Falling For My Accidental CEO Husband
Chapter 192: Dazed

Chapter 192: Dazed

Serena jolted out of her daze when Aiden’s hands gripped her shoulders and shook her firmly. The urgency in his voice cut through the haze clouding her mind. "Serena! Serena, look at me," he demanded.

Blinking rapidly, she focused on him, confusion etched across her face. "Aiden? What are you doing here?" she stammered, glancing around the dimly lit room as if seeing it for the first time. Her brow furrowed with concern. "It’s not safe for you to be moving about like this—you shouldn’t be here. You are injured..."

Ignoring her protests, Aiden kneld down in front of her. His fingers brushed against her face as he checked her pupils, which were wide and glassy.

"You’re in shock, Serena," he said, his tone worried as he wiped her face.

"Me? No, I’m not in shock," she frowned, shaking her head as if to clear away invisible cobwebs. "I was just...distracted. Thinking. That’s all. Anyway, you still haven’t told me what you’re doing here."

Aiden’s eyes blazed with frustration and a trace of panic. He leaned forward, and cupped her face, searching her eyes, "What am I doing here? Serena, you’ve ignored every single call I’ve made since yesterday evening. Not one message, not even a word. Then I find out you went to meet someone from the IHL group—alone, with only Mahi as backup! And even though you made it back, you then went AWOL, once Mahi dropped you here. What was I supposed to do?" His voice caught, wavering as he searched her eyes. "Keep waiting and hoping you’d walk through that door like nothing happened? I didn’t know if you’d been poisoned or drugged."

Serena’s expression softened as realization dawned. She reached up, her fingers brushing Aiden’s arm in an attempt to reassure him. "I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you," she said almost mechanically. But the haunted and far awaylook in her eyes told a different story. Just what had happened? According to Mahi, she had been alright if a bit distracted. But she had not tole Mahi whom she’d met or what they’d talked about.

"Then tell me what happened," Aiden said softly, his thumb brushing against her cheekbone. "I need to know what you’re dealing with."

For a moment, silence stretched between them, heavy and taut. The room felt smaller, the shadows deeper. Finally, Serena’s gaze dropped, and a tremor ran through her as she exhaled, looking into his eyes.

Even though he told her she was in shock, she couldn’t help but notice the worry in his eyes. It was a look she hadn’t seen often on him or anyone but knew right away—the kind that came from worry and deep fear. She wondered if her father had looked like that. Had he worn that same worried expression when her mother had been on the verge of death, his hands shaking with fear when he’d made the call to confornt his mother?

And when his son had gone missing, had that same desperation taken over him, breaking his calm until he was left with only fragile hope? Aiden’s ways were so much like her father’s—strong but protective—that she could picture it clearly. The thought made her chest tighten, filling her with sudden empathy over how much her father had lost.

But more than that, it was the sense of betrayal. The fact that Edwina Dawn, the woman she had looked upto, the woman she had believed to be fair if a little distant, had been the cause of his pain shocked her. Her grandmother had been the one to tear apart her family? To ruin everything?

Even now, she remembered how her father had taught her self defence from the moment she could walk. It was probably because he was worried that his mother would attack her and take her from him.

As Serena’s mind swirled, her thoughts turned over everything she had learned. Her chest tightened as the weight of her own realizations crushed her. The tears came unexpectedly, streaming down her cheeks and Aiden could only look at her in worry.

He could see that she was alright physically, but something had happened that had shaken her so much. Which meant is had to be something big. As he watched her tears fall, he could not help but hold her. She would talk when she was ready.

Drenched in cold, Serena felt a bit of warmth as Aiden pulled her to him, and without thinking she buried her head into his chest and started to cry. The warmth of his embrace was a comfort, but it was no match for the storm of emotions that overwhelmed her. Her shoulders shook as sobs wracked her body.

She held on tightly to him, her fingers digging into his shirt as if afraid that if she let go, the reality of everything would slip away, and she would be left alone again, drowning in her own pain.

He didn’t ask her any questions anymore. Instead, he chose to simply hold her, letting her cry out the weight of her pain. She wanted to tell him, to let him know everything but even the thought of saying something like this out loud scared her.

For what felt like an eternity, though she knew it had only been a few minutes, she sat there trembling with her breath shaky as she turned her laptop towards him and pointed at it, whispering in a shaky voice, "Listen to this USB drive. Nvidia Corrick gave it to me."

Aiden’s eyes flickered from the laptop to her, without a word, he shook his head slowly, closed the laptop, pulled out the USB drive from its port and took her hand," No. Not now. You need to come with me. There’s something else we need to take care of first."

Serena looked at Aiden in confusion. He didn’t understand how important this was. How this changed everything. How was she supposed to avenge the death of a woman when that same woman might have been responsible for her mother’s death? How was she supposed to do that?