Semua Bab I Buried My Fiancé, Married His Brother: Bab 31 - Bab 40

Christabel Sebastian took the call in his office with the door open, which I understood immediately was deliberate, a choice to let me hear everything rather than shut me out the way he might have three weeks ago. "Mr. Fontaine. I'm told there's a concern." His voice had gone into the register I recognized from the gala, smooth, controlled, giving away nothing despite the tension I could see coiled through his shoulders. I couldn't hear the other end of the call, only Sebastian's responses, but I watched his jaw tighten with every pause, every measured word he chose in response to whatever was being said. "I understand the complaint references leadership stability. I'd like to know the specific nature of the allegations, if you're able to share them." A longer pause. "I see. And the source of this complaint." Whatever answer came back made something flicker across Sebastian's face, quick and sharp, gone before I could fully read it. "Anonymous complaints without verified sourcing

Christabel I read the message with Sebastian beside me twice before either of us said anything. "Ask Evelyn who she's been talking to," I read out loud, like saying it slower might make it less unsettling. "That's the same number as before. The one that told you to ask about the toxicology report." "Same number. Different tone, though." Sebastian set the phone down, rubbing his jaw. "The others felt like warnings. This one feels like a nudge. Someone pointing us exactly where they want us to look." "You think it's a trap." "I think everything about the last month has been someone else's plan, and I'm tired of only finding out the shape of it after we've already walked into the middle of it." He stood, restless, crossing to the window. "But I also think we can't afford to ignore a lead just because I don't like where it's coming from." "Then we go back to Evelyn." "You go back to Evelyn." He turned to face me, something careful in his expression. "She'll talk to you differently

ChristabelSebastian went very quiet in the car, the phone still lit up in his hand, that single line of text sitting between us like something radioactive."Sebastian.""She sat in that room an hour ago and told me she never knew anything about the toxicology report until I asked her directly." His voice had gone flat, controlled in the way I'd learned meant he was one wrong word away from breaking something. "And now her own disclosure shows a payment to a private toxicology lab, two weeks before Elena died. Before, Christabel. Not after. Before anyone even knew there was anything to test for.""Maybe it's unrelated. A coincidence. Elena could have needed testing for something else entirely.""Two weeks before she died, from an account registered directly to Beatrix, to a lab that specializes in exactly the kind of testing that would only matter if someone already suspected poisoning." He shook his head slowly. "That's not a coincidence I can talk myself into believing."We didn't g

Sebastian We left the estate a little after midnight, and neither of us said much on the drive home, the weight of everything Beatrix had told us sitting too heavy for a conversation. Christabel fell asleep somewhere around the second bridge, her head against the window, and I let her sleep, grateful for the quiet, grateful that for a few minutes I didn't have to perform strength I wasn't sure I actually had. The Fontaine dinner arrived two days later whether we were ready for it or not, and I stood in front of the mirror that evening straightening my tie with hands that hadn't fully stopped shaking since the study, since the words repeated exposure had rearranged everything I thought I understood about my own family. "You look like you're about to face a firing squad," Christabel said, appearing in the doorway in deep green silk, hair swept up, looking so composed I almost forgot the week we'd just survived. "I feel like I might be." "You're not. You're having dinner with an old

Sebastian I called the school before we'd even passed the second bridge, my voice coming out sharper than I intended when the overnight security line finally picked up. "This is Sebastian Vettel. I need someone to physically check on the building immediately. Every entrance, every camera, right now." "Sir, it's nearly two in the morning, the building's locked and alarmed, there shouldn't be anyone—" "I don't care what there shouldn't be. Check it. I'll hold." I barked. Christabel sat beside me, the map still spread across her lap, tracing the three circled locations with a finger that wasn't quite steady. "The office, the estate, the school. What connects them? Why these three?" "They're the places any of us could be found predictably. Regular schedules, known addresses." I gripped the phone tighter, waiting on hold with my heart hammering too hard to think clearly. "It's not random. Someone's been studying our patterns." The school's night security came back a few minutes late