Whispers broke out instantly among the few attendees. The air grew thick with confusion. Madam? Miss Stella?
Hadrian's jaw dropped. He looked from the bowing guards, to the lawyer, and finally to Stella. The name 'Stella' was unmistakably female, completely contradicting the identity of the hardened male agent he had trusted with his life for years.
Hadrian stepped between Stella and the lawyer, his face pale with disbelief. "Wait... hold on. Clarification, please. What did you just call him?"
The lawyer looked at Hadrian calmly. "I called her Miss Stella Vance. The sole heir to the Vance estate."
Hadrian slowly turned to face Stella, his eyes wide, searching her face as if seeing her for the very first time. The puzzle pieces of her hidden life, her secrecy, and her sudden leave of absence were violently crashing together in his mind.
He asked her point-blank, his voice trembling with a mixture of shock and betrayal. "Are you... are you a lady?"
Stella found it incredibly hard to reply. The words caught in her throat. The question sounded ridiculous in the middle of a graveyard, but the weight of her entire lifetime of lies was crashing down around her. She couldn't look him in the eye. Her silence was her admission.
"You've been a lady all this while," Hadrian whispered, completely stunned. A deep, agonizing hurt flashed across his features. "But what happened? Why did you lie to me? Why did you get these things... why did you see me with that disguise? I thought you were my friend. I trusted you."
Stella felt entirely brokenhearted. She wanted to explain the danger, the HSS, and why she had to protect her identity to survive, but the words wouldn't come.
Utterly devastated by the betrayal, Hadrian turned on his heel and began to walk away from the gravesite.
"Hadrian! Wait!" Stella called out, her voice desperate. She called his name again and again, the tears finally clamoring at her eyes, but he didn't turn back even once. He kept walking until he disappeared into the mist