"Good job, Primo!" Ashley cupped her cheeks, smiling at the boy seated beside her in the dining room.

[I’ll wash up first.]

She nodded. "Mhm. Come back down once you’re done, okay?"

Her smile lingered as her eyes followed him to the stairs. Once Primo had taken the first few steps, she turned to Lucian.

"By the way, Betty’s already here," she said, watching him wipe his mouth with a cloth. "She’s going to be staying in that house."

Lucian nodded. "Will she be handling the office?"

"Yep!" she beamed. "Thanks to you, Betty learned so much from those classes."

He didn’t dwell on the praise, knowing he had only suggested the classes because they would be useful for Ashley. Even now, Lucian had never quite understood why she had chosen Betty as her assistant.

He could have found her someone more qualified.

"How was the plantation?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Good," she nodded. "Castor is doing a great job." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Not that she needed to be told. Every day, Ashley spent hours in meetings with Castor and Betty, and that was before the calls she had to take with Shyaan, Mr. Ramirez, and Liza. Tommy would call sometimes too, though mostly just to check in on her.

"But since I’m setting up an office here, I’ll need to start inviting people — my business partners especially," she murmured with a quiet breath. "That’s a lot of work. Having Betty around means she can handle most of it, though."

"If you need anything, let me know," he said.

Ashley tried to hold back her smile. She couldn’t. "Of course I know that."

Unlike her, Lucian was far more used to that world.

She rested her arms on the table, studying him. "Lucian."

"Mhm?"

"Are you sure everything is alright?" she asked again. She had been asking him this ever since the night he had that nightmare.

It hadn’t happened again, but there were nights she would catch Lucian still awake in the dead of night. It was starting to worry her. She wondered if his insomnia was coming back.

Lucian raised his brows, studying the concern in her eyes. His lips parted, then closed again.

"What?" she blinked. "Don’t open your mouth like you’re about to say something and then change your mind."

A quiet chuckle escaped him. "I’m thinking of going on a business trip."

"Huh?"

"There are some matters I need to attend to," he said.

Silence settled between them as Ashley furrowed her brows. Out of habit, she sifted through her memories from her first life. Even accounting for all the things they had avoided by living in this neighborhood, and all the unexpected turns along the way, she was fairly certain nothing bad should be happening to him around this time.

"Where?" she asked, more out of curiosity than worry. "And when? How long would you be gone?"

Lucian considered. "Not long."

"’Not long’ means it’ll be long," she pouted. "If you’re not sure, that means it’ll take some time."

"Not right now," he said. "Sometime later... maybe."

Ashley nodded, accepting that. She was well aware Lucian wasn’t meant to be home all the time.

In her previous life, he was rarely home at all. He would only stay longer whenever she tried to escape, as if it were some kind of punishment. She knew now, of course, that she had been wrong about that.

But somehow, in this life, Lucian had been home without complaint.

As she turned his words over in her mind, Lucian drew a breath and broke the silence building between them.

"I asked if I could hire you..." He trailed off, watching her brows lift as she looked at him. He ran his tongue along the side of his teeth, choosing his words carefully.

"...and I think I might need your help with something."

Ashley blinked. She didn’t answer, but her expression made clear she was listening.

"Dominion might face a serious crisis in the future," he said. "A shakedown. The stakes include every company we’ve managed to legalize — and Dominion itself."

He paused, nodding slowly as he sorted through the words. "And the people behind it might be within Dominion’s own higher ranks."

Ashley’s brow furrowed. "You mean... the board of Dominion?"

He nodded. "Yes. I’m not certain yet which of them, or whether they’re all involved."

In truth, Lucian had no concrete evidence. One could say it was simply paranoia, that everyone was out to get him.

But even after he had brought the board to heel — those elders and powerful figures who had supported Dominion through everything it had been and everything it had become — they would never forget the bloodbath Lucian had caused to get where he was.

Who knew? Perhaps they had decided to bare their teeth now that they believed they finally had a valuable card to play.

"Gustav’s investigation came back clean," Lucian continued. "But I don’t trust it."

"But Gustav would never —"

"I trust Gustav," he said. "I don’t trust the papers he came back with." He paused. "Today, I realized this problem might be deeper than I thought."

Another silence settled between them as Ashley studied him. Lucian was not the type to seek help outside of Dominion. Even when he had asked to hire her, it was out of efficiency — nothing more.

But if he hadn’t known she was Ghost, he wouldn’t have sought Ghost out at all.

Ashley turned it over in her mind, her brows drawing tight. None of this had happened in her previous life.

"Lucian," she said quietly, worry threading through her voice. "My answer is already obvious, but if you already suspect the board is conspiring against you, doesn’t that mean they have something to back it up? Some card that gave them the nerve to try it in the first place?"

Lucian held his breath for a moment. Of course, she would go straight to that conclusion. Even when he had hoped she wouldn’t.

Seeing his reaction, she asked, "What card do they have? And you know what it is, don’t you??"