Chapter10 — Mother Knows
1310 Words
Adrian stared at the photograph.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The image never changed.
His mother remained standing beside the private jet.
Calm.
Composed.
Waiting.
As though she had known exactly what was about to happen.
As though she had been part of it.
A cold sensation spread through his chest.
"No."
The word escaped before he could stop it.
Across from him, Marcus remained silent.
The photograph lay between them on the desk.
A single piece of paper.
Yet it felt heavy enough to destroy lives.
His life.
Selena's life.
Aria's life.
Five years of pain suddenly looked very different.
Five years of blaming himself.
Five years of believing he'd failed Selena.
Five years of wondering why parts of that day never made sense.
And now this.
His mother.
His own mother.
The woman who had raised him.
The woman he trusted.
The woman who claimed she only wanted his happiness.
His phone was already in his hand.
Marcus knew exactly what he was about to do.
"You should calm down first."
Adrian stood.
"No."
"Adrian"
"No."
His voice cracked with anger.
Raw.
Dangerous.
Years of buried frustration finally surfacing.
"I want answers."
Victoria Vale looked up from her tea when Adrian entered.
She smiled.
The smile disappeared almost immediately.
Because her son wasn't smiling.
He wasn't even pretending.
His face was pale.
His eyes hard.
His jaw clenched.
Something was very wrong.
"Adrian?"
He tossed the photograph onto the table.
It slid across the polished surface.
Stopping directly in front of her.
Victoria's face froze.
Only for a second.
Most people would have missed it.
Adrian didn't.
The tiny flicker of recognition.
The brief flash of panic.
Gone almost instantly.
But he saw it.
And it shattered something inside him.
"What is this?"
Silence.
Victoria carefully set down her teacup.
"Where did you get that?"
Not what is it.
Not that's fake.
Not I don't know.
Where did you get that.
Adrian's heart sank.
"You recognize it."
His mother's expression tightened.
"Answer my question."
"No."
He stepped forward.
"You answer mine."
The room seemed to shrink around them.
Tension crackling in the air.
"What were you doing at the airport on my wedding day?"
Victoria folded her hands.
A familiar gesture.
One she always used when she wanted control.
"I was there for a business matter."
The lie came too quickly.
Too smoothly.
Adrian almost laughed.
Almost.
"Try again."
Her eyes narrowed.
"I don't appreciate your tone."
His laugh this time was bitter.
Broken.
"You don't appreciate my tone?"
He pointed at the photograph.
"Five years."
His voice shook.
"Five years, Mother."
Still she said nothing.
The silence infuriated him.
"You watched my life fall apart."
His breathing became uneven.
"You watched Selena get humiliated."
Still silence.
"You watched me lose everything."
For the first time, Victoria looked uncomfortable.
Just slightly.
Enough.
Enough for Adrian to know.
She wasn't innocent.
Not completely.
Not anymore.
Across the city, Selena sat in her office staring at the same photograph.
The image wouldn't leave her mind.
Victoria Vale.
At the airport.
On the wedding day.
The implications were terrifying.
Because if Victoria had known...
Then Adrian's disappearance hadn't been random.
Someone had orchestrated it.
Someone powerful.
Someone close.
A knock interrupted her thoughts.
Dominic entered carrying coffee.
One glance at her face and his smile vanished.
"Still thinking about the photograph?"
Selena nodded.
Dominic sat opposite her.
"What are you going to do?"
The answer came immediately.
"Find out the truth."
His eyes softened.
"And if the truth changes everything?"
Selena froze.
Because that was exactly what terrified her.
For years she had survived on certainty.
Adrian abandoned her.
Adrian chose Cassandra.
Adrian broke her heart.
Simple.
Painful.
Clear.
Now those certainties were crumbling.
And she didn't know how to feel about that.
Because if Adrian hadn't willingly left...
Then what?
Did it erase her suffering?
No.
Did it erase five years of loneliness?
No.
Did it erase the humiliation?
The pregnancy?
The fear?
No.
But it changed something.
Something she wasn't ready to examine.
Not yet.
That evening, Adrian received a call.
Marcus.
Again.
"I found something."
Adrian immediately sat up.
"What?"
"Your mother's statement doesn't match the records."
His pulse quickened.
"Explain."
"I checked airport logs."
Marcus sounded grim.
"There was no business meeting scheduled."
Adrian closed his eyes.
Another lie.
Another contradiction.
"Anything else?"
A pause.
Then
"She arrived three hours before your flight."
His stomach twisted.
Three hours.
Not ten minutes.
Not thirty.
Three hours.
She hadn't accidentally been there.
She had been waiting.
Waiting for something.
Or someone.
Adrian's grip tightened around the phone.
"What else?"
Marcus sighed.
"Her driver disappeared two weeks after the wedding."
The room went silent.
Another missing witness.
Just like the airport guard.
Just like everyone connected to that day.
Adrian suddenly felt sick.
Because the pattern was becoming impossible to ignore.
Someone had been cleaning up evidence.
For five years.
Later that night, Selena found herself standing outside Aria's bedroom.
Watching.
Listening.
Her daughter slept peacefully.
Completely unaware of the storm surrounding her existence.
Selena smiled sadly.
Aria deserved better.
Better than secrets.
Better than conspiracies.
Better than fear.
A floorboard creaked behind her.
She turned.
And froze.
Adrian stood at the end of the hallway.
For one shocking second, neither spoke.
Neither moved.
The sight felt strangely intimate.
Two parents watching the same child.
The realization unsettled her.
"What are you doing here?"
Her voice came out softer than intended.
Adrian looked exhausted.
More exhausted than she'd ever seen him.
"There are security concerns."
She nodded.
True.
But not the real reason.
Not entirely.
His eyes drifted back toward Aria's room.
A strange expression crossed his face.
Pain.
Longing.
Regret.
All tangled together.
Then something happened that Selena never expected.
His composure cracked.
Only slightly.
But enough.
"I missed everything."
The words were barely audible.
Selena froze.
Adrian laughed bitterly.
A hollow sound.
"I wasn't there for her first steps."
His eyes remained fixed on the doorway.
"Her first day of school."
Another pause.
"Her birthdays."
The pain in his voice felt genuine.
Painfully genuine.
For the first time, Selena didn't see the man who abandoned her.
She saw a father.
A father realizing what he'd lost.
And somehow that hurt too.
Because she hadn't prepared for this.
Hadn't prepared to see him broken.
Hadn't prepared to feel sympathy.
She hated it.
Hated the confusion.
Hated the tiny c***k forming in the wall she'd spent five years building.
Adrian looked away first.
His jaw tightening.
Mask returning.
The vulnerable moment gone.
But not forgotten.
The next morning, Marcus stormed into Adrian's office.
His face was pale.
Almost shocked.
Adrian immediately stood.
"What happened?"
Marcus dropped a folder onto the desk.
"I found the payment."
Everything stopped.
The payment.
The one made to Patricia Greene.
The wedding planner.
The woman paid to stay silent.
Adrian grabbed the folder.
His heart racing.
"This proves it?"
Marcus nodded.
"It proves someone paid her."
Adrian flipped through the documents.
Wire transfers.
Account numbers.
Dates.
Amounts.
Then he reached the final page.
And froze.
Because the account holder wasn't Victoria Vale.
His mother hadn't sent the money.
His pulse thundered.
Slowly.
Carefully.
He looked up.
Marcus looked just as stunned.
"No way."
The words escaped Adrian.
Impossible.
Absolutely impossible.
Yet the evidence sat right there.
Undeniable.
Verified.
Real.
The money had come from a private offshore account.
An account belonging to only one person.
One woman.
One name.
The same name that kept appearing.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Cassandra Sinclair.
Adrian stared at the documents.
His entire world tilting once more.
Because if Cassandra paid the wedding planner...
Then she hadn't been a victim.
She'd been part of it.
Maybe from the very beginning.
And suddenly, the woman he'd spent five years trying to protect looked a lot more like the mastermind behind everything.
- Writer
