Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN BEFORE ELENA
Her name was Celia Rowan.
Holden had once been engaged to her.
Elena knew only that the engagement ended abruptly four years earlier, long before she met him. The Ferris family story said Celia had “chosen another life.”
Brin gave her a different version.
“Celia got pregnant.”
Elena stared.
“What happened?”
“Officially? Stress. A private breakdown. Then a separation.”
“And unofficially?”
Brin looked sick.
“She fell too.”
The room seemed to lose air.
“Where?”
“Not down the grand staircase. In the west garden near the stone terrace. Vesta said she tripped.”
“And the baby?”
“Gone.”
Elena closed her eyes.
No wonder Holden had gone home furious.
No wonder Vesta’s first reaction to pregnancy was timing rather than joy.
This had happened before.
Brin had one contact number for Celia’s older sister, Mara Rowan. Elena called from the hospital bed.
Mara did not sound surprised.
“She found you too, then.”
The bitterness in that sentence frightened Elena.
Mara met her two days later at a quiet café across from the rehabilitation clinic where Elena had her follow-up appointment.
Celia was alive but refused contact.
“She doesn’t want Ferris anywhere near her life,” Mara said.
“What happened to her?”
Mara laughed softly.
“You mean what can I prove, or what do I know?”
“Both.”
Mara looked out the window.
“Celia became pregnant after eight months with Holden. Vesta suddenly began inviting another woman around. A friend’s daughter. Pretty. Decorative. Always nearby. Celia thought Holden was cheating.”
Elena felt sick.
Same pattern.
Mara continued.
“Celia confronted Vesta during a party. She left upset, walked through the garden, and fell from the upper terrace steps.”
“Did Vesta push her?”
“No.”
“Did she arrange it?”
Mara’s expression hardened.
“I believe Vesta arranged the entire atmosphere. Distraction. Humiliation. Isolation. And yes, I believe there was oil on the stone.”
Elena stared.
“Did you prove it?”
“No. Because Vesta got to the narrative first.”
Celia was called unstable. Emotional. Too fragile for the Ferris family. Holden did not defend her publicly. The engagement ended. The loss was buried in private money and non-disclosure agreements.
Mara slid an envelope across the table.
Inside was a copy of a settlement offer Vesta sent Celia after the fall.
Compassionate severance, it called it.
In exchange for silence.
Elena’s hands shook.
“She did this before.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t Holden stop her?”
Mara looked at her with pity.
“Because Holden spent his entire life thinking survival inside that family meant choosing what truth he could afford.”
That sentence stayed with Elena all day.
When she returned to the hospital, Holden was waiting.
He looked exhausted.
Almost hollow.
“I found the original toxicology,” he said.
“And?”
“There was a sedative present before admission.”
Elena sat very still.
“From the party?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think your mother drugged me?”
Holden answered carefully.
“I think someone did.”
That should have comforted her. It did not.
Because then he added:
“And there’s something else. My mother has already petitioned the board to delay any trust review on grounds of your emotional impairment.”
Elena stared.
“My emotional impairment?”
“She claims the fall was the result of prenatal instability.”
Elena laughed once.
“Your mother kills my baby and then calls me unstable?”
Holden looked away.
When he spoke again, his voice had changed.
“Elena… I need to tell you something before you hear it from her.”
She felt the room tighten.
May you like
“What?”
“The trust isn’t the only reason she’s afraid of your pregnancy.”
