Chapter 1743:


    Colette studied the little girl for a moment, then said, with what appeared to be genuine concern, “Is she alright? Is she simply shy?”


    Adide, who looked to be around five or six, was pressed against her mother as though the rest of the world had ceased to exist, showing no interest in moving or looking up.


    “She’s been like this since she hurt her head,” Gillian replied quietly, drawing her daughter closer. She braced herself for the reaction she had grown used to — the sideways nces, the poorly concealed pity, theughter people thought she couldn’t hear.


    “Is there anything that can be done? Can she recover?” Colette asked, her tone gentle and unhurried.


    Gillian blinked, caught off guard. She had walked into this house expecting hostility, not this.


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    “She can be cured,” Christina said, stepping in smoothly before Gillian had to find the words herself.


    “That’s good to hear.” Colette offered a small nod and let the matter rest there.


    Christina exhaled quietly. She had already told Henrik that only King could treat Adide. If Gillian had let slip — even identally — that Christina herself was the one capable of helping her, Christina would have been forced into a difficult lie to protect her identity. Eager to move past the moment before it unraveled, she shifted course.


    “Why hasn’t Alban arrived yet?”


    The question pulled the room’s attention like a cord snapping taut. Henrik, who had been sitting in quiet reflection — grieving, in his way, for a child he feared would never be truly well, since finding King seemed so close to impossible — surfaced from his thoughts.


    “Call Alban. Find out what’s keeping him,” he said.


    “Right away,” Santos replied, reaching for his phone — but before he could dial, the sound of tires on the driveway cut through the room.


    “That should be him now,” Colette said.


    Secondster, Alban strode in, his pace brisk and his expression already alert. The moment he stepped into the living room and saw the two women waiting, his brow drew together. He understood at once what this was. They were here because of him, and the conversation wasn’t going to be a pleasant one.


    “What do you want from me?” he asked, getting straight to it.


    Christina gave a short, humorlessugh. “You have quite a nerve, Mr. Martel. Have you already forgotten the woman you wronged?”


    “I haven’t forgotten.” Alban’s gaze moved to Gillian, and something in his expression shifted — a subtle softening he didn’t seem aware of.


    Christina rose to her feet and met him squarely. “We’re here for Gillian. So tell us — how do you intend to make this right?”


    Before Alban could answer, Henrik raised a hand. “Alban. Start from the beginning. All of it.”


    He needed the full ount before he could determine what came next. Alban paused, drew a breath, and told them everything — no omissions, no deflection. Until now, he had only shared with the Hewitt family that Violette had set him up and ended up with Jaxen instead. This time, heid out theplete picture for his own family.


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