CHAPTER 29: CHAPTER 29 HIS PAST

*ALORA*

The photoshoot session goes by like a breeze. My co-star, Martin is very respectful and easy to get along with.

After the photoshoot, I’m led back to my car by Caden.

As he held open the door of the backseat for me, I glanced at him. I was barely getting used to having him as my bodyguard.

I got into the car and sat near the edge of the seat, maintaining a distance between us again.

As the car headed for my house, I still couldn’t understand how and why Caden was a bodyguard now.

He changed his last name?

I wanted to ask him but I didn’t want to seem nosy.

From the moment I noticed he had stopped trying to win me back eight years ago, I had concluded that it was for the best. I knew he probably got tired and moved on to the next gullible girl.

Admittedly, I had loved him back then, heck, he was my first love but when I got to London, I had made up my mind to forget about him. And I did. I didn’t look him up all these years, I didn’t care about what he was up to. I had even thought I had forgotten all about him. That was until he showed up today.

I couldn’t get rid of my curiosity. I was wondering why he was now a bodyguard when he should be the President or maybe vice president of his father’s company.

I briefly glanced at him and saw that he wasn’t paying any attention to me, he was running his fingers through an iPad.

I then brought out my cellphone, reduced the brightness and goggled about the Steele Group.

I read on a blog that Albert Steele, Caden’s father had stepped down and Bennett Steele was the new President.

I frowned.

Who was Bennett?

Maybe Caden wasn’t interested in taking over the Steele Group?

Then again, back then in school, he was a good footballer, did he perhaps want to further his career in football?

But he wasn’t a footballer now.

What happened?

I couldn’t quench the curiosity so I goggled more about him.

I typed on the search engine.

“What happened to Caden Steele?”

Surprisingly, there was a lot of blogs news about him but most of the news was dated years ago.

The headline that surprised me the most was from eight years ago.

“Caden Steele gets sentenced to ten years in prison for the murder of Jacob Macaulay.”

Jacob?

I tapped on Jacob’s picture and it was really him.

Jacob was the one who released those photoshopped pictures back then and Caden had beaten him up until he fell unconscious.

Did he die from that?

Caden killed him?

I saw another news just a year after Caden’s sentencing.

“Albert Steele publicly admits to disowning son, Caden Steele. Appoints his second son, Bennett Steele as the heir to Steele Empire.”

I thought Caden was the only son. A gossip blog already had answers.

I read that Bennett was the product of Albert’s affair.

Seeing that, Caden and Bennett had two years age gap, it seems Albert had been actively cheating on his wife.

I grimaced and read more.

A news from five years ago stated.

“Caden Steele gets acquitted from all charges, released from jail.”

I read further and got to know that while Jacob was hospitalized and on the verge of making full recovery, his uncle, Richard had altered with his treatments, killing him and making Caden take the fall for it so he could ruin the Steele family’s name.

It all made sense now.

It made sense why he changed his last name.

So he was no longer a part of the Steele family.

He was in jail for three years.

I wondered if his father had tried to reach out to him after his release.

I mean, it must have been a hard time for him in jail and then finding out he shouldn’t have been jailed in the first place.

He must have had an hard time.

I slowly stared at him, actually feeling pity for him.

As if he felt he was being watched, as he turned to face me, I quickly looked away.

I blinked.

So he was genuinely working under Mason now to earn a living?

I tapped on my screen again to check the exact date of his arrest and sentencing.

I saw that it was just around the time when I thought he had given up on winning me back.

Did he stop coming to me because he was arrested?

If he hadn’t gotten arrested, would he not have stopped trying?

He had looked so determined back then, giving me all sorts of gifts.

I began to wonder what would have happened to us if he hadn’t gotten arrested.

Sighing, I shook my head and wiped off my search history.

It was all in the past.

We both had different lives now. I was an actress, he was a bodyguard.

Whatever we had was over and shouldn’t be brought up again.