‘Do you know where the first copy is?’
Nora nodded. ‘Celeste put it in the kitchen fire.’
Adrian closed his eyes.
His phone buzzed on the desk.
Celeste.
He did not answer.
It buzzed again.
Then again.
A message appeared.
Where are you? The school just called the house. Do not let Nora turn this into one of her performances. Bring her home. I will handle it.
Amelia looked at the screen and said, ‘Do not delete that.’
Adrian’s face had gone still.
People who did not know him mistook his stillness for calm. Amelia knew better. It was the stillness that came before a bridge was demolished.
‘Nora,’ Adrian said, ‘you are not going back to that house today.’
Her eyes filled. ‘Ever?’
The word was almost too much.
‘Not while Celeste is there.’
The door opened before anyone could stop it.
Celeste Vale stepped into the nurse’s office wearing cream silk, pearl earrings, and the kind of composed smile she used at charity galas. Behind her hovered Marla, the housekeeper, gray-faced and twisting a dish towel between her hands though there was no kitchen anywhere near them.
Celeste’s perfume reached the room before her voice did.
‘Adrian, darling, what on earth is going on? I had to hear from the school secretary that Nora had some disgusting scene in class.’
Nora recoiled so violently that juice spilled over her fingers.
Adrian moved between them.
Celeste noticed. A flicker of calculation passed over her face.
Then she softened her voice. ‘Oh, Nora. Sweetheart. You poor thing. Why do you always make yourself sick when there is attention involved?’
No one spoke.
The silence did what accusations could not. It left Celeste standing alone with her own words.
Amelia lifted her tablet slightly. ‘Mrs. Vale, I advise you to be very careful with what you say next.’
Celeste’s smile thinned. ‘And you are?’
‘The family attorney.’
‘Family matters do not require lawyers.’
Adrian took the folded note from the desk and held it up.
Celeste’s eyes landed on it.
Her face did not change much, but Marla made a soft choking sound.
Adrian heard it.
He turned to the housekeeper. ‘You know what this is.’
Marla looked at Celeste.
Celeste’s voice sharpened. ‘Marla, you are staff. Do not involve yourself.’
Adrian stepped closer to Marla. ‘Did my daughter go hungry in my house?’
Marla began to cry silently.
Celeste laughed once, brittle and cold. ‘This is absurd. Nora is dramatic. She has always been dramatic. Elise indulged her, and now she uses that tragic little face to manipulate everyone.’
Adrian’s expression changed at his late wife’s name.
‘Do not say Elise’s name again.’
Celeste flushed.
Marla covered her mouth. ‘I am sorry, sir.’
Celeste turned on her. ‘Enough.’
But Marla seemed to have crossed some invisible line and could not step back. Tears slid down her cheeks as she looked at Nora.
‘I tried to leave food in the laundry room,’ she whispered. ‘I tried. Mrs. Vale found out. She said she would report my visa papers and have my son removed from the staff housing. She told me the child was being corrected. She said Mr. Vale approved.’
Nora stared at her lap.
Adrian looked as if he had been struck.
‘I never approved anything.’
Celeste’s mask finally slipped.
