Bones Learn To Listen When Silence Speaks by Ryn Miles 279

Chapter 279 

Tessa thought, “Three pieces of good news all at once. What a great sign!‘ 

From that moment on, Tessa couldn’t help but feel a surge of anticipation. 

She figured that once Cassian was done, he’d give her a call or shoot her a message. 

But after waiting for over two hours, there was still no word from him. 

Tessa messaged Jasper privately, asking if the charity gala was still going on. 

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Jasper replied: [It’s over, ended ages ago. Cassian snagged a bunch of stuff; he was the star of the night. Right behind him was Aurelia. She bought a ton, too. She’s getting more and more extravagant.] 

Tessa had zero interest in hearing about Aurelia, so she didn’t ask any more questions. 

She just figured Cassian was busy with something, and that was why he hadn’t messaged her back. 

She put her phone down and got back to work on her laptop for a while. 

Just as sleepiness started to creep in and she was about to lie down, her phone buzzed with a new message. 

‘I knew it! He’d message me as soon as he was done, Tessa thought. 

She grabbed her phone right away, her heart racing as she opened WhatsApp. 

ཆ 

But when she opened it, she saw it was from Karlie, not Cassian. 

She couldn’t help but feel a little let down. 

Karlie had sent her a photo from the charity gala. 

Aurelia was sitting at the main table, stealing the spotlight. 

On her left was Mandy, and on her right was Liam. 

Cassian was sitting right across from Aurelia. 

But Karlie added: [I saw the photos and videos my friend posted. Cassian didn’t pay Aurelia any attention. He kept his distance.] 

Tessa couldn’t help but smile knowingly. 

Karlie was absolutely certain. She texted: [Cassian only has eyes for you. Aurelia is out of the picture. But my friend said. Aurelia bought a ton of stuff tonight and totally stole the show. 

[If I’d known, you should’ve just gone to the charity gala with Cassian. You could’ve totally put Aurelia in her place, so she’d not think she’s the queen of the night.] 

Tessa paused for a moment before replying: [She’ll be out of the spotlight soon enough. Why bother paying attention to her?] 

Karlie texted: [Yeah, but I’m still pissed. Liam was talking to Aurelia the whole night.] 

The mention of Liam’s name made Karlie go crazy with jealousy. 

[That bitch Aurelia! All she ever does is flaunt her looks to seduce men. Of all the guys she could go after, why does it have to 

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be Liam?] 

Karlie kept venting and going off for ages. 

Noticing Tessa had gone silent, she finally dialed it back. 

By the time Tessa was ready to crash for the night, Cassian still hadn’t texted her back. 

By the next day, Cassian headed out on an international business trip. 

Tessa timed it perfectly and called him right as he landed. 

Cassian picked up. 

They kept the call short, just a quick chat. 

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Cassian was busy, so Tessa didn’t want to hold him up. She just reminded him to show up for the victory party she was hosting. 

Cassian promised he wouldn’t forget it, and Tessa hung up, grinning from ear to ear. 

Cassian hadn’t brought up the ruby jewelry at all, and Tessa was pretty sure he was saving it for a proposal. 

She played dumb and acted clueless, not mentioning a thing. 

She was absolutely buzzing with excitement, just waiting for Cassian to blow her away with a huge surprise. 

The next day, just as Aurelia walked into Regal Investment, her phone rang. It was Tyson. 

He’d barely said a few words before Aurelia’s face fell. 

She didn’t even bother going to her office. She turned right around and headed straight for InquireMind. 

As soon as she arrived, Tyson filled her in on the situation. 

“The problem probably lies with the chips Ascend Group supplied us,” Tyson said. 

Aurelia frowned, and an idea popped into her head. 

She didn’t waste a second and called Cassian right away. 

Cassian answered, his voice sounding a little worn out, “What’s up?” 

Aurelia quickly explained the situation and shared her hunch. “Could it be the materials? Ascend Group’s buyers are pocketing kickbacks, forcing the suppliers to cut corners.” 

It was a vicious cycle. 

Cassian paused for a couple of seconds before replying, “I’m out of the country right now, but I’ll have specialists from Ascend Group reach out to you directly.” 

“Sure,” Aurelia said. 

‘As long as they’re willing to solve it, that’s good enough for me, Aurelia thought. 

Cassian didn’t waste any time. Within half an hour of their call, a team from Ascend Group arrived. 

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They already had a solution ready. 

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They’d recall all the faulty chips and hook InquireMind up with high–quality replacements, all for free. And on top of that, they were offering triple the payout. 

That was way more than Aurelia had ever expected. 

Even by the contract, they’d only need to cough up just 1.3 times the usual penalty. 

Cassian was just going all out to save Tessa’s reputation, plain and simple. 

After all, HelixTech was about to go public. If Ascend Group’s problems were exposed now, Tessa would definitely be affected too. 

And that would indirectly throw a wrench in Cassian’s plans to marry Tessa. 

He really covered all the bases for Tessa. 

This was already the third time Cassian had shelled out cash to smooth things over. 

Aurelia couldn’t help but think back to how she felt when she helped Mia sort out her contract. 

It was pretty much the same as what Cassian was doing right now. 

She cared about Mia, so she’d rather throw money at the problem just to keep any trouble or stress away from Mia. 

That was exactly the same thing here. 

Cassian was doing it for the same reason. 

Aurelia didn’t even hesitate to accept. 

She was a businesswoman, never one to let money slip through her fingers. 

Just a couple of days later, Aurelia saw Tessa at the city government–business roundtable. 

Tessa was still making her presence known, working the room and greeting all the business leaders like she ran the show. 

But the moment she spotted Aurelia, her eyes went cold. 

Aurelia couldn’t care less about Tessa’s attitude. She just breezed past Tessa with her bag, found her seat, and sat down. 

Tessa turned to find her own seat, 

She automatically checked the front row first. 

But after looking over the front row twice and not seeing her name anywhere, she finally spotted it in the second row. Her 

heart sank. 

Still, she kept her expression neutral and sat down like nothing had happened. 

At the same time, she glanced over at Aurelia. 

From this angle, Tessa could only catch a glimpse of Aurelia’s back. 

An inexplicable sense of being left behind crept up on her, making her uncomfortable. 

Wade was still the one running the show, publicly recognizing ten business leaders, and that included Aurelia. 

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He even made a special mention of Regal Investment, naming it Ashmont’s biggest taxpayer this year. 

That was when Tessa finally realized that the seating was based on each company’s tax contributions. 

The way the seats were arranged made it clear that Aurelia had already pulled ahead of her. 

Just half a year ago, Tessa was up front, while Aurelia was stuck behind her. 

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While Tessa was still mulling it over, Wade made a point of highlighting Regal Investment, praising their new gaming project for plugging a gap in Ashmont’s industry. 

The young entrepreneur next to Tessa immediately struck up a conversation with the person beside him. 

“I saw the CG teaser for that game. It was seriously awesome. It mixes culture with cutting–edge gaming technology. I’m sure it’s going to be a hit.” 

“I’m not really into gaming, but I remember there was some game called Dreamscape that stirred up a ton of drama. The person in charge almost got dragged to court.” 

“Oh yeah, I know about that. The boss’s last name was Rowe. What was her first name again?” 

Just as the guy was about to say the name, he caught sight of Tessa’s nameplate and instantly shut up, not daring to say another word. 

Tessa’s expression changed for a split second, a flicker of embarrassment flashing across her face. 

Tessa casually placed her bag next to her nameplate, hoping to cover up her name 

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