Chapter 2 - The Hand Above the Rail.
The private clinic found no broken bones, but the doctor warned that Claire had a concussion, bruised ribs, and a badly strained shoulder.
Adrian remained beside her until nearly dawn.
He answered every call from Vale House with the same two words.
"Not now."
At six in the morning, Edmund arrived anyway.
He entered the hospital suite without knocking, carrying a bouquet so large it looked less like concern and more like a public statement.
Claire's fingers tightened around the blanket.
Adrian stepped between the bed and his grandfather.
"You have five minutes."
Edmund set the flowers down.
"You are behaving like a teenager."
"She nearly fell twenty feet."
"She did fall."
Edmund's gaze moved to Claire.
"Fortunately, my grandson enjoys theatrical entrances."
Claire stared back at him.
"The railing gave way."
"The railing passed inspection last month."
"Then show us the report."
For the first time, Edmund hesitated.
It lasted less than a second.
"Graham will send it."
Graham Holt was the Vale family's attorney, fixer, and permanent shadow.
He had handled lawsuits, divorces, tax disputes, and three scandals before breakfast on more than one occasion.
Adrian had never liked him.
Claire touched the side of her head.
"Mara saw something."
Edmund's mouth thinned.
"Mara has worked for us for nine years."
"Then she should have no problem talking to me."
Edmund turned toward Adrian.
"Take Claire home and let this end."
"Why are you so desperate for it to end?"
Edmund's eyes cooled.
"Because accidents become accusations when frightened people need someone to blame."
Claire suddenly remembered the hand.
Not on her back.
Not pushing her.
A man's hand had closed around the loose section of railing behind her just before the marble shifted.
She remembered a silver signet ring.
She also remembered Edmund wearing one at dinner.
Her face went pale.
Adrian saw it immediately.
"What?"
Claire looked at Edmund's right hand.
No ring.
She had seen it earlier that night, a heavy square of silver engraved with the Vale crest.
Now the finger was bare.
"Where is your ring?"
Edmund's eyes dropped to his hand.
"I misplaced it."
Adrian gave a humorless laugh.
"Convenient."
Edmund moved toward the door.
"Be very careful, Adrian."
"Is that advice?"
"It is experience."
After he left, Claire released a breath she had been holding.
"I don't know if he pushed anything."
"You don't have to know yet."
Adrian sat beside her.
"We find Mara."
He called Vale House.
The head butler answered.
Mara had resigned overnight.
Adrian asked for her address.
The butler refused, then apologized in a voice that sounded frightened.
Claire stared at the ceiling.
"She didn't resign."
Adrian knew she was right.
By noon, he found Mara's apartment through an old payroll record.
The front door was unlocked.
Inside, a chair had been overturned.
A tea mug lay shattered beside the couch.
Her phone rested on the kitchen counter.
Mara was gone.
Adrian searched the small apartment until Claire, connected by video call from the hospital, told him to look beneath the bedroom dresser.
A white corner of paper protruded from underneath.
He pulled out a folded envelope.
His own name was written across the front.
Inside was one sentence in Mara's handwriting.
If Claire survived, tell her the fall was meant to look like her father's death.
Adrian read it twice.
Then he called Claire.
She had already gone silent.
May you like
Her father had died fifteen years earlier in what the police called a single-car accident.
Until that moment, neither of them had ever imagined Vale House had anything to do with it.
