Chapter Six

Celeste's Pov

I sat.

Iris stayed standing.

"Before I show you this," she said, "I need you to understand something. What's in here isn't mine to give. I'm breaking protocols that have kept this family intact for fifteen years."

"Then why are you showing me?"

"Because you already know. Or you're close enough that lying will make things worse." She paused. "And because I'm tired of watching what happens when women in this house don't have information."

"Women like who?"

"Like Lena. Like you. Like every person who married into this family thinking they understood the terms."

She opened the folder, pulled out a photo and placed it face-up on the desk.

Two boys. Maybe eight years old. Identical. Standing on either side of a woman I recognized immediately as a younger Lena Voss.

"Nico and Eli," Iris said. "Twins. Born four minutes apart. Raised as one person from the time they were twelve."

I stared at the photo. At the two faces that would become the one face I'd been cataloging inconsistencies in for weeks.

"Why?"

"Their father wanted an heir. Singular. He didn't want complications or divided loyalty or the risk of them competing for control." Iris pulled out another document. "So when the boys were twelve, he made a choice. Nico would be the visible heir. The one people knew about. The one who would inherit everything."

"And Eli?"

"Would exist in the margins. Help when needed. Disappear when convenient. Live in the same house but never be acknowledged publicly."

"That's—" I couldn't finish. My brain was trying to rewrite every interaction I'd had in this house through the lens of two people instead of one.

"Insane?" Iris offered. "Yes. But effective. For years."

"Does everyone know?"

"In the family? Yes. In the organization? Some. Outside? Almost nobody. That's the point."

I thought about Viktor. About Lena watching me at breakfast like I was a problem she hadn't solved yet. About the careful way staff moved through this house like they were navigating around something invisible.

"The contract," I said slowly. "The marriage contract. Who did I marry?"

"Legally? Nico. He's the one whose name is on every document. The one the world knows."

"And actually?"

Iris was quiet.

"Iris. The night I spent with someone before the contract was signed. Which one was it?"

"I don't know. I wasn't there."

"But you could find out."

"I could make an educated guess based on schedule and behavior patterns. But I don't have proof."

"Guess then."

She looked at me for a long moment. "Eli. Based on the timeline and the fact that Nico was in meetings until two AM that night. It would have been Eli."

The room felt smaller. "So I spent the night with Eli. Then married Nico."

"Legally, yes."

"And practically? Day to day? Who am I living with?"

"Both of them. Nico handles business, public appearances, anything that requires the face people know. Eli manages everything that happens in the margins."

"And me? Where do I fit?"

"You're Nico's wife on paper. But in practice?" She gestured at the folder. "You're in the same position every other woman in this family has been in. Married to a situation you can't fully see."

I stood. Paced to the window. Tried to organize the last six weeks into something that made sense now.

The shifting moods weren't moods. They were different people. The morning Nico made my coffee wrong and the morning he made it right—two different men. The conversation through the door where he laughed like someone who didn't calculate laughter—Eli. The cold distance and the sudden warmth—not inconsistency. Just two people taking turns.

"How do they decide?" I asked. "Who shows up when?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I think they have an understanding. Nico takes mornings and business hours. Eli takes evenings and anything that doesn't require public presence."

"And if I'm in the room? If I'm talking to one of them? How do I know which one I'm talking to?"

"You don't. Not unless they want you to. That's the point."

I turned back to her. "Why are you telling me this now?"

"Because you were going to figure it out anyway. And when you did, you'd either confront them directly, which would be a disaster, or you'd start making decisions based on incomplete information. Both options are dangerous."

"Dangerous how?"

"Celeste." She leaned forward. "This family has enemies who would pay significant money to know there are two heirs instead of one. If the wrong person finds out, if someone uses that information against them....."

"I'm not going to tell anyone."

"I know, but they don't, not yet. And until they trust that you won't, you're a risk. Lena already sees you as one. Viktor definitely does."

"Viktor knows?"

"Viktor has known since the beginning. He helped their father set this up. And he's been waiting for fifteen years for one of them to make a mistake big enough to split the inheritance."

I processed that. "So the contract. My marriage. Was that....."

"I don't know. I honestly don't. It could be coincidence. Your father needed to move you fast after the Ferraro situation fell apart. The Voss family needed....." She stopped.

"Needed what?"

"I'm not sure. But the timing was convenient. Very convenient."

I sat back down. "What else is in the folder?"

Iris hesitated.

"Show me."

She pulled out more photos, documents, financial records. A timeline that started fifteen years ago when two twelve-year-old boys became one public heir.

I read everything. Some of it made sense immediately. Some of it I'd need time to process.

At the bottom of the stack was a newspaper clipping. Small. Easy to miss. An announcement of the Voss heir's eighteenth birthday, one photo, one name. Nico.

"Where was Eli that day?" I asked.

"Somewhere else. He's always somewhere else in the official record."

"Does he care? That he doesn't exist publicly?"

"I think he did. When he was younger. Now?" She shrugged. "I think he's made peace with it. Or convinced himself he has."

I closed the folder. "What happens now?"

"That depends on you."

"How?"

"You could pretend you don't know. Keep living like you have been. Accept the arrangement."

"Or?"

"Or you could decide you deserve more than an arrangement. And that would complicate everything."

She was right. It would complicate everything. Knowing meant I couldn't unknow. Couldn't pretend the shifting moods were just personality. Couldn't accept being passed between two men like a responsibility they were splitting.

"I need to think," I said.

"Take your time. But not too much time. The longer you know without them knowing you know, the more dangerous your position becomes."

She collected the folder. Paused at the door.

"Celeste? One more thing."

"What?"

"Whichever one you spent that first night with? He hasn't forgotten. I can see it in the way he looks at you when he thinks no one's watching."

She left before I could ask which one she meant.

I sat in the study alone. Trying to rewrite six weeks of my life. Trying to figure out which moments were Nico and which were Eli and which version of this situation I was living in.

The door opened. I looked up.

Nico or Eli. I couldn't tell anymore without more data.

"Iris said you needed something from the study."

His voice gave nothing away. His posture was neutral. I had no idea which one I was looking at.

"Just some privacy," I said carefully. "I'm done now."

He nodded. Started to leave. Stopped.

"Celeste?"

"Yes?"

"If you need anything. Anything at all. You can ask."

The way he said it....there was something underneath. Something that felt like an opening.

"I'll remember that."

He left. I stayed. Thinking about twins and secrets and the fact that I'd just been handed information that could destroy this family or save me.

I just had to figure out which one mattered more.

And which brother I was going to trust when I did.