Chapter Three #3
"A pleasure, Miss Sinclair," Julian said. He turned to Cameron, his voice dropping an octave, carrying a warning only his brother could decipher. "Cam, the VP of Acquisitions looks like he's about to have a coronary. We should let Miss Sinclair get back to her break."
Cameron’s jaw clenched. It took every ounce of his formidable willpower to break eye contact with Aurelia. He felt like he was suffocating the moment he looked away.
"Of course," Cameron said, his voice rough. He stood up, towering over the table once more. He looked down at Aurelia, the mask of the ruthless executive slipping just enough to reveal the devoted man beneath. "Have a wonderful day, Aurelia. Keep sketching."
Aurelia could only nod, her mind blank as the two billionaires turned and walked away, parting the sea of employees like royalty. She looked down at her hands. They were trembling.
What on earth just happened?
***
That evening, the smell of garlic and soy sauce filled the small apartment. Harper sat cross-legged on the faded rug in the living room, a cardboard carton of lo-mein in her lap. She was calculating the penalties for breaking their lease early when the lock clicked and the front door swung open.
Aurelia walked in, dropping her canvas bag onto the floor with a thud. She didn't take her coat off. She just walked straight to the worn sofa and collapsed onto it, staring blankly at the blank television screen.
Harper put her food down instantly, the hyper-vigilance flaring to life. "Aura? What's wrong? Did someone at work give you trouble for calling in sick on Friday?"
Aurelia slowly turned her head. Her eyes were wide, swirling with disbelief. "Harps... I think I hallucinated my afternoon break."
Harper’s pulse skipped a beat. She stood up, wiping her hands on her jeans. "What are you talking about?"
"I was in the atrium," Aurelia began, her voice quiet. "I was just drawing. And he walked up to me. Cameron Langsford. The CEO. He just walked away from his security team and sat down at my table."
The blood drained from Harper’s face. The room suddenly felt freezing cold. "He... he talked to you?"
"He stared at me," Aurelia corrected, shivering slightly.
"Harper, he looked at me like... like he knew me.
Like I was someone important. He told me to call him Cameron.
And then his brother showed up. Julian. He introduced himself to me.
The CFO of the entire conglomerate shook my hand and asked if I was having a good break. "
Aurelia ran a hand over her face, letting out a breathy, nervous laugh. "I swear, the whole cafeteria was staring. I thought I was going to be fired on the spot. Why would men like that even look twice at some junior in the design department?"
Harper didn't answer. She couldn't.
A roaring sound filled her ears, drowning out the ambient noise of the city traffic outside. Her mind raced, the pieces snapping together with violent clarity.
Billionaires did not wander the atrium. The CEO did not abandon his executives to chat about charcoal sketches with a mid-level employee he had never officially met. And Julian Langsford, the cold, calculating architect of the company’s legal empire, did not introduce himself to strangers.
Unless they weren't strangers.
They remember.
The realization hit Harper like a physical strike to the sternum.
The timeline wasn't just breached; it was compromised.
By avoiding the gala, Harper thought she had reset the board.
But Cameron hadn't needed the gala to find Aurelia.
He had sought her out. The guilt, the memories of the timeline they had left behind—the brothers carried it all, just like she did.
And if they remembered Aurelia, they remembered Harper. They knew she was their sister. They knew about Isla’s betrayal, about Elena’s venom, about the accident.
They are coming for us, Harper realized, her breathing turning shallow and fast. They're going to try and fix it. They're going to try and pull us back into that nightmare.
"Harper?" Aurelia’s voice broke through the panic, laced with confusion at her friend's pale, horrified expression. "Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Harper forced her hands to unclench. She forced the terror down into the darkest corner of her mind, locking it away behind an iron vault of protective instinct.
She looked at Aurelia, at the kind, beautiful woman who had no idea she was being hunted by a man who loved her enough to destroy the world for her.
"I'm fine," Harper lied smoothly, her voice eerily calm. She walked over to the small desk in the corner, picking up the bank booklet. "Aura... remember how we talked about starting our own firm? Getting out of here and having a fresh start?"
Aurelia frowned. "Sure, someday. When we save enough."
"Not someday," Harper said, turning around, her eyes dark with firm resolve.
She couldn't tell Aurelia the truth. It was too insane.
She needed a lie, a perfect, airtight excuse to get them out of the state before the Langsfords closed the net.
"I need you to listen to me very carefully. We need to pack our bags tonight."