● CHAPTER 4: The White Rose
Celeste’s face went beautifully still.
It was the stillness of a person who had practiced emergencies in the mirror.
“That note is fake,” she said.
Adrian folded it once, not because he doubted it, but because his hands had started shaking and he could not bear to damage the paper.
“She knew about the floor,” he said.
“Anyone can see the sunlight.”
“She knew about the bracelet.”
“You showed the bracelet in wedding photos.”
“She knew I carved a sun inside the band.”
Celeste paused.
Too long.
Everyone saw it.
Adrian stepped closer to her. “I never told the press that. I never told anyone except Lillian.”
Celeste’s eyes flickered toward the staircase.
It was such a quick glance that most people would have missed it. Adrian did not. He had built companies by noticing what rich men tried to hide and poor men were forced to reveal.
“What’s upstairs?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“Mrs. Delaney?”
The housekeeper turned pale. “Mr. Whitaker…”
Adrian’s stomach tightened. “What’s upstairs?”
Mrs. Delaney looked toward the second-floor corridor where the old nursery had remained locked for seven years.
“Miss Marrow asked for the nursery to be prepared this morning,” she whispered.
Adrian moved before anyone could stop him.
Celeste grabbed his arm. “Adrian, don’t.”
He looked down at her fingers on his sleeve.
She let go.
He took the stairs two at a time. Nora followed at a distance, barefoot now because one of her shoes had come loose. Mrs. Delaney hurried behind her. Celeste stayed at the bottom of the staircase until she realized staying behind looked worse.
The nursery door had been repainted.
A pale, tasteful shade of ivory.
Adrian had ordered that door untouched. He had ordered the room sealed. It had not been a shrine exactly. It was too painful for that. It was simply the last place where hope had been allowed to breathe.
He pushed the door open.
Inside, everything was wrong.
The crib was gone. The wallpaper had been stripped. White roses sat in crystal vases. A rack of sample gowns stood near the window. Celeste had turned Ava’s nursery into a private bridal dressing room.
Mrs. Delaney made a sound of grief.
Nora stepped over the threshold and froze.
“She said this room would smell like lavender,” Nora whispered.
Adrian turned to her.
“My mom,” Nora said. “She said there was a blue elephant on the shelf and a moon lamp by the chair.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
The blue elephant had been Ava’s favorite toy, though she had been too small to have favorites. Lillian had joked the baby was very loyal to elephants. The moon lamp had projected tiny stars onto the ceiling.
Those details had never been published.
Celeste’s voice came from the doorway. “Adrian, you are being manipulated by coincidence.”
Nora bent down near the wall.
A small piece of old wallpaper showed where the new paint had chipped. Blue moons. Silver stars.
The child touched it with two fingers.
May you like
Then she looked at Adrian.
“I think,” she said softly, “I was here before.”
