Bones Learn To Listen When Silence Speaks by Ryn Miles 194

Chapter 194 

To put it nicely, she was a mistress. 

But to be blunt, she was just the other woman. 

Besides, they were only engaged, not married, so she had no legal protection at all. 

Alina understood all too well that anything could change right up until the last moment. 

That’s why she kept telling Tessa to be careful and put more thought into everything. 

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“By the way, rumor has it Benjamin’s been looking for a lawyer to draft his will. Has Cassian mentioned anything to you?” Alina asked. 

“Nope, he hasn’t brought it up at all,” Tessa replied. 

Alina frowned. “Is it that he really doesn’t know, or is there something else?” 

“He probably doesn’t know. Cassian’s always straight with me,” Tessa said. 

She was sure about that, no doubt. 

But Alina insisted, “When you get back from Weston, make up a reason to drop by Benjamin’s place and see if you can catch any rumors.” 

“Got it,” Tessa replied. 

Tessa still had stuff to deal with, so Alina didn’t want to hold her up. Once she’d said everything she needed to, she hung up. 

Meanwhile, in the WhatsApp group chat, Jasper was celebrating Tessa’s success, flooding the chat with congratulatory emojis. 

He even forwarded the livestream link to Steven, letting him know that the project he’d invested in was about 

to take off. 

He told Steven to focus on his recovery and promised he’d do his best to keep EverMass Group running smoothly. 

Once the fireworks died down, Ewan and Tessa walked up hand in hand and took the stage to give their speeches. 

The livestream chat was blowing up, with more and more people tuning in. One could tell the event was a total hit. 

Miranda was at her desk, recording the livestream and griping, “Are all these live comments just paid shills or spam bots? Not a single negative one? Come on, that’s impossible.” 

“There are a hundred thousand viewers in the chat, but I bet at least eighty thousand are just fake accounts,” 

she scoffed. 

“I can’t deal with this anymore. If anyone wants this job, they can have it. I’m out.” 

She stomped off, still fuming, and headed to the break room for a glass of iced water to cool down. 

On screen, Tessa was confidently giving her speech, announcing that Dreamscape would become the mobile game with the largest user base in the country within five years. 

In that split second when she was waiting for applause, someone suddenly hurled a rotten egg onto the stage. 

The egg smashed right into Tessa’s face before she could even react. 

Her perfect makeup was instantly destroyed, and the foul stench made her bend over, gagging and retching uncontrollably. 

The livestream chat instantly exploded with angry comments. 

[Who the hell let you set off fireworks in Weston? Do you even care about the environment here? This is a freaking nature reserve! Your money–hungry capitalists will do anything for profit, setting off fireworks everywhere like you own the place. Seriously, you guys are out of your minds!] 

[Get out of Weston, now!] 

[Down with evil capitalism!] 

The live stream was quickly cut off. 

Miranda froze mid–step, spun around, and couldn’t wait to hit replay. 

She put it on an endless loop. 

All the bottled–up stress from the whole afternoon just melted away. 

It felt so damn good. 

She grabbed her tablet and stormed over to Aurelia, didn’t even bother knocking. 

Aurelia was on the phone with Zofia, giving her an update on the project. 

Miranda barged in, and Aurelia’s brows knitted in annoyance. “What’s going on?” 

“Aurelia, you gotta see this!” Miranda burst out. 

She practically shoved the tablet at Aurelia, replaying the video for her. 

Aurelia had asked Miranda to record the livestream. She always made it a habit to stay updated on the latest industry trends. 

Miranda hadn’t been too thrilled about it at first, but now she had to admit, Aurelia really had some serious foresight. 

Even though the replay was super short, barely a minute long, it still packed a punch. 

As soon as the chaos broke out, they killed the livestream instantly, just to avoid any fallout. 

But everything important got recorded anyway. 

Even Aurelia was surprised by how things turned out. 

Miranda gave Aurelia a sly, knowing look and leaned in, “Aurelia, was this your handiwork?” 

“Impossible. I’ve got better things to do,” Aurelia shot back. 

Aurelia and Tessa were definitely competitors, but Aurelia always kept things above board. Her rivalry was out in the open from start to finish, never once resorting to any sneaky or shady moves. 

Miranda had to admit, that was true. 

Honestly, the fact that Aurelia didn’t lift a finger was what made it all the more satisfying. 

‘Serves her right. She totally had it coming,‘ Miranda gloated to herself. 

Aurelia waved Miranda away and went back to hashing out the merger details with Zofia. 

By the time the call ended, it was already close to the end of the workday. 

When Aurelia checked her phone, it was blowing up with notifications. 

Mia was spamming her the most. 

Mia messaged Aurelia: [Babe, I caught the livestream this afternoon. Tessa got pelted with rotten eggs, hahaha…] 

But words alone couldn’t capture just how gleeful she was, so Mia fired off a 60–second voice message. 

Aurelia figured Mia had something to say, but when she hit play, it was nothing but Mia’s evil cackling from start to finish. 

Sixty straight seconds of pure, unhinged laughter. 

Aurelia couldn’t help but wonder why she’d just wasted a whole minute on that. 

[So this is what business warfare is? You water my money tree, and I throw rotten eggs at you?] 

[I didn’t do anything. She did this to herself right from the start,] Aurelia said, making it clear. 

Mia sent over a big brain meme and replied, [Serves Tessa right!] 

Aurelia couldn’t agree more. 

Just as Aurelia got in her car, her phone rang. It was Abigail, telling her to swing by the Locke residence after work to pick up her herbal medicine. 

When Aurelia arrived, Abigail had already made dinner and was just waiting for her. 

Benjamin was in a great mood, and after dinner, he even asked Aurelia to play a game of chess with him. 

He also asked about Regal Investment’s situation, and when he heard Aurelia was working on the merger Midview, he nodded and said, “Midview has a solid foundation, but they’ve been held back by a lack of cutting–edge tech talent. With Murel joining, they should be able to resolve those issues.” 

with 

After a pause, he added, “Talent is a company’s true competitive edge. You have to know how to leverage your people. That’s the only way to build something that lasts.” 

Vision, broad perspective, and leadership were all essential. 

Abigail brought over some herbal drink, grinning from ear to ear. “Mr. Locke hasn’t been this happy in ages, Aurelia. You really should come by more often.” 

Aurelia nodded. “I will.” 

As Abigail was packing up Aurelia’s herbal medicine and tossing in a few shrimp cheeseburgers, she called up Cassian, telling him to drop by and grab his own meds whenever he had time. 

Abigail always put her calls on speaker, so Aurelia could hear everything Cassian said, word for word. 

“I’m in Weston right now, so I can’t make it. Just hold onto it for me. I’ll come by and grab it when I’m back in Ashmont,” Cassian said. 

Abigail sounded puzzled. “What are you doing all the way out in Weston? Is it for work?” 

“Just taking care of some things,” Cassian replied. 

He didn’t say it clearly. 

But Aurelia knew exactly why he’d gone to Weston. 

She knew Cassian was always super invested in anything to do with Tessa. He wouldn’t tolerate even the slightest slip–up. 

No matter how far Weston was, if something happened to Tessa, he’d be there in a heartbeat to have her back. 

Aurelia quietly made her move, calm as ever. 

Across from her, Benjamin suddenly wasn’t in the mood to play anymore. He put his piece down and said, “It’s getting late. You should head home and get some rest.” 

“Okay,” Aurelia replied. 

As soon as Aurelia got home, Mia video–called her. 

She must have just finished filming and hadn’t even had time to remove her makeup when she couldn’t resist calling Aurelia to vent. 

“Tessa’s got insane luck! That whole livestream fiasco went down, and she just walked away like nothing happened,” Mia ranted. 

“You’re still obsessing over her?” Aurelia just shook her head, exasperated. 

“I just can’t stand seeing her win! Whenever she’s doing well, it pisses me off,” Mia kept ranting. “And seriously, I can’t find a single news story about it. Are all the reporters asleep or what? This should be all over the headlines!” 

“Because Cassian took care of it,” Aurelia said with

shrug. ‘With him around, nothing ever makes the headlines.‘