Part 2:
Part 2:
The ultrasound photo shook in his hand.
For the first time in years, Adrian Veyron looked afraid.
Not the cold, polished fear of losing money or reputation, but something rawer. Human.
He dropped to one knee before the maid, ignoring the porridge soaking into his tailored trousers.
“Elena,” he whispered. “Why didn’t you come to me?”
She laughed once, broken and breathless.
“I tried.”
The woman in ivory stiffened.
Elena lifted her trembling hand and pointed toward her.
“She took my letters. My phone. She said you had chosen her. She said if I stayed, she would make sure my baby was never born.”
Adrian turned slowly.
The fiancée who had ruled the mansion with perfume and cruelty stepped back.
“She’s lying,” she said, but her voice cracked.
Adrian rose.
“Then you won’t mind if I check the cameras.”
Her face changed.
Just enough.
Just long enough.
The butler, pale and silent, lowered his eyes.
“Sir,” he said carefully, “the cameras in the east wing were disabled three months ago.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened. “By whom?”
No one answered.
Then Elena suddenly cried out, clutching her stomach.
Adrian caught her before she collapsed, his arms wrapping around her as if the whole world had narrowed to her and the life inside her.
“Call the doctor!” he shouted.
The ivory-suited woman moved toward the staircase, but Adrian’s voice stopped her.
“Don’t take another step.”
She smiled then.
A strange, empty smile.
“You still don’t understand,” she said softly. “This was never about jealousy.”
Elena looked up, her face drained of color.
“What did you do?”
The woman reached into her pocket and dropped a small silver recorder onto the marble floor.
A baby’s heartbeat filled the foyer.
Fast.
Fragile.
Real.
Then another heartbeat followed it.
Adrian froze.
Elena’s lips parted in shock.
The woman in ivory tilted her head.
“Congratulations,” she whispered. “Twins.”
The recorder clicked, and a man’s voice began speaking.
A voice Adrian knew.
His dead father’s.
May you like
“Never let those children inherit.”
Read the entire Part 3
