“There were two people who saw Elijah as a problem from the start,” she said. “Bianca Vale and her father, Victor Vale.”
The twins listened carefully.
“Bianca believed your mother’s rise would be cleaner without a poor man beside her. Victor believed family power should stay useful, polished, and easy to control. Elijah was none of those things. He was honest. He had roots in the truth. And truth often disturbs people who are building lies.”
Jallen’s fingers tightened around the edge of the table.
“Then came the blow that changed everything.”
One day, Mama Agnes said, her voice lower now, a theft accusation was suddenly placed on Elijah. Money had gone missing, papers were signed, witnesses spoke, and before he could defend himself properly, he was arrested.
Jordan drew in a sharp breath.
Jallen stared. “Arrested?”
Mama Agnes nodded slowly. “Yes. Disgraced, humiliated, taken away while your mother stood in a storm of pressure, fear, and temptation.”
The kitchen seemed smaller now.
“Did Mother know he was innocent?” Jordan asked.
Mama Agnes hesitated. “She should have fought harder for him,” she said at last.
That answer said enough.
Vanessa had been given a choice, and she had made one.
Under pressure, seduced by status, and desperate to secure a future for her sons, Vanessa stepped into the Hart world, and she left Elijah behind.
Jordan’s voice was barely above a whisper. “So Elijah lost everything, and Mother became Vanessa Hart.”
Mama Agnes looked at both boys with sorrow in her eyes. “Yes.”
Jallen’s face hardened. Then he asked the question neither of them could hold back anymore.
“Was Elijah framed so Mother could become a Hart?”
The next morning, the question from the kitchen still hung over the twins like a storm cloud.
Was Elijah framed so Mother could become a Hart?
Neither Jallen nor Jordan had slept well. The answer Mama Agnes gave them the night before had not been a full answer at all. It had been worse. It had been silence in the shape of truth.
By sunrise, both boys were already awake.
Hart Mansion stirred around them as it always did. Footsteps moved through the halls. Curtains were drawn open. Breakfast was prepared. But for Jallen and Jordan, nothing felt normal anymore. Every polished surface in that house suddenly seemed to reflect a lie.
They did not go to Vanessa first.
They went straight back to the kitchen.
Mama Agnes was there, pouring tea into a cup, her face already tired, as if she had expected them.
Jordan spoke first, his voice soft but steady. “Please do not hide it from us again.”
Jallen looked at her directly. “We need the truth.”
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