“I believed you had suffered enough because of me.”
“Because of you?”
He stepped closer.
“I buried an empty coffin. I listened to our son ask why his mother would not come home. I spent years believing the best part of my life had vanished in a fire. Do not stand there and tell me that seeing you alive would have caused me more pain.”
Tears rolled silently down Elara’s face.
“I was afraid.”
“So was I.”
Adrian knelt in front of her.
For a moment, they simply looked at each other while Toby remained between them.
Then Adrian reached toward Elara’s hand.
He stopped before touching it.
“May I?”
The question undid her more completely than anger could have.
She placed her hand in his.
He closed his fingers around it and lowered his head.
“You’re warm,” he whispered.
Elara gave a broken laugh through her tears.
“I’m alive.”
Adrian pressed her hand against his forehead.
“Come home.”
Celeste laughed.
It was not the warm, carefully controlled laugh the guests knew.
It was a brief, hollow sound filled with disbelief.
Everyone turned toward her.
“You cannot seriously believe this performance.”
Adrian stood.
“Celeste, not now.”
“Not now?” Her perfect expression fractured. “A woman walks into our engagement celebration wearing a servant’s uniform, tells an impossible story, and you invite her to return to your life without asking a single reasonable question?”
“I asked her questions.”
“You heard what you wanted to hear.”
Elara studied Celeste’s face.
There was something familiar about the curve of her mouth.
Something about the slight lift of one eyebrow.
A white room flashed through Elara’s mind.
The smell of antiseptic.
A window covered by rain.
A woman standing at the foot of a hospital bed.
Elara squeezed her eyes shut.
A memory tore open.
She was weak, unable to move properly, while a woman in a cream-colored coat spoke to a doctor near the door.
“She has no family,” the woman had said.
Another image followed.
Documents being placed on a table.
A nurse arguing.
A needle entering Elara’s arm.
The same woman leaning close and whispering, “It is kinder if you remain forgotten.”
Elara opened her eyes.
Celeste had gone pale.
“You,” Elara said.
Adrian turned toward her. “What is it?”
Elara rose slowly.
Toby sensed the change in her and reached for his father. Adrian lifted him into his arms.
Elara stepped toward Celeste.
“You came to the hospital.”
Celeste’s chin lifted. “I have never seen you before tonight.”
“You wore a cream coat. There was a gold bird pinned near the collar.”
Several guests looked toward Celeste.
One elderly woman whispered, “She used to wear that brooch constantly.”
Celeste’s eyes flashed.
“That proves nothing.”
Elara pressed her fingers against her temple as more memories returned.
“You told the doctors I had no husband.”
“Stop this.”
“You said my relatives lived overseas and wanted my treatment kept private.”
“I said stop.”
“You changed the contact information in my file.”
Celeste glanced toward the exits.
Adrian saw it.
The last uncertainty disappeared from his face.
“What did you do?” he asked.
Celeste turned to him.
“Nothing.”
“What did you do to her?”
“I helped you survive.”
Adrian stared at her.
Celeste’s composure finally shattered.
“You were destroyed after the accident. The company was collapsing, the board was preparing to remove you, and you could barely look after your own child.”
“Answer the question.”
“She did not remember you!”
Elara recoiled.
A collective gasp passed through the ballroom.
Celeste realized what she had admitted, but it was too late.
Adrian handed Toby to Mrs. Bell and moved closer to her.
“You knew she was alive.”
Celeste backed away.
“She had no memory. She did not know who she was. Bringing her back would have meant years of treatment and scandal. You would have abandoned everything.”
“She was my wife.”
“She was an empty body with no past!”
Adrian’s expression became terrifyingly calm.
“She remembered enough for you to be afraid.”
Celeste’s voice dropped.
“I loved you.”
“No. You wanted what belonged to me.”
“I protected you.”
“You stole three years from my son.”
Celeste looked around at the faces watching her.
The admiration she had enjoyed minutes earlier had vanished. Phones were being lowered. Guests stepped away from her as though guilt itself might be contagious.
Elara’s memories continued falling into place.
“You arranged the transfer,” she said. “The rehabilitation organization did not find me by accident.”
Celeste remained silent.
“You paid them to move me under another identity.”
Still no answer.
“You intercepted my letters after I began searching.”
Adrian turned toward his chief of staff.
“Call the police.”