Chapter 2 - Twelve Missing Reports
Adrian came down from the throne.
“Who intercepted them?”
Dr. Vale did not look away from Helena.
“Medical correspondence passes through the queen mother’s household office.”
Helena rose slowly.
“I protected you from panic.”
“Twelve times?” Adrian asked.
“The kingdom needed a king, not a frightened husband.”
Isabella laughed bitterly.
“And I needed a husband.”
Adrian looked at her.
She did not soften.
Dr. Vale explained the truth.
Isabella had suffered severe abdominal separation and a dangerous postpartum hernia. She needed support wraps, gentle movement, proper food, and months without rigid gowns.
Instead, someone had reduced her meals, increased public appearances, and removed warnings from her care plan.
Adrian’s face tightened.
“I never ordered her food reduced.”
“No,” Isabella said. “You only joked whenever I ate.”
That silenced him.
Then Mara, Isabella’s maid, stepped forward.
“There’s more.”
She held up a brass key found in Lady Celeste’s sewing basket.
It opened a cabinet in Celeste’s room.
Inside were Dr. Vale’s missing reports.
All twelve.
Beside them lay a folder marked:
ISABELLA — FITNESS REVIEW.
Adrian opened it.
Canceled appearances.
Weight notes.
Meal observations.
Descriptions of Isabella as “undisciplined” and “emotionally unstable.”
Then a legal memorandum.
If Isabella were declared medically unfit before Julian turned five, temporary authority over the prince and regency council would pass to his grandmother.
Adrian slowly looked at Helena.
“You weren’t hiding my wife’s illness.”
Helena’s expression changed.
“You were building a case against her.”
Lady Celeste backed toward the ballroom doors.
Isabella saw her.
“Stop her.”
The guards moved.
Celeste froze.
Then Isabella noticed the last page in the folder.
A handwritten note:
THE KING MUST BEGIN TO SEE HER AS A BURDEN.
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Below it was a date.
The day Adrian made his first joke about Isabella’s weight.
