Still, if there was even a small chance Chris had resources that could help us, I couldn’t afford to ignore it.

That was the only reason I had agreed to come here.

I stood waiting for a few minutes before I saw the same girl again.

White.

Even though I’d already seen her before, it was still difficult not to stare.

Her beauty was almost unnatural.

Her white hair, pale skin, and nearly perfect features made her stand out immediately.

She walked toward me with the same calm expression I’d seen before and stopped a short distance away.

“My Lord will see you now.”

My Lord.

I stared at her for a second before following.

I supposed people could let others call them whatever they wanted.

Considering everything else I’d heard about Chris, having someone call him Lord wasn’t exactly the most outrageous thing about him.

Especially after what had happened to Arthur Reynolds only around a week ago.

Officially, Arthur Reynolds had died in a terrible traffic accident.

Heavy rain, several vehicles, and no evidence of foul play.

Everything I’d heard said it had simply been a horrible accident.

Except the timing bothered me.

Arthur Reynolds had been involved in Sterling Global’s internal problems, and then, shortly before an important board meeting with Chris, he died in an accident so violent that his family could barely recognize what was left of him.

Then Chris walked into that board meeting and somehow came out of it with exactly what he wanted.

Maybe it really had been an accident.

I couldn’t prove otherwise, and I certainly wasn’t going to accuse someone of murder because of a coincidence.

But I’d spent too many years around Tony and powerful businessmen to blindly believe that every convenient accident was actually an accident.

And Chris was only seventeen.

That was the part I had to keep reminding myself.

Seventeen years old, yet there were already enough rumors surrounding him to make me nervous about meeting him alone.

Whatever kind of person this child actually was, I needed to be careful around him.

White opened the door and stepped aside.

“Please.”

I walked inside and finally saw Chris.

For a moment, I almost didn’t recognize him.

His appearance had changed considerably since the last time I’d seen him.

He was taller, his frame had become broader and more developed, and his hair was now completely white.

Even his eyes had changed to a strange bluish-gold color.

If I hadn’t already known who he was, I probably would have assumed he was somewhere in his early twenties rather than seventeen.

I had no idea how someone’s appearance could change that much in such a short amount of time.

For a moment, I considered asking, but quickly decided against it.

I wasn’t here to figure out what had happened to Chris.

I was here because Tony was missing.

Still, despite everything that had changed, there was something familiar about his eyes.

Not their color, but the way he looked at people.

There was a coldness there that immediately reminded me of his father.

It was the same kind of look that made it difficult to tell what someone was thinking.

Then I noticed the girl sitting beside him.

Helen’s daughter.

I remembered seeing her before, though I didn’t know much about her.

There were several books and papers spread across the table in front of them, and she was sitting close enough to Chris that their shoulders were almost touching.

She pointed toward something in one of the books and quietly asked him a question.

I couldn’t hear what she said, but I saw what happened afterward.

Chris’s entire demeanor changed.

His shoulders relaxed, the coldness in his expression faded, and when he answered her, his voice became noticeably softer.

It was strange seeing such a sudden difference in him.

For those few seconds, he simply looked like a young man talking to someone he cared about.

Then Chris noticed me.

His attention shifted away from Helen’s daughter, and some of that softness disappeared almost immediately.

He gestured toward the empty seat across from him.

“Welcome, Miss Potts. Please, sit. I hope I can help you.”

I walked over and sat down.

I’d spent the entire drive preparing myself for this conversation, but sitting across from him was different.

I still didn’t understand why he wanted to help or what he expected to gain from it.

Still, Tony was missing, and right now that mattered more than my discomfort.

I looked at him for a moment before speaking.

“As you already know, Tony has been kidnapped, and I was told you might be able to help me find him.”

“Yes, Miss Potts. I think I can help with that.” Chris leaned back slightly before continuing.

“But even my people will need at least a month to find him. And if you accept my help, you can’t tell anyone that I’m involved. I don’t like unnecessary attention.”

A month?

The moment I heard that, most of the hope I’d had coming here disappeared.

Tony had already been missing for almost three days, and Chris was telling me that even his people would need another month to find him.

That wasn’t exactly the kind of help I’d expected.

Maybe I’d given his offer too much importance.

Chris hadn’t actually shown me that he knew where Tony was or even that he had information the military didn’t have.

All he’d done was claim that he could eventually find him.

I frowned.

“Rhodey has the support of the U.S. military. Do you really think they won’t be able to find Tony within a month?”

“They won’t find him.” I stared at him.

There wasn’t even a moment of hesitation before he answered.

He hadn’t said they might fail or that his people had a better chance.

He had simply said they wouldn’t find Tony.

“You’re that sure?”

“Quite sure.” That answer made my suspicion stronger.

Rhodey knew Tony better than almost anyone, and he had the resources of the United States military behind him.

They were already searching, yet Chris was telling me they would fail while admitting that his own people needed at least a month.

It sounded less like certainty based on information and more like he wanted me to believe I needed him.

I shook my head.

“Then there’s no need, Mr. Sterling. I think I’ll trust Rhodey and the military to find Tony.”

I expected Chris to argue.

Considering how confidently he’d spoken, I thought he would try to convince me that I was making a mistake.

Maybe he’d finally explain why he was so certain the military would fail or offer me something that proved he could actually help.

Instead, Chris simply smiled.

“Okay.”

That caught me off guard.

There was no disappointment on his face.

No irritation.

He didn’t try to convince me, didn’t offer proof, and didn’t even ask me to reconsider.

He simply accepted my answer as though it made absolutely no difference to him.

For some reason, that bothered me more than if he’d tried to argue.

Chris looked at me for another moment before saying, “My door is open, Miss Potts. If you decide they aren’t going to find him, you can come back.”

I didn’t know why, but the confidence in his voice made me uncomfortable.

He no longer sounded like someone trying to convince me.

He sounded like someone who already knew what was going to happen.

…

Author’s Note (28|08|2026)

I’ve seen the comments about the direction of Chris’s relationship with Gwen and Helen, so I’m leaving the final choice to you guys.

I’m putting up a poll that will be available to everyone.

The poll will stay open for three days, and the option with the most votes will be the direction I follow going forward.

After the three days are over, the result will be final, and I won’t be taking any more requests to change the relationship direction later.

So if you care about where this goes, make sure you vote now.