Chapter 9 - The Promise Maren Kept
Maren did not answer immediately.
She walked to the library window.
Outside, workers were quietly dismantling wedding decorations.
White flowers lay on tables meant for a celebration that would never happen.
“Elodie had a heart abnormality on her twenty-week ultrasound,” Maren said.
Adrian went still.
“What?”
“It turned out to be minor. She didn’t need surgery. But at the time, doctors couldn’t promise that.”
“You never told me.”
“I tried.”
Adrian remembered.
A business trip.
Missed calls.
Celestine telling him Maren was “emotional again.”
Maren continued.
“Your grandfather found me crying outside the hospital after one appointment.”
Elias had driven her home.
During that drive, Maren admitted she was terrified of raising a medically fragile child inside a family obsessed with money and succession.
She made Elias promise something.
Not money.
Privacy.
“If Elodie had serious medical needs,” Maren said, “I wanted her life protected from the company. No publicity. No trust announcements. No using her as the next Vale heir.”
Adrian stared at her.
“You asked him to keep her out of the inheritance?”
“Yes.”
That was why Elias trusted Maren later.
Before Elodie was even born, she had asked the richest man in the family to keep money away from her child.
Harold confirmed it.
He produced Elias’s old notes.
One line was underlined.
Maren Hart fears the family will value this child for her name rather than her life.
Adrian sank into a chair.
Celestine had taken that private meeting and inverted it.
Turned fear into greed.
Protection into manipulation.
Just as she had done with everything else.
“I should’ve asked you,” Adrian whispered.
Maren’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“I should’ve asked you a thousand things.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
Maren looked at him for a long time.
“I believe you’re sorry.”
Hope flickered across his face.
Then she finished.
“That doesn’t erase three years.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
It was the first right answer he had given her.
Daphne entered quietly.
She had overheard enough.
She took off her engagement ring.
Adrian looked at her.
“Daphne—”
“No.”
She placed it on the table.
“You’re not ready to marry anyone.”
He lowered his eyes.
She turned to Maren.
“I didn’t know.”
“I know.”
Daphne left without drama.
Without blaming Elodie.
Without blaming Maren.
That small act of grace made Maren unexpectedly emotional.
Then Harold’s assistant rushed into the library holding a laptop.
“We found the original courier.”
Harold stood.
“The one who moved Elodie’s DNA sample?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
The assistant’s expression was grim.
“In Boston.”
“Will he talk?”
“He already did.”
The courier had kept something for three years because Celestine never paid him the final portion of what she promised.
A voice recording.
Harold looked at Maren.
“If it authenticates, this could remove any remaining doubt about intent.”
He pressed play.
Celestine’s voice filled the library.
Cold.
Clear.
And unmistakable.
“Once the test says the baby isn’t Adrian’s, Maren won’t matter anymore.”
Then came another sentence.
May you like
One nobody expected.
“And if Elias keeps digging, I’ll deal with him too.”
