Marianne glanced at me, asking silently.
I nodded.
“Yes,” Marianne said. “She is alive.”
Serena made a sound so small I almost missed it.
Not disappointment.
Not anger.
A sob.
“Oh, thank God,” she whispered.
My eyes filled before I could stop them.
“Did you know?” Marianne asked.
Serena cried quietly for several seconds. When she spoke again, her voice was shaking. “Not at the cliff. Not until after. Victor told me she slipped. He told me I imagined the push because I was hysterical. He told me if I said anything, people would know I was there with him, that I had helped kill her. He said no one would believe a mistress over a grieving husband.”
My hand tightened around Clara’s.
Serena continued, words spilling faster. “I knew he was lying. I knew it. But then he showed me papers. He said Elena had signed everything, that she was unstable, that she had planned to leave with the baby and ruin him. I didn’t know what to believe. Then Clara came to the memorial and gave him an envelope. He lost control afterward.”
“What was in it?” Marianne asked.
“A copy of Sofia’s letter,” Serena said. “And a birth certificate.”
Clara bowed her head.
Serena’s voice broke. “My birth certificate.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Where are you now?” Marianne asked.
“In Denver,” Serena said. “Victor thinks I’m at his house. I locked myself in the guest bathroom. He’s downstairs with his lawyers.”
“Can you leave safely?”
A pause.
Then a whisper.
“I don’t know.”
Marianne’s tone stayed calm. “Listen carefully. Do not confront him. Do not tell him you called us. Put your phone in your pocket with this call connected. Walk out as if you are getting air. There will be federal agents outside within minutes.”
“Federal agents?” Serena breathed.
“Yes.”
Another pause.
Then Serena said, “Elena?”
I looked at Marianne. She hesitated, then brought the phone closer.
“I’m here,” I said.
Serena began crying harder.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know he pushed you until it was too late. I should have screamed. I should have stayed. I should have climbed down. I should have done anything.”
For a second, I saw her not as Victor’s mistress, not as the woman beside him in black, but as a frightened woman standing in a storm beside a man who had just revealed what he was capable of.
I was not ready to forgive her.
But I could hear the truth in her fear.
“Leave the house,” I said. “Then tell the truth.”
Serena inhaled shakily.
“I will,” she said.
The line rustled. A door opened. Her footsteps echoed faintly.
Then Victor’s voice came through the speaker.
“Where are you going?”
Everyone froze.
Serena’s breathing hitched.
“I need air,” she said.
“You need to sit down,” Victor replied, smooth and cold. “We have a long morning.”
Marianne held up one hand, silently telling us not to speak.
Serena’s voice trembled. “I said I need air.”
A pause.
Then Victor laughed softly.
“You’ve been talking to someone.”
Serena said nothing.
Victor’s tone changed.
“Give me the phone.”
The line went dead.
Adrian moved first. “Call Nair.”
Marianne was already dialing.
Dr. Walsh stepped toward me, but I was staring at the silent phone.
