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Triston walked into Dante’s office with a slight frown on his face, his eyes scanning the room.
"Where’s Anya?" he asked, his voice tinged with confusion. "She still hasn’t come back?"
Dante didn’t look up. His focus remained on the stack of papers in front of him, his finger mechanically scrolling through them, but his mind was elsewhere, swirling with thoughts that had nothing to do with work.
“You’re really going to fire her and just leave it like that?” Triston asked, frowning at Dante’s silence. “Last time I was here, your secretary said Anya took two days off for a sprained ankle. And when she finally came in, she found out you’d fired her.” He paused, disbelief in his voice. “I thought you’d bring her back by now. Don’t tell me you actually let her go for good.”
Dante’s head snapped up, his eyes wide with shock. "What?" he asked, his voice almost a whisper. "She took two days off because she had hurt her leg?"
Triston stared at him, his face shifting from concern to disbelief. "You didn’t know? Why are you looking at me like that? Why do you look so surprised?"
Dante stood up, his eyes fixed on Triston, though he wasn’t truly seeing him.
His mind was spinning, replaying that day at the courthouse—how he’d walked away from her, seething. And when she didn’t show up at the office for the next two days, his anger only deepened, pushing him to impulsively replace her with a new secretary without a second thought.
But he hadn’t known she was hurt.
Triston let out a sharp breath as realization hit him. "Wait… you fired her because she didn’t talk to you, and also took two days off without telling you? And you didn’t even check on her for two days?"
Dante didn’t answer. He just stood there, the reminder of what he’d done sinking in, heavy and unforgiving.
Dante gritted his teeth, his head dropping as he stared blankly at the table.
“Are you regretting firing her now?” Triston asked, half-teasing.
Dante’s eyes slowly lifted to meet his, cold and sharp. The dark intensity in his gaze instantly wiped the smirk off Triston’s face.
He cleared his throat, growing serious. “It’s too late anyway. She’s already joined Carter’s company.”
Dante’s eyes immediately burned at the name. His entire body stiffened as he looked at Triston, barely masking the anger rising inside him.
“She already started working for others?” he muttered, jaw tight.
Triston gave a casual shrug. “Yeah. She’s working at Carters’ company now. I heard about it a few days ago.”
With every word, Dante’s face darkened, his eyes burning with rage.
Triston raised a brow. “You know what’s even more surprising? Luca, who’s always kept his distance from women, hired her as his personal secretary.”
“His personal secretary?” Dante’s tone dropped, low and dangerous. He scoffed, rage flaring in his eyes. “She’s working as his personal secretary? Personal fucking secretary to that—”
Triston leaned back against the table, a deep frown settling on his face. “Now that I think about it… why would he make an exception for her?”
His expression tightened. “I always thought Luca would be more interested in wooing the Carter family’s daughter. They’re familyfriends, and he already handles most of their business. It just made sense.”
Then he paused. A thought suddenly hit Triston.
“Wait a fucking minute…” Triston’s eyes widened as something suddenly clicked into place. His voice dropped, filled with disbelief. “What if… what if Anya is actually Annie?”
He looked at Dante, whose expression had turned to stone.
“That would explain everything,” Triston went on, his words rushing now. “Why she never told you where she’s living… why she suddenly got close to Luca… and that million-dollar ring he gave her? Doesn’t that seem a little too much for a ‘just friend’?”
His thoughts spiraled faster. “Now that I think about it, didn’t they find Annie right around the time Anya got kicked out by the Foxes?”
The silence that followed was suffocating.