PART 3 — The Man Who Wasn’t Supposed to Be There
PART 3 — The Man Who Wasn’t Supposed to Be There
He didn’t look like a guest.
Black shirt. Rolled sleeves. Clipboard in hand.
Staff.
He hesitated when he saw me in the window.
Then his expression changed immediately.
Recognition—not of me.
Of urgency.
He was moving before I even finished the sentence.
“Are you in labor?” he called up.
“Yes!” I gasped. “They locked me in!”
His head snapped toward the manor.
Then back to me.
“Can you get the window open wider?”
“I don’t know if I can—”
Another contraction hit.
I screamed.
Everything blurred.
When I opened my eyes again, he was already at the wall beneath me.
“Listen to me,” he said sharply. “I’m going to get you out. But you need to stay with me, okay?”
I nodded weakly.
He climbed fast.
No hesitation.
No permission.
Just action.
When he reached the window, he braced himself against the frame and forced it wider with both hands.
“You’re going to have to climb,” he said.
“I can’t—”
“Yes, you can.”
Something in his voice cut through the panic.
Not kindness.
Certainty.
He reached in.
“Give me your hands.”
I did.
He pulled.
The moment my body shifted, pain exploded through me again—so sharp I thought I would pass out.
But he didn’t let go.
“Don’t stop,” he said. “You’re almost there.”
Half out of the window now, I collapsed against him.
And that was when he looked down at me properly.
Really looked.
His face changed.
Just for a second.
Like something he hadn’t expected had just landed in front of him.
“Wait…” he said quietly.
“You’re Mara Vale?”
I blinked through tears.
“Yes.”
His jaw tightened.
“Then you don’t know who locked you in there.”
A beat.
He helped me down carefully.
And then—
very quietly—
he said the name that made my blood turn cold.
“Eleanor didn’t do this to protect the wedding.”
A pause.
“She did it to make sure your husband’s family line never got complicated.”
Another contraction hit.
But this one wasn’t just pain anymore.
It was understanding beginning to form.
And somewhere inside the manor—
May you like
the music swelled louder.
Like nothing in the world was breaking at all.
