Cassian looked at him once, and Adrian stopped.
The cream envelope was addressed to Cassian in his wife’s handwriting.
It had never been opened.
His throat tightened.
For the first time since Elodie had spoken, anger gave way to something more dangerous because it had grief inside it.
He picked up the envelope carefully.
“How did this get into your case?”
Sabine’s face collapsed.
Adrian said nothing.
Elodie answered.
“I found it in Mommy’s blue box.”
Cassian turned.
“What blue box?”
“The one in the attic. I wanted a picture of Mommy for the wedding.” Her lower lip trembled. “I thought I could carry it so she could come too.”
The sentence hit him harder than anything else had.
Elodie continued in a rush, as if afraid she might lose courage. She had gone into the attic two days earlier while Cassian was at work. She had found an old keepsake box with photographs, letters, and the cream envelope beneath a silk scarf. Sabine had come looking for her. Elodie had shown her the photograph because she recognized Sabine’s face in it.
Sabine had taken the box away.
Later that night, Elodie had heard Sabine and Adrian arguing in the study. They thought she was asleep.
“They said I saw too much,” Elodie whispered. “Mr. Vale said I had to be gone before you could ask questions. Sabine said after the wedding you would listen to her.”
Cassian’s hand closed around the envelope.
Sabine took one step toward him. “She misunderstood.”
Elodie recoiled.
Cassian stepped forward so quickly Sabine stopped mid-stride.
“No.”
One word.
No shouting. No threat.
But Sabine went still.
Cassian reached into his pocket and took out his phone. He called hangar security first and told them, in precise language, that no aircraft was to depart and neither Sabine nor Adrian was authorized to leave the property with Elodie or any document belonging to her. Then he called his attorney, Mara Kline, and told her he had found a forged authorization involving his daughter and travel documents prepared without his knowledge.
He did not soften a single word.
Mara asked one question.
