220/🩵 The Torn Blue Dress That Stopped the Billionaire Groom at the Altar

Chapter 10 - The Man From St. Agatha's

The man from St. Agatha's did not look like a villain.

He looked like a retired headmaster, which Adrian supposed was often close enough.

Tall, narrow, gray at the temples, wearing a navy overcoat and black leather gloves, he stood in the front hall arguing with two police officers as if volume might become legal authority.

"I have court transfer papers," he said. "Those minors were unlawfully removed from assigned care."

Nora stood halfway down the staircase and gripped the banister until her knuckles whitened.

"Dr. Voss," she whispered.

Lily pressed herself against Adrian's side.

Sophie lifted both arms to be picked up, and Adrian picked her up because fathers should not require children to ask twice for safety.

Detective Rourke descended the stairs behind them.

"Dr. Edmund Voss?"

The man turned with visible irritation.

"Yes. I direct St. Agatha's Residential Academy. I am here to retrieve two wards before further psychological damage is caused."

Aunt Jo, from three steps above him, said, "You may start by retrieving your manners."

Dr. Voss ignored her.

His gaze moved to Lily.

Something official entered his face. Not concern. Claim.

"Lily, come here."

The child did not move.

Adrian felt her small hand twist in his jacket.

"You will address my daughter through me," he said.

Voss smiled faintly.

"That is precisely the sort of possessive language my report warned about."

"You wrote a report on children you've never met?"

"I evaluated their file."

Detective Rourke stepped onto the marble floor. "Who gave you that file?"

Voss hesitated.

"The legal guardian's office."

"Name."

"Mrs. Celeste Worthington Cole."

The last name landed with a thud.

Even one of the police officers raised his eyebrows.

Adrian looked toward Celeste, who had followed at a distance under escort.

"We are not married," he said.

Dr. Voss frowned.

"My documents indicate otherwise as of four o'clock this afternoon."

Maeve checked her tablet.

"The ceremony stopped at three seventeen. No license was signed."

The headmaster's confidence faltered. "That is not what I was told."

"By Celeste?"

"By Mr. Hawthorne's office."

Silas, seated in the library under watch, chose that exact unfortunate moment to appear at the doorway insisting he needed his medication.

Aunt Jo pointed her cane at him. "Sit down before I prescribe something permanent."

Detective Rourke turned to an officer. "Please keep Mr. Hawthorne in the library."

Voss looked around and began to understand he had walked into a room where old certainties were losing power.

He changed tactics.

"Mr. Cole, I sympathize with emotional reunions. But these children have undergone instability. They require structure, not spectacle. St. Agatha's specializes in difficult attachments."

Lily whispered, "He means no hugging after bedtime."

Adrian's arms tightened around Sophie.

"What?"

Nora answered, voice shaking with fury. "St. Agatha's takes children from families who can pay to hide them and calls loneliness therapy. I worked there twelve years ago. I quit after a five-year-old was punished for crying during parent visits."

Voss's face hardened.

"A disgruntled former employee is not a reliable source."

Lily reached into the pocket of her torn blue dress and pulled out a page folded many times.

"Miss Nora said keep papers," she said.

She handed it to Adrian.

It was a printed schedule from St. Agatha's.

Lily Carter / Sophie Carter

Arrival: Following Cole-Worthington ceremony

Contact limitations: No unsupervised calls first ninety days

Sibling placement: Conditional upon compliance

Family identity language: To be redirected

Adrian stared at the last line until the words blurred.

Family identity language.

A beautiful phrase for teaching his daughters not to say Daddy.

Celeste spoke from behind Detective Rourke.

"It was temporary."

Lily flinched again.

Adrian turned.

"Ninety days of not saying my name was temporary?"

"You don't understand what I was trying to prevent."

"Then explain it while the detective is listening."

Celeste looked at Voss.

Voss looked at Beatrice, who stood near the entrance with her arms folded.

Beatrice finally stepped forward.

"Enough. Celeste did what any intelligent woman would do when faced with two illegitimate complications and a fortune built by men who punish weakness."

The room went still.

Celeste whispered, "Mother."

Beatrice continued, every word polished and poisonous.

"Adrian would have tired of the children eventually. Powerful men always do. Celeste merely arranged for them to be cared for elsewhere before they became leverage against her."

Sophie lifted her head from Adrian's shoulder.

"I'm not elsewhere," she said.

It was so small a statement.

It defeated Beatrice more thoroughly than any accusation.

Detective Rourke nodded to her officers.

"Mrs. Worthington, Dr. Voss, Mr. Renshaw, and Mr. Hawthorne will all be giving formal statements. Separately. Miss Worthington as well."

Celeste turned toward Adrian as officers approached.

"You think this ends with me? Ask your aunt what your grandfather did to his first daughter. Ask why the trust fears children outside the right rooms."

Aunt Jo's face changed.

Adrian saw it.

So did Celeste.

Even in collapse, she found a blade.

"Jo," Adrian said slowly.

Aunt Jo looked older than she had ten seconds earlier.

"Not here," she whispered.

But Lily, who had spent months learning the danger of adult secrets, asked the only question that mattered.