Chapter 78 Chapter 78

Chapter 78 Chapter 78
Aria’s Pov.

"She's in Switzerland," Lucien said.

I sat on the edge of my bed and held my phone in shock.

Switzerland. Not Paris. Not France. A whole country away, across the border.

"Lucien." I kept my voice steady. The way he did for me. "That's…"

"Eleven years," he said. "She's been there for eleven years."

"I know."

"She could have…" He stopped. Started again. "She's forty minutes from the border. She's been forty minutes from the border for eleven years and nobody…"

"Hey." I cut through it gently. "Hey. Stop."

There was a pause.

"I don't know what to do," he said. And something about the way he said it felt different, Lucien always knew what to do.

"You don't have to know right now," I said. "That's not a decision you make tonight."

"She has an address. A house. She has a whole life there." His voice was shaky. "What does that mean? Does that mean she chose to abandon us? Does that mean she's…"

"Lucien." I managed to say firmly. "Breathe."

Silence.

Then I could hear the sound of him breathing in and out

"You don't always have to know what you want to do," I said. "You can just know what you know. She's alive, she's there. That's enough for tonight."

He was quiet for a long moment.

"Yeah," he said.

"Yeah," I said back.

The line stayed open, neither of us filling the silence.

"I haven't told Adrien," he said eventually.

"I know."

"I don't know how to…"

"You don't have to figure that out tonight either," I said. "One thing at a time."

There was another  pause.

"You're irritatingly good at this," he said.

I giggled.

"I learned it from a certain someone," I said teasingly.

He was quiet for a second.

Then he finally spoke. "Get some sleep, Aria."

"You too," I said. "I mean it."

"Yeah."

The line clicked.

I sat there for a moment with the phone in my hand.

Switzerland.

I put the phone on my nightstand and looked at the ceiling, thinking  about how their  mother had packed a life into a different country and stayed there for eleven years.

Surely there had to be a reason. Eleven years didn’t happen by accident.

I just hoped she wasn’t another Cecilia.

The house was weirdly quiet.

I noticed the moment I stepped into the corridor, the house had fewer people in it than it usually did. No sounds from the lower floors, no distant movement. 

I went downstairs.

The dining room was empty, it was set for dinner,  plates, candles, everything in its usual precise arrangement  but  both Cecilia and Valentin weren’t present. 

I stood in the doorway.

Hm.

I thought about what Valentin had said, “ she is becoming a problem, handle it” and the speed of Valentin's car through the gate this afternoon. I had totally forgot to mention it to Lucien,

Then I went to the kitchen and asked Marie if she could bring something up to my room.



I ate alone at my window.

The city outside was doing its evening thing, going gold, then pink and then slowly dark, the lights coming on in pieces across the rooftops. I ate and tried not to run through the same questions again.

Who is she.

What does handle it mean.

I placed the empty plate aside, then I heard a knock at my door.

"Yeah."

Adrien pushed it open. He was still in his uniform,  his blazer gone and his  tie loose. He looked at the plate on my nightstand and then at me.

"You ate up here?" he said.

"Nobody was at the table."

He glanced back towards the corridor. Then he came in and sat on the edge of my bed.

"My father called earlier, said he and Cecilia had something on. He didn't say what."

"Did he tell you where?"

"No." He said it simply. Like this was a totally normal occurence. "He never really does."

I looked at him.

He said it without any suspicion, the way he said most things about his father.

"Are you okay?" 

"I'm fine." I looked at my hands. "Just tired."

He studied my face for a second.

"I'm sorry about today," he said. "Elodie. I should have…it wasn't the right day to…"

"Adrien."

"I know you said it was fine…"

"It’s fine." I met his eyes. "I mean it…today was just a lot."

He held my gaze.

"Yeah," he said. 

"Have you eaten?" I said.

"Not yet."

"Marie can bring something up."

He looked at me, then he settled further back on the bed.

"Okay," he said.

Marie brought two plates, I had told Adrien i wanted to eat more food.

We ate on my bed, with our legs crossed, our plates balanced. Adrien  played something on my laptop, one of those shows neither of us had seen  and we watched without paying full attention, talking through the parts that were slow and going quiet for the parts that weren't.

The house was quiet around us..

Cecilia.

My thought kept landing on Cecilia.

Her  apology and Valentin’s statement “…as long as you hold up your end”

What happened when someone stopped holding up their end?

I looked at Adrien beside me.

He was watching the screen, relaxed, completely unaware of what I was thinking about sitting a few inches away from him.

The show kept going.

At some point he shifted and his shoulder pressed against mine, neither of us moved away, after that his breathing changed.

I looked over.

His eyes were closed, his head tilting slightly towards me. He was fast asleep.

I looked at him for a moment.

Then I closed my eyes too.

Somewhere between thinking about Switzerland… and Cecilia… sleep found me before I finished the thought.



Someone knocked once.

Then again, louder this time, dragging me out of the heavy fog of sleep. My eyes stayed closed as my mind struggled to put the pieces together.

My door

It was morning already.

The handle turned and the door opened.

"Aria, the driver has been…"

I could hear Cecilia's voice and then nothing. Complete silence.

I opened my eyes.

Cecilia stood in the doorway.

She was looking at the two of us…me on one side of the bed, Adrien on the other, the laptop still open between us showing a frozen loading screen, the plates from last night stacked on the nightstand.

Adrien stirred beside me. "What…" he sat up, saw Cecilia and went very still.

"The driver has been waiting for twenty minutes," Cecilia said perfectly even. "You have fifteen minutes to get ready."

She looked at me.

“And…why are you both sleeping together?”

“Oh, Aria and I were studying last night, we must have slept off.” Adrien said as fast as he could.

If I hadn’t known the truth, I might’ve believed him too.

“Okay… just dress up for school.” Cecilia didn’t look convinced, then she turned and walked out, pulling the door most of the way shut behind her.

Adrien and I looked at each other

"Go," I said, already dying of laughter.

Adrien was already off the bed.

Then he grabbed his tie from the chair where he'd apparently put it at some point in the night, moved to the door,

Then he stopped and looked back at me.

"She won't…" he started.

"Adrien go," I said. "We're going to be late."

He closed the door and I sat on the edge of the bed for exactly three seconds.

Then I got up, got dressed in a few minutes,  then I grabbed my bag and headed for the stairs.

The driver was waiting outside.



Saint Claire was already full when we arrived.

Adrien went ahead toward the courts — morning practice, he mouthed at me on the steps, and I nodded and watched him go.

I turned towards the main entrance.

And that's when I saw her.

She was standing  near the main doors with a brand new Saint Claire blazer and her dark bob and her hazel eyes, looking at the building like she was pretending to find it new.

Esme.

She turned as I approached and her face broke into a smile. 

"Aria!" She said it like a happy coincidence. "It’s such a surprise I’m seeing you this morning."

"Yeah very surprising" I said.

"Isn't it." She fell into step beside me like it was the most natural thing. "This is my first day. I don't really know anyone except Camille and she said she'd meet me inside but I'm not sure where…"

"I'll show you," I said without thinking.

She smiled again.

Then we  walked through the doors together.

"It's a beautiful school," she said, looking around as we went. 

"It is," 

"Have you been here long?"

"A few months."

"And you live nearby? Like close to the school?"

"Not too far," I said.

"In the 8th?" she said. "I heard that's where a lot of the families from Saint Claire are."

I glanced at her.

"Somewhere around there," I said.

She nodded.

"Camille mentioned you're on the student council," she said. "That's so cool. Are you involved in the gala thing she mentioned?"

"I'm running the after party," I said.

"Amazing." She touched my arm briefly. "You'll have to tell me everything about it."

I smiled at her.

"Of course," 

We walked down the corridor and she asked three more questions before we reached Camille.

Some slightly too specific.

I couldn’t wrap my head around it, but I knew something was off about Esme.