Elena could not sleep. She lay in Victoria's massive bed staring at the ceiling. The room was too quiet.
Five days since she woke up in this body. Five days of pretending to be someone else. Five days of playing mother to a baby who was not hers while living in this mansion.
She grabbed a robe from the closet and pulled it on. The silk felt expensive and foreign against her skin. Everything in this house was expensive and foreign. Nothing felt real.
She left the suite quietly. The hallway dark except for small lights near the baseboards. The mansion was silent. Even the staff had retired for the night.
Then she heard a sound, coming from somewhere below, the faint rustle of paper and the click of a keyboard.
Someone else was awake.
Elena followed the sound down the main staircase. Across the marble foyer. Down another hallway, light spilled from an open doorway. Elena approached quietly and looked inside.
The library.
Floor to ceiling shelves filled with books. A fireplace against one wall. Leather chairs and a massive desk. And sitting at that desk with his laptop open and documents spread everywhere was…
Adrian.
He wore a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His tie was gone. His hair was disheveled like he had been running his hands through it. He stared at his screen with the focused intensity of someone who had been working for hours.
She should leave. Should go back to her suite and leave him alone. But she found herself stepping through the doorway instead.
"Can't sleep either?"
Adrian's head snapped up. He looked surprised to see her. Then guarded. His expression closed off into the same cold mask he always wore around her.
"I didn't mean to disturb you," Adrian said. He turned back to his screen. "Go back to bed."
"I can't sleep." Elena moved further into the library. "Too much on my mind."
"The baby—"
"Is fine. Adelaide can handle her if she wakes up."
Adrian's fingers paused over his keyboard. "You're not in your suite."
"No."
"Adelaide won't know where to find you if the baby needs you."
Elena pulled the baby monitor from her robe pocket and held it up. "I have this."
Adrian stared at the monitor like he had never seen one before. "I still think you should go back to the room."
"I can assure you the baby will be fine." Elena said. She moved closer to the desk. "What are you working on?"
"Business." Adrian turned back to his screen. Clearly dismissing her.
"What kind of business?"
"Nothing that concerns you."
The words stung. Elena forced herself not to react. "I'm your wife. Your business concerns me."
"Since when?" Adrian's voice was sharp. He looked up at her again. "You've never shown the slightest interest in what I do. You've never asked a single question about Castellano Technologies in the entire six months we've been married."
Because Victoria had not cared. Had been trapped in a marriage she never wanted to a man she did not love.
"Maybe I should have," Elena said quietly. "Maybe I should have paid more attention."
Something flickered across Adrian's face. Confusion maybe. Or suspicion. He studied her for a long moment.
"You're different," he said finally.
Elena's heart started beating faster. "Different how?"
"I don't know. Since you came back from the hospital. The way you talk. The way you look at me. Even the way you hold the baby." He gestured to the monitor in her hand. "You would never cared if Lily cried all night as long as someone else dealt with it."
The words hung between them.
She should deflect. Should make an excuse about how childbirth changes people. Instead she found herself moving to one of the leather chairs and sitting down.
"Tell me what you're working on," she said.
Adrian's eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"Because I want to know. Because we're married and we've been living like strangers and maybe that needs to change."
"It's three in the morning."
"Neither of us is sleeping. We might as well talk."
Adrian leaned back in his chair. He was watching her like she was a puzzle he could not solve. "You're serious."
"Yes."
A long silence. Then Adrian sighed. "There's a hostile takeover attempt. A group of investors trying to buy enough shares to force me out of my own company."
Elena sat forward. "How much have they acquired?"
"Eighteen percent so far. They need thirty percent to call for a board vote on my removal."
"Who's leading it?"
Adrian's jaw tightened. "I don't know. They're using shell companies and proxies. My lawyers are trying to trace the money but it's buried in offshore accounts."
Elena's mind was already working through the problem. This was what she did. Marketing. Strategy. Understanding how to position a company and protect its assets.
"You need a public relations offensive," she said. "Go to the media. Tell your story. Make yourself the face of innovation and integrity while painting the takeover as corporate raiders trying to destroy what you've built."
Adrian stared at her in disbelief. "What?"
"Public opinion matters. If you can turn the narrative in your favor, you make the takeover politically toxic. No legitimate investor wants to be seen as the villain destroying American innovation."
"I know what a PR offensive is." Adrian's voice was careful. "I'm just surprised you do."
Elena realized her mistake too late. Victoria would not think this way. Neither would she nderstand corporate strategy or public relations tactics.
"I've been reading," Elena said quickly. "Alot. Articles about business. I spent a lot of time in the hospital. Bored."
"You were unconscious for most of your time in the hospital."
"After I woke up. The last few days. I've been... educating myself."
Adrian stood up. He moved around the desk and leaned against it, arms crossed. He was closer now. Close enough that Elena could see the exhaustion in his face. The lines around his eyes. The tension in his shoulders.
"What else have you been reading about?" he asked.
"Your company. The technology sector. Market trends."
"And you just... suddenly developed an interest in all of this?"
"Why is that so hard to believe?"
"Because I've known you for eight months. Since our engagement. And in that entire time you've never once asked about my work. Never shown the slightest curiosity. You made it clear you found business boring. The you I know would never want anything to do with business!"
Elena felt trapped. Every word she said was digging the hole deeper.
The baby monitor crackled. Lily started crying. Soft at first then louder.
Elena stood. "I should get her."
"Adelaide—"
"No. I'll do it." Elena moved toward the door.
"Victoria."
She stopped and slowly turned to face him.
Adrian was watching her with an expression she could not read. "Why did you really come down here?"
"I told you. I couldn't sleep."
"This library is on the opposite side of the mansion from your suite. You would have had to walk past a dozen other rooms to get here."
He was right. Elena had not consciously chosen this direction. Had just followed the sound of his typing through the dark halls.
"I heard someone working," she said. "I was curious to know who was up by this time of the night."
"Curious." Adrian said the word like he was testing it. "You're never curious about me."
"Maybe I should be."
Lily's crying grew louder through the monitor. Elena took it as her escape route and left the library before Adrian could ask more questions.
She hurried to the nursery. Lily was awake and upset, her small face red and scrunched. Elena lifted her from the crib and held her close.
"It's okay," Elena whispered. "I'm here."
Lily's crying quieted. She rooted around looking for food. Elena sat in the rocking chair and started to feed her. The sensation was still strange but becoming more familiar. This body knew how to do this even if Elena's mind still struggled with the intimacy of it.
She looked down at Lily's small face. The baby's eyes were closed now. Content. Trusting.
Elena heard footsteps in the hallway. She looked up in time to see Adrian standing in the nursery doorway.
He did not come in. Just stood there watching her rock Lily.
"You do that differently too," Adrian said quietly.
"Do what?"
"Care for the child. Hold her. Feed her. You never cared this deeply before. Even the way you sit in that chair." He shook his head. "I can't explain it. But it's different from before."
Elena said nothing. What could she say? That he was right? That the woman he married was gone and someone else was living in her body?