Chapter 5 - The Woman Behind the LieThe ballroom emptied slowly.
But Vanessa remained.
Victor ordered security to stay outside.
He wanted answers.
"How long?" he asked.
Vanessa's face was pale.
"How long what?"
"How long did you know Elena was alive?"
Vanessa looked away.
Victor's voice hardened.
"Answer me."
"Since she was a child."
The admission seemed to drain the air from the room.
Elena's eyes closed.
Twenty years.
Twenty years of knowing.
Twenty years of silence.
Vanessa finally broke.
"I was protecting the family."
Elena laughed once.
It was not amusement.
It was grief.
"You weren't protecting the family."
She stepped closer.
"You were protecting your place in it."
Vanessa said nothing.
Because it was true.
She had feared Isabelle's daughter.
The rightful heir.
The bloodline that existed before Vanessa had ever entered the Laurent world.
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So Vanessa had chosen power over mercy.
And now that choice had returned to collect its debt.
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