Aria opened the door and found Wilson leaning casually against the frame with a wide grin. “Aria, been a while, huh?”
She already knew why he came and stepped aside. “So, you’ve heard.”
“Yeah,” he said as he walked in, still grinning. “And here I thought you’d be worried I was here to stir up trouble.”
If he’d reallye to cause trouble, she wouldn’t have let him in to begin with. From the start, Wilson stood with his sister. He was a lot sharper than the rest of the Saxon family.
Margery stood from the couch and asked, “Who are you?”
“Wilson. Aria’s brother,” he replied, leaving out the word “cousin” on purpose. He set down a bag full of seasoned snacks and appetizers on the table. “Oh, and I work with the Arressto now.”
“He joined after you left,” Aria said to Margery.
Margery’s expression shifted slightly, but she didn’t question it. She trusted Aria, and by extension, Aria’s people. Even if someone from Arressto came to arrest her, she wouldn’t panic.
She’d already brought Aria more than enough trouble. Wilson plopped down on the couch and shot Pearl a wink. “Hey, kiddo. Brought you some apple crumble. Go try it.”
“Thanks, bro,” Pearl said with a polite smile, though she still looked a little wary.
Wilson picked up on it but didn’t take it personally. He slouched back and turned to Margery. “Don’t stress. The higher-ups dropped everything about ric.”
“Why? Was it because of Ca?” Margery’s hands tightened around the couch arm.
Wilson shook his head. “Dorian just told me the basics. Even he doesn’t know the whole story. It’s ssified. What I do know is, Cassian’s already headed to Mandino City.”
“Cassian…” Margery lowered her eyes and sighed. He’d been ric’s student, her junior.
Wilson leaned in. “So, what really happened back then?”
He’d always been curious. Margery had a rising career, then out of nowhere, she killed ric and disappeared. Margery paused, then finally said, “ric was a fraud.”
On the surface, ric had a great reputation as a top investigator. But behind closed doors, he was ruthless and power- hungry. He wanted to be director and was willing to sabotage the most promising analyst to get there.
He didn’t get his hands dirty himself. He forced Margery to use hypnosis to harm others. She put up with it for a while until she realized he had messed-up intentions toward their junior, Ca.
She warned Ca to keep her distance, and Ca listened. Then one day, Margery showed up to report a mission and found ric drugging Ca.
She just wanted to stop him, but she hit him too hard. He died right there. Ca cried and begged her to keep it quiet. If the truth came out, her life would be destroyed.
Margery honored her wishes. She took the fall and walked away from Arressto. That was when her life on the run began.
Wilson took a long drink of water. “Well, that exins a lot. Ca came back to work a few months ago,” he added. “I’m
guessing she pulled some strings to get the bounty dropped.”
He let out a dryugh. “Too bad Arressto’s sweeping it under the rug.” They may have stopped hunting her, but they didn’t
clear her name.
The only one who could’ve gathered proof was Ca, and Margery was pretty sure she had. “Honestly, this is already good enough. I’m not going back to Arressto anyway.”
“So, what’s your n now?” Wilson asked.
Margery nced at Aria. “I don’t know what I can even do.” After years on the run and then being held captive by Ethan, she’d never really known peace.
“I’ll take care of you when you’re old,” Pearl chimed in.
Margeryughed. Wilson let out a sigh. “Man, daughters really are the best.”
“Anyway,” he said, shifting topics, “since they’re keeping things under wraps, the evidence is probably locked away. And Cassian? That guy doesn’t let things go. He’s gonna be a pain.”
Then he looked over at Aria. “What do you say, Aria? Want me to stick around and help out? If Cassian tries anything, I’ll shut it down before it starts.”
Aria shut him down instantly. “Don’t need you right now.”