Adrian remembered the laundry staircase.
Stone steps.
Low light.
No carpet to soften a fall.
‘Then?’ he asked.
Elena’s eyes filled again.
‘She grabbed my wrist.’
Adrian looked at the bruise.
‘She told me no one would believe a maid over a Vale bride.
I pulled away.
She shoved me.
I tried to catch the railing, but I fell.’
The towel twisted in her hands.
‘I woke up in the clinic.
The doctor said the baby’s heartbeat had dropped.
He kept me there overnight.
After that, I stopped trying to come near the estate.’
The silence that followed was not empty.
It was full of everyone calculating what they had ignored.
Victoria’s eyes flashed.
‘There is no proof I was even there.’
The guard shifted.
Adrian heard it.
‘What else?’ he asked.
The guard’s shoulders sank.
‘I filed an incident note that day,’ he said.
‘A staff member reported hearing a fall.
Ms.
Victoria told me Ms.
Elena had trespassed and slipped while running away.
She ordered me to keep it internal because the wedding announcement was coming.’
Victoria spun toward him.
‘I gave no such order.’
‘You signed the report,’ he said quietly.
Her mouth closed.
Adrian held out his hand.
‘Bring it.’
The guard left the room with a speed that looked like relief.
Victoria began pacing.
Her heels clicked against marble, then softened on carpet.
‘You are making a terrible mistake.
She’s using your guilt.
She disappeared, Adrian.
She let you mourn.
She let you suffer.’
Elena looked up, wounded by that cruelty even now.
Adrian answered before she could.
‘You told me she was gone because she chose to be.’
‘I was protecting you.’
‘From my child?’
Victoria’s lips parted, but nothing useful came out.
The guard returned with a folder.
It was plain gray, the kind the estate office used for maintenance issues, staff disputes, deliveries, things Victoria considered too small for beauty.
Adrian opened it on the coffee table.
Inside was a single incident report.
The date was two months earlier.
