Chapter 4
I confronted Nadine with the note.
She stared at Marina’s handwriting for a long time.
Then sat down.
“Your wife should have burned that.”
“Apparently she expected you to say that.”
My aunt looked tired now.
Not harmless.
Just old enough to be exhausted by secrets.
I asked one question.
“Is Elise alive?”
“Yes.”
The room changed.
Four years of my wife’s history rearranged around one word.
“Why was I told she died?”
Nadine looked toward the window.
“Because Marina told you what the Arden family told everyone.”
Not enough.
“Why?”
Elise had not drowned.
She ran.
At seventeen.
The Arden family was already collapsing financially and politically. Their father arranged Elise’s engagement to an older allied man who could stabilize them.
She refused.
Marina helped her escape.
The family announced a boating death to preserve reputation.
A dead daughter embarrassed them less than a runaway one.
My stomach turned.
“And you knew?”
“Later.”
“How?”
Because years after I married Marina, Elise contacted Nadine.
Not Marina.
Nadine.
Why?
My aunt had handled several private family arrangements around my marriage.
She was the safest Vale intermediary Elise knew.
Elise wanted to reconnect with her sister without bringing Arden conflict to my door.
Nadine refused.
Repeatedly.
“You kept sisters apart.”
Nadine’s jaw tightened.
“I kept old chaos away from you.”
There it was.
Control disguised as protection.
“Did Marina know Elise was alive?”
Eventually.
Three years before her death.
Elise found another route and contacted her directly.
The sisters exchanged letters.
Met twice.
Marina never told me.
That hurt.
I understood fear.
Still hurt.
“Why hide it from me?”
Nadine answered:
“Because Elise knew things.”
Not about Arden.
About Vale.
I leaned forward.
“What things?”
My aunt went silent.
Then Ashton shouted from the adjoining room:
“Don’t tell him.”
I almost smiled.
Finally.
We had reached the reason someone covered a child’s mouth over five notes.
May you like
Elise was not dangerous because she looked like Marina.
She was dangerous because Marina had trusted her with something about us.
