Chương 7
“Then tell me.”
Victoria pressed her fingertips to the table.
“They fought in the study. Sophia said she was done covering for him. Damian accused her of trying to destroy the family because she resented you becoming CEO.”
“Did she?”
“Resent you? Sometimes.”
Adrian absorbed that.
Victoria went on.
“She loved you. Those things can exist together.”
Elena thought of Peter taking the money and hating himself for taking it.
Of Adrian striking Damian and then choosing not to do it again.
Of Victoria loving a daughter whose death she helped turn into paperwork.
People wanted clean moral categories mostly after the fact.
During the act itself, they were messier.
More dangerous.
Adrian said, “Why did she go outside?”
“She wanted air.”
“In the rain?”
“She smoked when she was upset.”
Adrian looked down.
A memory had found him.
Elena could tell without knowing which one.
Victoria said, “Damian followed her. I stayed in the study because I was furious with both of them. Then I heard something.”
“The fall?”
“Yes.”
“You came out.”
“Yes.”
“And you found her.”
Victoria’s fingers trembled.
“At the bottom of the steps.”
Adrian’s voice changed.
“Was she conscious?”
“For a moment.”
“What did she say?”
Victoria looked at him.
“No.”
“What did she say?”
“I’m not doing this.”
“You already did it. Seven years ago.”
Victoria stood.
The chair scraped marble.
“She was confused.”
“What did she say?”
“She asked for you.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Elena looked away.
Not because the moment did not belong to her.
Because it belonged too much to him.
Victoria’s voice cracked.
“She said your name twice.”
Adrian remained still.
“I called the house doctor first.”
He opened his eyes.
“What?”
“I thought—”
“You called Dr. Warner?”
“He lived four minutes away.”
“The dispatch log says eleven minutes before 911.”
“He told me to call an ambulance.”
“How long did you speak to him?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You remember exactly what Sophia said.”
Victoria’s eyes filled.
She did not cry.
Not fully.
“I was trying to think.”
“You were trying to protect Damian.”
“I was trying to understand whether my daughter was going to die and whether my son had just killed her.”
Adrian stood.
“And you decided which child mattered.”
“No.”
“You decided.”
“No.”
“You did.”
Victoria’s voice rose for the first time.
“I thought she would live.”
The sentence echoed.
She seemed shocked by her own volume.
“I thought she would live,” she repeated more quietly. “She was breathing. Her eyes were open. There wasn’t—there wasn’t some terrible amount of blood. She looked hurt. People get hurt. They survive.”
Adrian stared at her.
Victoria covered her mouth.
Then dropped her hand.
“I thought if I could keep Damian from saying something stupid, get Peter to hold the recordings, get the doctor there, call the ambulance, contain the press—”
“You managed a crisis.”
“That is what I had done my entire life.”
“Your daughter was on the ground.”
“I know.”
“You made her a problem to manage.”
Victoria sat again.
“Yes.”
It was the first answer she gave that contained no defense.
Adrian stood over her for a long time.
Then he stepped back.
Elena watched his anger lose its shape.
That was harder to witness than rage.
At four in the morning, the police finally left.
Victoria remained in the guest suite because her attorney advised her not to travel while exhausted and because Adrian refused to let the family driver take her anywhere until Daniel confirmed the police had no objection.
It was absurdly polite.
Even disaster had logistics.
Elena returned to the safe-room bedroom only because Claire insisted she needed rest and because, after Daniel reset the system, the door could no longer be locked from the outside without Elena’s authorization.
Daniel demonstrated it twice.
“Your biometric profile now has independent override.”
Elena pressed her thumb to the panel.
The lock opened.
She pressed again.
It closed.
“Only you, Mr. Adrian Vale, myself, or emergency services can initiate lockdown,” Daniel said. “But you can always release from inside.”
Elena looked at Adrian.
“Always?”
Daniel nodded.
“Unless there’s a mechanical failure. In that case there’s a manual emergency release behind that panel.”
He showed her.
She made him show her again.
Adrian said nothing.
When Daniel left, Elena sat on the bed.
Adrian remained near the door.
“You can sleep in the other room,” she said.
He nodded.
That hurt too.
Part of her had expected him to argue.
Maybe part of her wanted him to.
He took off his suit jacket and laid it over a chair.
Then seemed to remember he was leaving and picked it up again.
“Elena.”
She waited.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what part?”
His eyes closed briefly.
“Enough parts that I don’t know where to start.”
She looked at her bruised forearm.
“You weren’t here.”
“I should have been.”
“You were working.”
“I saw your calls.”
“After.”
“I should have—”
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
She was suddenly angry.
Not at Damian.
Not Victoria.
At Adrian.
“At least don’t turn this into something where you failed because you didn’t answer a phone.”
His face tightened.
“It matters.”
“It matters, but it isn’t the whole thing.”
“What is?”
“You built a life where everybody around you thinks the first responsibility is protecting the family from consequences.”
He stared at her.
“That isn’t fair.”
“I know.”
The answer unsettled him.
She continued.
“It’s still true.”
“I called the police.”
“Tonight.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know.”
The honesty left both of them with nowhere to go.
Adrian lowered himself into the chair.
Elena frowned.
“I said you should sleep in the other room.”
“I will.”
“You’re sitting.”
“I’m aware.”
“Why?”
He looked at the floor.
“Because if I walk out right now, I’m going to go downstairs and find somebody to blame.”
“There are plenty of candidates.”
“Yes.”
“But?”
“But I know what I’ll actually be doing.”
She waited.
May you like
“Trying not to think about Sophia asking for me.”
Elena’s anger shifted.
