Run, Girl (If You Can)

Chapter 326: Just Aaron

"Brann Knighton doubled the size of the reward asking for information on Lacy's murderer that will never be found," Aaron said. "He isn't a threat."

Cameron's brow furrowed, unconvinced that the danger had passed completely. Aaron couldn't blame him; they had dealt with a lot of unsavory characters over the years to get where they were now.

"Who is? Do we have anyone we need to look out for or are we good?"

He couldn't think of anyone they had to worry about. Max would want revenge for Lacy but he couldn't connect that back to Aaron. Alistair would probably try to cause some sort of trouble eventually—he still had 22% of the shares—but for now he was hiding away to lick his wounds.

The only other person Aaron could think of was his half-brother but that was only if he was provoked. For the time being they should be fine. He was enjoying socializing with the Hales and wouldn't do anything to antagonize that.

"I think we're good for now."

Cameron sighed with relief. "Great because I don't have the energy to deal with any more enemies. Your father was more than enough of a problem over the past eight years."

"Don't I know it," Aaron muttered.

With the benefit of foresight, Aaron had been able to defeat his father eight years ahead of schedule. He didn't become the CEO until 2022 in his first life. Even so, it was a long and difficult road. Once all of the handover problems were taken care of, it should be smooth sailing from here on out.

"How does it feel to have your relationship out in the open after all this time?"

He frowned. On the one hand, it was great that he didn't have to worry about Keeley's safety. On the other…he was worried about her stress levels. She hated the spotlight and had been thrust into it quite forcefully yesterday.

"I'm mostly worried about how Keeley will handle having everyone's eyes on her until more interesting news comes along."

"Ah right, she's probably never dealt with anything like this before," Cameron mused. "But she's tough; she can handle it."

Aaron didn't doubt she could handle it. The problem was that she didn't want to. It was one of the things she had hated most about being Mrs. Hale in their first life. Everywhere she went people were watching her ready to judge.

He didn't want Keeley to experience any of the things that had made her miserable again. She had agreed to be with him on the condition that he kept her and their children safe, which he had done, but he didn't want to do the bare minimum.

He wanted her to enjoy everything she had missed out on this time around. She deserved a peaceful life after everything she had been through. Having to avoid mobs on the street was not peaceful.

"She can but she shouldn't have to," he said in wearily. "There has to be something more interesting happening in New York City than who I married."

Maybe he could try asking Aiden to root out someone else's scandal that was more explosive. It would take the pressure off of Keeley a bit. The idea had merit.

"It'll blow over eventually," Cameron said optimistically. "Anyway, which of the business partners do you want me to take from the list?"

"They're ordered alphabetically by last name. I'll take A-L if you'll take M-Z."

He stood and nodded his assent as he snatched his half of the list off of Aaron's desk on his way out the door. "If you need me, I'll be working on this until I die. Man, I need a vacation."

So did Aaron but since he literally just took one he probably couldn't get away with it. Especially with all that was going on right now. He wasn't the type to shirk his responsibilities, particularly where work was involved.

The trip to Niagara Falls was the first time he ever requested vacation time aside from his honeymoon in his first life. He wouldn't be doing that anymore. He had vacation days—he was going to use them to spend time with his family.

Since he was too busy to take a proper lunch break, Aaron had to eat at his desk as he worked. Keeley had packed leftovers for him along with the last couple of chocolate chip cookies from the batch she made a few days ago. She was a saint.

He went to go text her a thank you for the cookies when a notification rolled across his screen. He had subscribed to alerts for certain hashtags on social media pertaining to all of the drama surrounding the Hale family so he wouldn't be blindsided by anything.

Aaron liked to keep himself informed. That way if something particularly offensive came up he would know what to say to comfort his wife in advance in case she happened to see it. Obviously he preferred if she didn't see it at all but sometimes these things were inevitable.

A blogger had apparently talked to Keeley in the nail salon last night. It was a very short, speculative article from a popular online forum. He read it hesitantly, bracing himself for the worst.

'Last night at my favorite nail salon I happened to run into the woman of the hour, Keeley Hale, getting a manicure with a friend. She wasn't at all what I expected her to be. She flatly denied being the Cinderella we all dream of being; claiming that her husband was a normal person like anyone else.

'She showed me a few pictures to prove her point and I must say looks can be deceiving. I wouldn't have believed that it was Aaron Hale in those photos if it wasn't his wife showing them to me. Those pictures could have come from any woman with children's Instagram.

'I was still skeptical. Anyone in the financial sector can tell you that Aaron Hale is a force to behold. The last thing Keeley had to say about her husband was "To me he's not the mighty Aaron Hale. He's just Aaron." I couldn't believe that anyone could think of that man as 'just' anything but her friend, whose identity remains unknown, jumped to his defense as well.

'Next I asked her the question on everyone's mind since the rumors first burst onto the internet: did Aaron Hale kick his father out of Hale Investments for her? She refused to comment and quickly left the nail salon but that screams 'guilty' to me. What do all of you think? Leave a comment below.'

The comments were a mixture of calling Keeley crazy for thinking Aaron was a normal person and people agreeing that he must have kicked Alistair out for her. None of that registered with him. He was thinking of a conversation they had last summer before Keeley found out she was pregnant.

She said something along the lines of 'you'll always be Aaron Hale' to disagree when he said he had changed and could fit more easily into her world. His heart had cracked hearing that because Keeley had been the only person to ever think of him as just Aaron.

Here they were, almost a year later, and she was finally back to the way she used to be. If she were in front of him right now, he would have kissed her senseless.

He glanced at the clock. Five more hours to go. He could wait that long to let her know how much her words meant to him. Probably.