If this person turned out to be a business rival, all the better—it would send a clear message to the rest. A perfect deterrent. Since Ian had been trained by Aurora herself, their way of thinking was exactly the same. Both aimed to make an example out of one, to warn the rest.
But when the results came in, Ian was momentarily stunned. He remembered seeing that face somewhere before. Wait, no. It wasn’t the face. It was the name that sounded familiar.
Wasn’t this the fiancé of Tessa? Everyone knew they were already engaged. So why was he now following their general manager? If anything, by relationship alone, their general manager could technically call him "brother-in-law." So, what the hell was going on?
Ian pressed his lips into a tight line, debating whether or not to tell Aurora. If he did, how would she take it? Would she be as shocked as he was when she saw who it was? But judging from Aurora’s current reaction, it seemed she hadn’t figured it out yet. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so eager to rush the investigation.
Unfortunately, the truth turned out to be even more unexpected than they’d imagined. No matter how hard he tried, Ian couldn’t come up with a decent excuse to break the news to her.
Aurora’s voice came through again, impatient this time. “Do you have it yet?”
She frowned, sensing something was off. She’d already provided such detailed information to the team—under normal circumstances, they should’ve been able to send her the results right away, not keep her waiting like this. She’d even provided the license plate number, the exact time, and the car model.
With her assistant’s capability, he should’ve been able to get back to her within ten minutes, tops. But it had already been nearly half an hour, which was why Aurora started getting suspicious. This wasn’t how he usually handled things. If he really was taking this long, then there was only one explanation—he must’ve been just as shocked by the result.
Seeing another message from her, Ian hesitated a moment before finally deciding to come clean. “Miss Walton, I’ve identified the person.”
Aurora, sitting in the driver’s seat, immediately sat up straight and fired off a reply. “Who is it?”
“You know him. Quite well, actually.”
Aurora frowned, brows pinched in concentration, trying to place the license plate, but nothing came to mind. “Cut to the chase. Tell me.”
Ian steeled himself and finally dropped the name. “Julian Hayes. Your future brother-in-law.”
Aurora didn’t reply. She just stared at those three words on the screen, her eyes fixed.
“How could it be him?” she murmured, still unable to wrap her head around it. They hadn’t been in contact at all recently—not since that awkward incident at the party and again at the villa. Things had gotten tense between them, and with her sister in the picture, their interactions had grown even more strained. She’d been avoiding him ever since.
So why was he following her outside Walton Corporation? What was he thinking? What exactly did he want? The more she thought about it, the more unsettled she became. If it really was Julian, did that mean he hadn’t let go of what happened that night at the house?