Chapter 105: Do you know who I am?

Sienna waited until the sound of their footsteps had faded completely down the hallway before finally allowing herself to laugh, quiet and disbelieving, shaking her head at the sheer absurdity of it all.

She crossed back to her desk, settling into her chair and pulling her laptop toward her, and found, almost immediately, exactly what she’d been hoping to see.

Someone was trading again, cautiously at first, then more aggressively, clearly attempting to recover some of the hundred million dollars the Capris had lost only days before.

They were trying hard. Desperately hard, from the look of the numbers climbing across her screen.

Sienna’s mouth curved into a slow, satisfied smile. She might as well help them lose another hundred million while they were at it.

She got to work immediately, weaving a new set of careful, tempting positions into the market, baiting the trap all over again with the same patient precision she’d used before, watching her own numbers begin to climb steadily upward once more.

This, she thought, settling back comfortably into her chair, was going to be fun.

—-

For the next three days, Aliya walked through her life fully convinced she was marrying Viktor Kessler.

She spent hours at a time shopping with her small circle of friends, laughing brightly, already speaking about the wedding as though it were a foregone conclusion rather than a carefully constructed lie Marcus had fed her father days earlier.

"Everyone is going to bow to me now," she told her friends over lunch one afternoon, swirling her drink lazily, a satisfied smile settling over her face.

"You’re so lucky, Aliya," one of her friends said, eyes bright with envy.

"Of course she is," another added quickly. "She’s the queen. She deserves Viktor. Not that poor, dumb wife of his."

"She’s not his wife," Aliya corrected sharply, though her tone stayed light, almost bored. "Don’t call her that. She’s just his little plaything. A distraction, nothing more."

Her friends laughed, agreeing readily, and the conversation carried them eventually into one of the city’s most exclusive lingerie boutiques, all soft lighting and delicate silk, where Aliya spent nearly an hour selecting the perfect set to wear on her supposed wedding night, something designed, in her words, to completely rock Viktor’s world.

Across the same city, at that very same shop, Aria was busy dragging Sienna through the front doors, entirely unaware of who else happened to be inside.

"I only need a few things for myself," Aria said, already weaving through the racks with her usual unstoppable energy, "and a few for you too."

"I told you, I’m not interested," Sienna said, trailing behind her with far less enthusiasm.

"Come on," Aria said, holding up a delicate set of deep red lace, waggling her eyebrows. "This could help you make my uncle fall even harder for you."

"I don’t need help with that," Sienna said, though the words came out weaker than she intended, some small, traitorous part of her mind flashing briefly back to that kiss in the square.

"Uh-huh," Aria said, clearly unconvinced, setting the lace aside and reaching for something else entirely.

"Listen. My uncle gave me his credit card. We can buy literally anything you want in here." She held up a hand before Sienna could argue.

"But, if you agree to try some of this on, I promise I will personally get you a brand new four-screen monitor setup. A full powerhouse. We’ll set the whole thing up in your closet, and you’ll be back in business, hacking away to your heart’s content."

Sienna narrowed her eyes, studying her friend carefully. She knew exactly what Aria was doing, dangling the one thing guaranteed to override every other objection Sienna might raise.

A new laptop meant faster processing.

A proper multi-monitor setup meant she could finally run the kind of layered, complex trading operations that had been limited so far by weak signals and outdated equipment. It meant more comfort, more precision, more room to dig into everything still tangled up in her past.

"You know me too well, Aria," Sienna said finally, shaking her head, a reluctant smile tugging at her mouth. "You got me."

"I always do," Aria said, grinning triumphantly, already turning back toward the racks with renewed enthusiasm.

That was when the laughter reached them.

"Well, well," Aliya’s voice rang out from further inside the shop, bright and mocking. "Look who we have here."

Sienna and Aria both went still, turning slowly toward the sound, and found Aliya standing only a short distance away, a small bag already in hand, her friends clustered curiously behind her, all of them watching with obvious, delighted interest.

This was, without question, the very last place either of them had expected to run into her.

"Aria," Sienna said quietly, already stepping back toward the door. "Could we just leave?"

"Why should we leave?" Aria objected, planting her feet, clearly ready to hold her ground.

"Tomorrow’s your wedding," Aliya called out, her voice dripping with mock sweetness as she stepped closer, her friends trailing eagerly behind her like a small entourage.

"Shouldn’t you be getting your hair done, or something? You don’t exactly look like a woman about to get married." She tilted her head, a slow, satisfied smile spreading across her face. "Or did Viktor already cancel it?"

Her friends laughed on cue, the sound sharp and grating in the quiet, elegant shop.

Sienna felt the barb land somewhere it shouldn’t have, though she refused to let it show. It wasn’t the taunt itself that stung. It was the small, uncomfortable truth buried underneath it.

Viktor had left home three days ago.

Ever since Aliya and Elena’s visit, Marcus had assured her, over and over, that everything was fine, that Viktor was simply busy handling last-minute wedding arrangements, business that couldn’t wait.

But Sienna wasn’t a fool. Something had shifted the moment those two women walked out of her bedroom, and she was almost certain it had everything to do with whatever elaborate scheme Viktor was still running behind the scenes with this so-called wedding.

It wasn’t that she missed him, she told herself firmly. It was simply strange, unsettling, not knowing exactly where he was or what he was doing.

That was all. She had no intention of causing a scene here, in the middle of a lingerie boutique, that might unravel whatever careful plan he had spent days quietly building.

"We have to go," Sienna said again, firmer this time, taking hold of Aria’s arm and steering her gently but insistently toward the exit.

Behind them, Aliya’s laughter carried clearly across the shop. "Run along, little chicken," she called out, delighted with herself.

Sienna kept walking, refusing to give her the satisfaction of a reaction, Aria grumbling under her breath the entire way toward the door.

They had nearly reached the exit when a young sales associate approached Aliya, her expression carefully polite despite the obvious discomfort tightening her features.

"I’m sorry, miss," the woman said quietly, holding out a small card reader. "Your card was declined."

Aliya’s confident smile flickered instantly. "What do you mean?" she said, snatching the card back. "Try it again."

"I’ve tried five times already," the associate said, glancing nervously between Aliya and the growing line of curious customers behind her.

"You’ll need to either return some of the items, or provide a different card."

Aliya’s face flushed a deep, humiliated red, her earlier smugness collapsing all at once in front of her friends, and, worse, in full view of Sienna and Aria, who hadn’t quite made it out the door yet.

Sienna paused near the exit, unable to resist glancing back over her shoulder, watching the scene unfold with quiet, private satisfaction.

Aria, standing beside her, had gone utterly still, her mouth hanging open slightly as she took in the sight of Aliya fumbling frantically through her purse, pulling out a second card with trembling, embarrassed fingers, only for the sales associate to shake her head apologetically once again.

"That one’s declined too, miss," the associate said softly.

The shop had gone almost entirely silent now, every customer within earshot pretending not to watch while clearly watching very closely indeed.

Aliya’s friends shifted awkwardly behind her, none of them quite meeting her eyes anymore, the earlier laughter completely gone from the room.

"There must be some mistake," Aliya said, her voice climbing higher, sharper, panic creeping in beneath the forced calm. "Do you know who I am?"

Sienna felt a slow, private smile tug at the corner of her mouth, and beside her, Aria let out a small, delighted snort, quickly disguised as a cough.

"Come on," Sienna murmured, finally pulling Aria fully out through the door, the cool afternoon air a welcome relief after the tension inside. "Let’s get you that lingerie somewhere else."

Behind them, Aliya’s voice continued rising, increasingly frantic, demanding managers and explanations, completely unaware of exactly how deep the damage from that hundred-million-dollar trap had already cut into her family’s finances, or just how much further it was about to reach.