"Your mother," Elena repeated slowly, studying Adrian's devastated expression carefully. "You are certain of this possibility?"
"I cannot be entirely certain," Adrian admitted, his voice carrying genuine distress now. "I was not yet born when the m******e occurred, Elena. I have only secondhand accounts regarding my mother's appearance and bearing during that general period of her life. But Bram's description matches what little I understand about her from my father's rare, sparse mentions of her youth."
"Is she still alive?" Logan asked carefully.
"She died when I was young," Adrian said quietly. "I remember almost nothing about her personally, only fragments my father occasionally shared, always carefully controlled, revealing minimal genuine detail."
Bram studied him with evident sy
