Sweet Love 2x: Miss Ruthless CEO for our Superstar Uncle

Chapter 426: I thought I Knew Her

After the revelation, Franz went silent.

Not from anger. Not from coldness. He had been handed something he didn’t know what to do with yet, and he needed time to work out what that was.

He didn’t leave the table. He didn’t make a scene. He picked up his wine glass and held it and said nothing while the conversation moved around him.

Arianne helped the twins with their bedtime routines. Lily had to be convinced that she didn’t need to brush her teeth three times just because they were in a foreign country.

"The germs are the same," Arianne said. "Brushing once is enough."

Leo had to be convinced that the whale didn’t need its own pillow: the one on the bed was sufficient, and the whale had never complained before. By the time both children were settled, the suite had dropped into the particular hush of a household winding down.

Angelika sat with Aunt Estella on the couch, their heads together, their voices low. Whatever they were talking about made Aunt Estella laugh: a warm sound that carried across the room. Angelika looked different than she had in Montclair. More at ease. More herself.

Harvey had refilled his wine glass and was standing at the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out at the Rohan skyline. The tattoos on his forearms were dark against his skin in the low light.

Franz joined him.

The city sprawled below them, endless and bright. The lights caught the underside of the clouds that had moved in from the sea, turning the sky amber and gold. The streets were full. The restaurants were open. Rohan kept going, indifferent to the dramas unfolding in its hotel rooms.

Somewhere out there was the Mythos Group headquarters. The office where Arianne had spent five years building something enormous while he was in Montclair, wondering if she was eating. If she was sleeping. If she was alone.

"When she left Rohan," Harvey said, not looking at him, "I thought she’d come back. Montclair gave her too much pain. I didn’t think she’d stay." He paused. "I certainly didn’t think she’d marry you."

"Neither did I."

Harvey’s mouth curved. "She told me about you. Before she left. She said there was someone in Montclair: Alex’s younger brother. She said you’d been in love with her. Said it like a fact." He took a sip. "I asked her if she loved you back. She didn’t answer."

"She wouldn’t have. Not then."

"No. Not then." Harvey looked at him directly. "But she married you. She brought you here. She had your son. She let you into her life in ways she’s never let anyone else in. So I assume the answer changed."

"It did."

"Good." Harvey turned back to the window. "You’re not talking much tonight. The chairwoman revelation is still settling, I take it."

"It’s not every day you find out your wife runs a global investment group."

"No. I suppose it isn’t." His voice was dry. "Let me ask you something. Does it change how you feel about her? Knowing what she built here?"

"No." The word came out before Franz had consciously formed it. "My feelings for her have nothing to do with Mythos. That’s not what’s bothering me."

"Then what is?"

Franz looked down at the city. A line of cars moved through an intersection below, their headlights sweeping across the wet pavement. "I thought I knew her. All of her. And I didn’t know this. Two years of marriage, twenty years of knowing her, and she was chairing one of the most powerful investment groups in the world and I had no idea."

"You couldn’t have. She didn’t want you to." Harvey’s tone was even, unapologetic. "Arianne keeps parts of herself locked away. She learned early that letting people in meant giving them something to use against her. Her father. Dominic Blackwood. The Summers family. She’s been proving it to herself for years."

He paused. "The fact that she brought you here: to Rohan, to meet me, to see what she built, that’s already telling you something. She didn’t even bring Alex here."

Franz looked at him. "She didn’t?"

"No. But he was looking. He came to me, him and Lucas Rochefort. He was asking the right questions: questions that told me he already suspected more than he was saying. He was smart. He might have figured it out. He might have been waiting for her to tell him herself."

Franz said nothing. That did sound like Alex.

"We started Mythos when we were still in school," Harvey said. "Small ventures. Investments. We didn’t have much capital, but we had ideas and we had each other. It grew faster than either of us expected. By the time Arianne left Montclair, Mythos was already significant. When she came here, it became everything."

"Aunt Estella told me. About those years."

"She didn’t leave her room for weeks. I went to see her. She wouldn’t let me in." Harvey’s jaw tightened. "She was always so controlled. But after Dominic Blackwood: she came apart. And she had to put herself back together entirely on her own terms."

"You helped her."

"I tried. She didn’t make it easy."

"Aunt Estella said you protected her. From people who tried to take advantage."

"There were people here who thought a foreign woman alone was an opportunity. They were wrong." His voice was flat. "I made sure they understood that."

Franz looked at him: the tattoos, the sharp eyes, the particular ease of someone who had made people understand things before and saw no need to discuss it. "Thank you," he said. "For protecting her."

"I didn’t do it for you. I did it for her. She’s my oldest friend. My partner."

"I know. But thank you anyway."

Harvey nodded, accepting it without ceremony. "She’s trying, Franz. She’s trying to let you in. Don’t hold the secrets against her. She’s been carrying them alone so long she doesn’t know how to set them down. She’s learning."

Franz didn’t answer. He stood at the window and watched the city below.

The guests left not long after. Angelika embraced Aunt Estella at the door. Harvey shook Franz’s hand: firm, brief. "Take care of her," he said. "She won’t make it easy."

"I know," Franz said. "I’ve known for years."

Harvey nodded and followed Angelika out.

Franz closed the door behind them.