Chapter 4 — His Family's Version

"Who gave this order?" Adrian asked again.

Damon turned the page beneath the handwritten note. "No signature. The courier picked it up at a print shop near your uncle's office. I asked the manager to preserve the order details. She'll talk to a lawyer, not to me."

"Good. Let Nina Mercer ask her."

"Mara's attorney?"

"The report is about Mara. She gets it first."

Damon studied him. Fourteen years of employment had taught him which instructions were tests. This one wasn't.

Adrian photographed the envelope and every page, then called Nina. He told her precisely how the folder had come into his possession, including the mistake that had put it in his office instead of his uncle's. He offered the physical packet and the name of the courier service. He made no claim that the report proved who ordered it.

"I need you to leave the original intact," Nina said. "And I need to speak with the person who received it."

"Damon will cooperate."

"Mr. Vale, I meant your reception employee too."

Adrian looked at the unopened office door. "I'll ask her. She can choose whether to speak with you."

Nina paused. "Tell Mara what you've found. Don't make me do that part for you."

Mara received the photographs just after the afternoon medication round. She read the instruction twice, then went to the employee office to retrieve the response to her earlier inquiry. An outside caller had asked for her work schedule. Staff had refused to give it, but her shifts appeared on the report anyway.

Someone with access to the hospital had supplied them, or someone had watched long enough to work them out.

"You need to tell our supervisor," Jules said.

"I am. And security."

Mara made both reports before the end of her shift. She asked that her rota be circulated only to her immediate team and that visitors asking for her be directed to security. She disliked being the reason everyone had to change a routine. She disliked more the thought of the stranger outside her clinic.

At six, a woman in an immaculate cream coat appeared at the nurses' station. She gave her name as Celia Vale and asked for Mara.

Jules did not point toward the treatment rooms. "This is a patient area. You can leave your contact information."

"I'm Adrian's cousin," Celia said. "This concerns a private family matter."

"Then you've come to the wrong workplace."

Mara heard them from the corridor. She stayed beside the charge nurse while security arrived. Celia's expression warmed the instant she saw Mara, as if they were friends meeting by chance.

"I only wanted five minutes."

"You can speak in front of them," Mara said.

Celia glanced at the charge nurse and the guard. "That would be unkind to you."

"Then send your message to my lawyer."

The warmth vanished. "My father has questions about your claim. He would prefer to handle them discreetly before people draw conclusions."

"Your father can speak to Nina Mercer."

"Adrian hasn't confirmed anything. If this reaches the board, they'll ask why a woman from his past is suddenly demanding access to him."

Mara felt the familiar heat of being called a liar without hearing the word. Celia had done her homework: she knew how to make Mara's workplace part of the threat.

"I haven't demanded access to Adrian," Mara said. "I told him to stay away until he could respect a boundary. You're the person who came to my hospital."

She turned to the guard. "Please record her name and the time."

Celia's cheeks colored. "That isn't necessary."

"It is to me."

After Celia left, the charge nurse made a brief incident report. Jules walked Mara to the staff room, where Mara wrote down Celia's exact words while she could remember them. Her hands shook, but the writing remained legible.

Nina called twenty minutes later. "Celia works for Vale Logistics as head of public relations. Her father, Victor, chairs the company's board."

"Then her visit was a company employee pressuring me at work?"

"We can document what she did. Let me decide how to describe it in a letter."

Mara emailed the report and the photographs. She also asked Nina to notify Victor's office that no relative or company representative should contact her at the hospital.

Across town, Adrian went into his uncle's boardroom without an appointment. Victor Vale stood beside the window, speaking to two directors. Adrian waited until they had gone.

"Celia visited Mara's workplace," he said.

Victor closed the door. "She's worried about you."

"She threatened a nurse in front of her coworkers."

"She asked a sensible question. You've spent three months denying this pregnancy. Now you're making decisions based on it."

"Mara was telling the truth when she came to me. I was wrong to accuse her."

Victor's eyes narrowed. "You sound prepared to say that publicly."

"If she wants me to."

"Think carefully. The board can survive a scandal. It won't overlook you handing company resources to an outsider with a potential claim on your estate."

"Those are different issues. I'll answer for the resources I used."

Victor moved to his desk. "You think I'm the enemy because I won't indulge your guilt. I was the one at your bedside when you nearly died. I held this family together while you learned to walk again."

Adrian had heard that story often. Until today, he had never wondered why Victor always began it at the hospital, after the attack was over.

"Who chose the doctor who wrote my diagnosis?" Adrian asked.

Victor took a beat too long. "I don't remember every physician you saw."

"I do. Her name was Dr. Harlan. She wasn't on the hospital's regular team."

Victor reached for his phone. "If you're looking for someone to blame for a medical opinion from fourteen years ago, you're becoming reckless."

Adrian left without showing him the report. He still did not know whether Victor had ordered it. He knew Victor had been ready with a story about why Mara should not be believed.

Outside, his phone lit up with a message from Damon.

"The surveillance invoice predates your visit to Mara by nine days."

Adrian stopped walking. Nine days earlier, he had not yet received the specialist's opinion. He had not planned to see Mara.

Someone had been watching her before he knew there was a reason to return.