Chapter 205

Chapter 205

Elizabeth's POV

"No. But I know him."

"How does he know about the Windsor Family?"

Alexander went quiet for a moment. "Because he's been digging. Three years ago, he came to me and said he was working on an investigative piece about the Windsor Group. He wanted an interview. I turned him down."

Alexander set down his fork and looked at me. "But he didn't quit. He kept following the story. He's investigated your father, my parents, Franklin, and Gray."

"Then he has evidence too?"

"He does. But what he has isn't as complete as that notebook." Alexander leaned back in his chair. "He needs you. And you need him."

I looked at him, and all at once, I understood.

This wasn't a coincidence.

Julia finding Stanley wasn't a coincidence. Stanley agreeing to meet wasn't a coincidence. The things he said in that coffee shop, the questions he asked, none of it was random.

It was a path that had been laid out long before I knew it was there. Before I had even decided what I was going to do, Alexander had already been preparing for this.

"You planned all of this ahead of time?" I asked.

"Not planned," he said. "Waited. I waited until you were ready to move forward, and then I made sure there was a path."

I held his gaze. In those eyes, usually so controlled, there was something unexpectedly gentle.

"Alexander, you thought of everything for me."

"No." He reached out and ruffled my hair. "I just didn't want you to be afraid."

That night, I lay in bed turning from one side to the other, unable to sleep. Stanley's words kept replaying in my head.

"If what you're telling me comes out, what happens then?"

I was scared. I was.

But when I thought about Alexander beside me, about the path he had cleared, about the fact that I wasn't facing this alone, the fear turned into something else.

Not courage.

Certainty.

The certainty that I had chosen the right man.

Moonlight slipped through a gap in the curtains and spread across the floor. I turned onto my side and looked at Alexander's sleeping face.

Even asleep, there was still a faint crease between his brows, as if he were thinking through things in his dreams too.

I lifted my hand and gently touched the spot between his eyebrows. The line eased a little. Then he shifted closer, his arm curling around my waist without waking.

'Good night,' I said silently.

No matter what happened at the birthday banquet, I wasn't afraid.

The night before Gray's birthday banquet, I still couldn't sleep.

It wasn't nerves exactly. It was harder to name than that.

Alexander lay beside me, breathing slow and even. He was sleeping well. Maybe he was exhausted. Maybe it was because he already knew where everything stood.

I turned and studied his profile in the dark, thinking about what tomorrow would bring.

Gray's eightieth birthday banquet. Every member of the Windsor Family would be there.

Franklin would attend as the second son of the Windsor Family, dressed in an impeccable suit, smiling as he accepted congratulations from the guests.

Gray would announce his return to the Windsor Family, and everyone would applaud. Everyone would offer their blessings. Everyone would act as if the last fifteen years had never happened.

But tomorrow, it wouldn't go that way.

Because I wasn't going to let it.

My phone screen lit up with a message from Julia.

[Elizabeth, what are you wearing tomorrow?]

I blinked, not expecting that question at a time like this.

[Anything is fine.]

[No. You're S's designer. You're going to the Windsor Family's birthday banquet. You do not get to wear 'anything.' I had a dress prepared for you. I'll have the driver bring it over in the morning. Don't worry, it's not flashy, but once you put it on, no one will dare look down on you.]

I couldn't help smiling at the message. Julia could be carefree and loud most of the time, but when it mattered, she never dropped the ball.

She knew exactly what tomorrow meant. She knew I wasn't going to a birthday banquet. I was walking onto a battlefield without smoke.

And if it was a battlefield, then what I wore mattered.

[Okay. Thank you, Julia.]

[Don't mention it. Get some sleep. You need to be in top form tomorrow.]

I set my phone down and lay back against the pillow. Alexander's arm came around my waist. He didn't open his eyes, and his voice was rough with sleep.

"Why are you still awake?"

"I can't sleep."

"We have to get up early tomorrow. Try to sleep."

He buried his face in my hair, his breathing gradually deepening again. I didn't say anything else. I closed my eyes, but my mind kept replaying every version of tomorrow like scenes from a movie.

Franklin walking into the banquet hall.

Gray standing on the stage.

The guests whispering to each other.

Alexander holding my hand.

And Stanley, the reporter. Where would he be? What would he hear? What would he write down?

The questions tangled in my mind like a knot I couldn't loosen, no matter how hard I tried.

The next morning, sunlight woke me.

When I opened my eyes, Alexander was already gone.

I sat up and saw a glass of warm water on the nightstand. Beneath it was a note with two words written on it:

"Don't rush."

I checked my phone. It was already past eight.

The birthday banquet started at eleven at the banquet hall beside Windsor Estate.

That hall was reserved for Windsor Family events and was never opened to the public. I'd heard it could hold several hundred people.

Today, everyone in The Windsor Family would be there. Immediate family, extended relatives, every branch of the family, all coming in from across the country to celebrate Gray's birthday.

By the time I showered and went downstairs, Julia had already arrived. She was sitting on the living room sofa, and beside her hung a dress inside a garment bag.

When she saw me, she stood and gave me a long once-over. "You don't look too bad. Did you sleep at all last night?"

"I did."

"Liar."

She unzipped the garment bag, and the dress came into view.

It wasn't dark, and it wasn't light either. It was somewhere between blue and gray, like the sky just before dawn, shadowed and luminous at the same time.

The hem fell to my ankles, perfect for my body as it was now.

The neckline was simple, but there was fine embroidery at the cuffs and waist. You wouldn't notice it at first glance. Look closer, though, and the pattern revealed itself as Elizabeth's signature design language.

"You designed this?" I asked.

"That sketch you did before? I had someone make it right away." Julia smiled. "S's designer can't show up to The Windsor Family's birthday banquet wearing someone else's work, right?"

I reached out and touched the dress.

The fabric was soft under my fingers, almost like a second skin.

The embroidered details caught the light with the faintest sheen. Understated. But unmistakably special.

"Julia, thank you."

"Don't thank me. Thank yourself. You designed it. I just made sure it got made." She paused. "Elizabeth, I'll be waiting outside the banquet hall today. If anything happens, call me right away."

"Okay."

Knowing she'd be there settled something inside me.