Back staircase.
Fall reported.
Elena’s name.
Victoria’s signature at the bottom.
There was also a note clipped behind it.
Adrian read it silently first.
The note said the interior security feed for that hallway had been marked for deletion after a system review requested by Victoria.
Adrian looked up.
Victoria saw the change in his face and tried to smile.
‘Security deletes old footage all the time.’
‘Not manually,’ Adrian said.
She looked at the guard.
‘Tell him.’
The guard was done obeying.
‘The main file was deleted,’ he said.
‘But the backup copied before the system review.
It may still be in the office archive.’
Victoria moved toward the hallway.
Adrian’s voice stopped her.
‘Take one more step and I call the police before I call my lawyer.’
She froze.
For the first time since Adrian entered the mansion, Victoria looked truly afraid.
Not exposed.
Afraid.
Elena closed her eyes, one hand pressed to her belly as if she were listening for movement.
Adrian saw it and all his fury bent into focus.
‘Call the doctor,’ he told the maid.
‘Now.
Tell him Elena is here and the baby needs to be checked.’
The maid ran.
Victoria laughed under her breath.
‘So now she moves back in? Is that it? You put the maid in the guest room and throw away your wedding because she cried on your carpet?’
Adrian folded Elena’s letter and placed it beside the report.
‘There is no wedding.’
The words landed without ceremony.
Victoria’s face hardened.
‘You don’t mean that.’
‘I do.’
‘Our families have contracts.
Deposits.
Press.
Guests flying in.
Do you understand what you’re destroying?’
Adrian looked at Elena, at the juice drying in her hair, at the bruise on her wrist, at the folder on the table, at the staff who had watched too long and finally heard enough.
‘I understand exactly what I’m destroying.’
Victoria’s composure cracked.
‘She was a servant,’ she hissed.
‘A temporary mistake in your house.
I was going to be your wife.’
Elena went very still.
Adrian’s voice lowered.
‘Say one more word about her.’
Victoria did not stop.
Cruel people rarely know when power has left the room.
‘You think she loved you? She loved what you could give her.
A name.
