The Reborn Young Master Is No Longer a Simp

Chapter 9: THE TRAP FACES HER

Noah was already moving before the echo of the scream faded, and he reached the restroom corridor seconds later, where guests were already gathering near the entrance. The music had stopped, the waiters had paused, and the polished calm of the banquet was cracking.

Murmur murmur.

The name Astrid Montgomery moved through the whispers before Noah even reached the door, and Richard appeared behind him with a hard expression while the Montgomery family pushed through from the other side of the crowd.

Noah stepped through the entrance.

The luxury restroom’s vanity area was long and well-lit, with a mirror stretching the full length of the counter and small lamps above each sink, and the private stalls were behind a separate partition at the far end.

Elena stood near the center of the counter with one hand gripping the edge of the sink. Red wine covered the front of her dress, broken glass was scattered across the marble floor near her feet, and there was a small cut on her wrist, thin but visible, with her eyes red and wet.

Astrid stood a few steps away, closer to the wall, her hands clean, her dress untouched, and her expression still.

Noah scanned the floor. The broken glass was clustered near Elena’s feet, not between both of them, and the wine had fallen straight down the front of Elena’s dress in a single pattern. Astrid’s side of the floor was dry.

Elena looked up when she saw Noah and her face crumpled. “Noah, I didn’t want this to happen,” she said, her voice breaking. “I only wanted to talk to her.”

Murmur murmur.

Someone near the doorway asked what happened, and Elena pressed her lips together and lowered her eyes before she answered.

“I only followed her to clear the misunderstanding between us,” she said. “I just wanted to ask why she still dislikes me so much, and I thought if we could just talk privately, everything would be fine.” She paused, and the silence sat there before she continued. “But she blocked me, told me I didn’t belong here, and when I tried to leave, she pushed me.”

The whispers sharpened.

Astrid’s mother made a sound, but Astrid turned and stopped her with a look, then faced the room. “I didn’t touch her,” she said. “She followed me in here, started the confrontation herself, and staged this.”

“Staged it?” someone near the door repeated.

“Yes,” Astrid said.

But Elena was already trembling again, her cut wrist turned slightly outward and her stained dress catching the light, and the guests looked from one woman to the other.

Richard stepped into the room behind Noah and said nothing, but his presence told everyone in the doorway that this had crossed into Bennett family territory.

The room turned to Noah.

Elena lifted her face toward him, tears running down her cheeks. “Noah, I didn’t want any of this. I swear I only wanted to talk to her.”

Astrid looked at him too, but there was nothing in her eyes that asked for anything.

The system opened.

[FATE LEDGER OPENED]

This room remembers.

Past Failure: Host chose tears over truth.

Unpaid Debt: Astrid Montgomery’s public humiliation.

Correction Required: Let the truth speak before your guilt, anger, or fear does.

Noah looked at Elena’s tears, then at Astrid’s clean hands, then at the broken glass, then at the wine pattern down the front of Elena’s dress, and then he stepped forward.

Noah stepped closer to Elena first, not Astrid.

“No one is accusing anyone yet,” he said, his voice calm. “Elena came here with me. If people twist this before we understand what happened, her name will be dragged through the room too.”

Elena looked up at him, startled.

To everyone else, it sounded like he was protecting her.

But Astrid’s eyes narrowed slightly.

She heard what he had not said.

“Elena,” Noah said gently, “help me understand so no one twists your words. You were holding the wine when you came in?”

Elena blinked. “I was holding it when I came in, I just wanted to talk—”

“And Astrid was already here?”

“Yes.”

“Near the mirror?”

Elena hesitated. “Yes.”

“So you went to her. She didn’t come to you.”

“Where were you standing when the glass broke?”

“I was near the counter, and she pushed me, so I stumbled and—”

“If she pushed you from where she’s standing, the wine would have splashed sideways from the impact,” Noah said, “but it didn’t. It fell straight down the front of your dress.”

The murmuring stopped.

“And if she pushed you hard enough to break a glass, why is there nothing on her hands or her dress?”

Elena opened her mouth, closed it, then said, “I don’t know, maybe she stepped back fast enough—”

“You said she blocked you first, then pushed you when you tried to leave,” Noah said. “Which direction were you facing when the glass broke?”

Elena’s tears were still falling, but her answers were coming slower now, and the story was shifting slightly with each one. Astrid watched Noah without speaking, and Richard stood near the doorway with his eyes moving between Noah and Elena.

Near the back of the gathered crowd, Carter stood with his arms folded, watching.

Noah turned to the hotel manager, who had appeared at the edge of the doorway. “Is there a way to confirm what happened in here?”

Elena’s lips parted, but no answer came quickly enough.

The silence did more damage than Noah’s questions.

Someone near the doorway whispered, “Wait… she went to Miss Montgomery first?”

Another guest murmured, “And she brought the wine in herself?”

Elena’s fingers tightened around the edge of the sink.

“I was upset,” she said quickly. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

Noah nodded once, still gentle. “That’s why I’m asking. If you were upset, it’s possible you misunderstood what happened.”

Elena froze.

The manager hesitated, glancing toward Richard and then toward the guests, and before he could answer, one of the hotel attendants at the back of the corridor raised her hand slightly, then lowered it, then raised it again. “There may be footage,” she said.

Someone near the door said immediately, “In a restroom?”

The attendant shook her head quickly. “Not the private stalls, only the vanity and mirror area. There’s a camera above the entrance positioned toward the counter and sink section, and the hotel installed it after a jewelry theft during a previous event. It only covers the open area, not behind the partition.” She paused. “The incident happened in the vanity section.”

The corridor went still.

Noah looked at the attendant. “Can the footage be retrieved?”

She looked at the manager, and the manager straightened. “Yes. Immediately.”

Elena’s sobs softened, and it lasted less than a second, just a quiet break in her breathing, but Noah saw it and Astrid saw it too.

Richard’s eyes narrowed.

Elena looked from the broken glass to the mirror, then to the camera above the entrance, and the manager turned to the attendant.

“Pull the footage now.”