Adrian stepped into the nursery. He moved closer. Elena's heart was pounding but she kept rocking. Kept her focus on Lily.
"At the hospital," Adrian said, "when you first woke up. You looked at me like you knew me."
Elena's hands tightened on Lily. "I do know you. You're my husband."
"No. Not like that. You looked at me like..." He trailed off. "Like we had history. Real history. Not this arranged marriage we both got trapped in."
Elena could not breathe. He was too close. Too observant. Seeing things he should not be able to see.
"The medication," Elena said. "I was confused. Disoriented."
"Were you?" Adrian crouched down next to the rocking chair. Now they were at eye level. Now she could not avoid looking at him.
His eyes. Steel gray and intense. The same eyes that had looked at her with love ten years ago before she destroyed everything between them.
"You called me Adrian," he said. "At the hospital. Not darling. Not honey. Not any of the formal terms you usually use. Just Adrian. Like we were familiar with each other."
"We are familiar, Adrian. We're married."
"We've been married six months and you've never once used my first name like that. Like you actually knew me as a person instead of just a business arrangement you were forced into."
He was right. His former wife had been formal. Distant. Had never spoken to him with any real intimacy.
But Elena had said his name the way she used to say it. Before everything fell apart.
"Tell me what happened," Adrian said. His voice was softer now. "Something changed. The woman I married would never come down to my library at three in the morning. Would never ask about a hostile takeover. Would never suggest a PR offensive using market positioning and narrative control."
"I told you. I've been reading—"
"No." Adrian shook his head. "Reading business articles for a few days doesn't give you that kind of strategic thinking. That comes from experience. From years of working in marketing and understanding how to position companies and control public perception."
Elena's mouth went dry. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying you sound like someone who has done this before. Someone who understands corporate strategy and public relations at a professional level." He was watching her face carefully. "Someone like... no. That's impossible."
"Like who?"
Adrian stood up abruptly. He moved away from the chair. Ran his hand through his hair.
"There was a woman," he said. His back was to Elena. "Ten years ago. I was nobody then. Just a startup founder with more ambition than funding. She was in marketing. Brilliant at it. She could take any product and make people believe it would change their lives."
Elena held Lily tighter. She knew this story. She had lived it.
"We dated for three years," Adrian continued. "I thought I was going to marry her. But she left. Said she couldn't sacrifice her career for a relationship. Said she needed to focus on her own success."
"What was her name?" Elena whispered.
Adrian turned around. Looked directly at her. "Elena Martinez."
The name hung in the air between them.
"Elena Martinez," Adrian said again. "Marketing executive. Ambitious. Brilliant. Everything I thought I wanted in a partner." His voice turned bitter. "Until she walked away without looking back."
Elena could not speak. Could not move. Lily had fallen asleep in her arms but Elena barely noticed.
"When I met you," Adrian said, "I thought maybe it was fate's joke. She looked similar to Elena. Similar enough that I noticed. Similar enough that I agreed to the marriage my family and company's board of directors were pushing for even though I knew it was wrong."
He laughed but there was no humor in it. "I married a woman who reminded me of my ex-girlfriend because I'm pathetic and never got over her. And now my wife is suddenly acting like Elena. Talking like Elena. Thinking like Elena." He stared at Elena. "So tell me. What happened? Who are you really?"
The question hit Elena like a physical blow. Who was she? Elena Martinez whose consciousness somehow survived death and landed in Victoria's body? Or Victoria Castellano who nearly died giving birth and came back different?
"I'm your wife," Elena said. The words felt like a lie and truth at the same time.
"My wife hated me," Adrian said flatly. "She made that clear from the day we got engaged. She went through with the marriage because her family pressured her. Because the Ashfords needed my money to save their failing hotels. But she never wanted me. And I never wanted her. Never even pretended to care."
"Maybe I changed."
"People don't change that much. Not overnight."
"I almost died." Elena's voice was stronger now. "I flatlined three times during delivery. Maybe that changes a person. Maybe facing death makes you reevaluate everything."
Adrian moved closer again. He was studying her face like he was searching for something.
"Say my name again," he said.
"What?"
"Say my name. The way you said it at the hospital."
Elena's heart was racing. She should refuse. Should keep the distance between them. But looking into his eyes—those eyes she had loved and left and never forgotten—she could not help herself.
"Adrian," she said softly.
He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, there was pain in his face. Raw and unguarded.
"You sound exactly like her," he whispered. "When you say my name like that. You sound exactly like Elena."
"Adrian—"
"Don't." He stepped back. "Don't do that. Whatever this is. Whatever game you're playing. Just don't."
"I'm not playing a game."
"Then what is this? You spend six months treating me like I'm the worst thing that ever happened to you. You make it clear you want nothing to do with me. You sleep in a different wing of the house. You barely speak to me. And then suddenly you're bringing me baby monitors and asking about hostile takeovers and saying my name like..." He could not finish the sentence.
Like she loved him. That was what he could not say.
"But that was you! You put me in a different wing, you barely speak to me, you set up this formidable wall between us!"
Lily stirred in Elena's arms. She made small sounds but did not wake. Shaken by her sudden outburst, she stood carefully and walked to the crib. Laid Lily down gently.
She'd never been a confrontational person, never would have reacted like that. Victoria's personality was becoming stronger.
When she turned around, Adrian was still watching her.
"I don't understand what's happening," he said. "But something is different. Something impossible."
Elena wanted to tell him everything. Wanted to explain about the accident and the consciousness transfer and waking up in Victoria's body. Wanted to tell him she was Elena. That she had come back to him in the most impossible way imaginable.
But he would never believe her. Would think she was insane or cruel or both.
"I should go back to my room," Elena said instead.
"Wait." Adrian caught her arm as she tried to pass him. His hand was warm against her skin. "Just tell me one thing."
"What?"
"Do I know you?" His eyes searched hers. "Not as Victoria. Not as my wife. But as someone else. Someone from before. Do I know you?"
The question was impossible to answer honestly without revealing everything. Elena pulled her arm free.
"You know me as Victoria," she said. "Your wife. The mother of your child. That's all."
She left the nursery before he could see the tears forming in her eyes. Walked quickly back to her suite. Closed the door and locked it.
Then she leaned against the door and let herself cry.