The Man Beneath the Sheets
Chapter 02 - The Man Beneath the Sheets
Vanessa recovered before Julian did.
“He became ill,” she said.
Adrian looked at Julian’s shirt on the floor, his watch beside Vanessa’s earrings, and two half-empty champagne glasses on the nightstand.
“Did his illness remove his clothes?”
Julian climbed from the bed, pulling the sheet around his waist.
“Adrian, this is not what you think.”
“That sentence has never improved a room.”
Clara lowered her hand from her cheek. Adrian saw tears she was trying not to let fall.
Vanessa noticed his attention and changed tactics.
“She entered without permission and began screaming. I reacted because she was trying to blackmail us.”
Clara stared at her.
“I came to deliver your tea. Mrs. Alvarez said you had not eaten since morning.”
“She is lying.”
Adrian turned to Clara.
“What did you see?”
Vanessa stepped between them.
“She is staff. You do not interrogate household employees about our marriage.”
Adrian’s voice remained calm.
“Move.”
She did not.
Julian hurried toward the dressing room, but Adrian blocked the path.
“You are still my doctor until the medical board learns why you were in my bed.”
Julian’s face hardened. “Your recent behavior has been unstable. This confrontation proves exactly why Vanessa needs temporary authority.”
Adrian felt a chill deeper than anger.
The board meeting.
The medical report.
Vanessa’s power of attorney.
Suddenly the affair was not only betrayal. It was timing.
Clara pointed toward a leather folder partly hidden beneath the bed.
“They were signing those when I entered.”
Vanessa lunged for it.
Adrian reached it first.
Inside were medical declarations stating that Adrian suffered progressive cognitive impairment and could no longer manage company affairs. Julian had signed them that morning.
Another document transferred Adrian’s voting rights to Vanessa for an indefinite period.
The final page carried Adrian’s signature.
He had never seen it before.
Vanessa’s expression changed from panic to calculation.
“You signed that after your episode in Zurich.”
“I was unconscious in Zurich.”
“You were confused.”
“I was drugged.”
Julian stopped moving.
The word had landed closer to truth than Adrian expected.
Outside the room, thunder shook the windows.
Adrian closed the folder.
“No one leaves the estate.”
Vanessa laughed softly.
“You still think this house obeys you.”
She took out her phone and pressed one number.
Within seconds, the security locks engaged throughout Hawthorne Manor.
The bedroom doors clicked shut.
May you like
Then Vanessa looked at Clara.
“You should have stayed downstairs.”
