The incident???
I scanned my mental files. I flipped through the pages of the dossier Silas had given me in my mind. There was the merger, the charity ball, the wedding... but "the incident"? There was nothing labeled "the incident."
"Well?" Diane tapped her manicured nails on the table. "How do you plan to address the Monaco situation?"
Panic rose in my throat like bile. If I said I didn't remember, she would know something was wrong. Amnesia wasn't part of the script.
"I..." I stalled, reaching for a glass of water that wasn't there. "I plan to say that it's in the past. We've moved on."
Diane narrowed her eyes. The air in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.
"Moved on?" she repeated slowly. "Mrs. Thorne, you pushed the French Ambassador's wife into a swimming pool because she was wearing the same dress as you. You were sued for assault. You can't just say 'we've moved on'."
My stomach dropped to the floor. Elena did what?
I forced a laugh. It sounded brittle and fake.
"Of course," I said quickly. "I just mean... I've apologized. I've paid the settlement. It's old news."
Diane didn't look convinced. She stared at me, her gaze dissecting me. She tilted her head to the side, looking at me like I was a puzzle with a piece missing.
"You seem... different," she murmured.
"I told you," I said, my voice sharper than I intended. "I went to a wellness retreat. I'm calmer now. Is that a crime?"
"No," Diane said slowly. "But Elena Vance isn't 'calm'. Elena Vance is a hurricane. The public loves to hate you, darling. If you go out there acting like a nun, they'll think you're medicated."
She closed the binder with a snap.
"We need the fire back. Tomorrow, when you get on that stage, I need you to be arrogant. I need you to be untouchable. If you look weak, the sharks will smell blood."
She checked her watch.
"Lunch break. Be back here in one hour. We need to go over the questions about your father."
She turned and marched out, her assistants trailing behind her like ducklings.
I sat alone in the library, trembling.
I had almost blown it. One question. One missing detail.
I stood up, needing to get out of the room. I needed air. I walked over to the massive bookshelves that lined the walls. They were filled with first editions, leather-bound classics that looked like they had never been opened.
I ran my hand along the spines, trying to calm my breathing.
Crime and Punishment. Great Expectations. The Art of War.
My finger stopped.
There was a book on the third shelf that was slightly pulled out. It wasn't a classic. It was a thick, black photo album.
Curiosity got the better of me. I pulled it off the shelf.
I opened it.
It was a wedding album.
I flipped through the pages. There was Julian, looking younger but just as serious, standing at the altar. And there was Elena.
I gasped.
Looking at her in the mirror was one thing. Looking at her in a photograph, freezing a moment in time, was different. She was breathtaking. But her eyes... even on her wedding day, her eyes were cold.
I flipped the page.
And then I dropped the book.
It landed on the floor with a heavy thud.
The photo on the page wasn't a wedding photo. It was a polaroid, tucked loosely between the pages.
It was a picture of me.
Not Elena. Me. Maya.
I was wearing my waitress uniform from the diner. I was wiping down a table, my hair in a messy ponytail, looking tired. The date stamped in the corner of the polaroid was from six months ago.
Elena hadn't been missing for six months. She had been missing for three.
Which meant someone had been watching me, stalking me, long before Elena disappeared.
Silas had said he found me by accident. He said he saw my headshot in a casting database.
He lied.
I stared at the photo on the floor. I wasn't a replacement they found at the last minute.
I was the plan all along.
My hands shook so violently that the polaroid fluttered like a dying moth.
Six months.
They had been watching me for six months.
That meant Silas knew I was in debt before I even missed a payment. That meant the loan sharks who threatened to break my legs might not have been loan sharks at all. They might have been actors, paid to terrify me, paid to drive me into a corner so desperate that I would say yes to anything.
I was a rat in a maze, and I hadn't even realized there were walls.
Click.
The heavy brass handle of the library door turned.
Panic, cold and sharp, flooded my veins. I couldn't let anyone see this photo. If Julian saw it, he would know instantly that I was a fraud. If Diane saw it, she would report back to Silas, and Silas would know I had found out the truth.
I didn't have pockets. My skirt was too tight to hide anything.
I did the only thing I could think of. I shoved the polaroid down the front of my silk blouse, pressing it against my skin, the sharp corners scratching my chest.
I snatched the heavy wedding album off the floor just as the door swung open.
It wasn't Diane.
It was Julian.
He stopped in the doorway, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a crystal tumbler of amber liquid. It was barely noon, but in the Thorne household, time seemed to be measured in secrets and scotch.
He looked at me. Then he looked at the heavy black book in my hands.
His expression didn't change, but the temperature in the room seemed to drop.
"Reminiscing?" he asked. His voice was dry, stripping the word of any sentimentality.
"I was looking for a distraction," I lied, placing the album back on the table. I made sure to close it. "Diane is intense. I needed a break."
Julian walked into the room. He moved silently across the Persian rug, coming to stand on the opposite side of the table. He reached out and touched the cover of the album. He didn't open it. He just traced the gold lettering of our names Julian & Elena with his index finger.
"That book is a work of fiction," he said softly. "We should file it under Fantasy. Or perhaps Horror."
"It was a beautiful wedding," I said, reciting the line from the dossier.
"It was a merger," Julian corrected. He looked up, his grey eyes locking onto mine. "Two companies merging assets. The vows were just the fine print. You knew that. I knew that."
He took a sip of his drink, his eyes never leaving my face.
"But you played the part well that day, Elena. You looked at me with such adoration. You almost had me fooled."
"Maybe I wasn't acting," I said.
It was a risky line. I didn't know why I said it. Maybe I wanted to see if I could crack that stone mask of his.
Julian froze. For a second, something flickered in his eyes. Surprise? Pain? It was gone too fast to be sure.
He set the glass down on the table with a sharp clack.
"Don't," he warned. His voice was low, dangerous. "Don't try to rewrite history. You made it very clear on our wedding night that you couldn't stand to be touched by me. You made it very clear that you married me for the influence, and I married you for the Vance shipping lanes."
He leaned over the table, his face inches from mine. I could smell the alcohol and the expensive soap he used.
"We are business partners, Elena. Nothing more. So get your head in the game for this press conference. Because if the stock drops tomorrow, our 'partnership' is going to become very unpleasant."
He straightened up, adjusting his cuffs.
"Lunch is in the dining room. Try to eat something. You look pale."
He turned and walked out, leaving me alone with the wedding album and the secret burning against my skin.
I waited until his footsteps faded down the hall. Then I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.
I pulled the polaroid out of my blouse. I looked at the date one more time.
Six months ago.
Julian thought we were partners in a business deal.
Silas thought I was a puppet on a string.
But they were both wrong.
I wasn't a partner, and I wasn't a puppet. I was the evidence.
And if I wanted to survive this house, I couldn't trust anyone. Not the husband who hated me, not the handler who owned me.
I walked over to the fireplace. A small fire was crackling in the grate, kept burning by the staff purely for atmosphere.
I tossed the polaroid into the flames.
I watched as my face curled and blackened, turning into ash.
"Game on," I whispered.