ABSTRACT Accretion disc coronae (ADC) sources are very high inclination neutron star or black hole binaries, where the outer accretion flow blocks a direct view of the central source. The weak observed X-ray emission is instead produced mainly by scattering of the intrinsic radiation from highly ionized gas surrounding the source, the ADC. However, the origin of this scattering material is still under debate. We use the ADC source 2S 0921-630 (V395 Car) to test whether it is consistent with a thermal-radiative wind produced by the central X-ray source illuminating and puffing up the outer disc. This wind is clearly visible in blueshifted absorption lines in less highly inclined systems, where the source is seen directly through this material. Using the phenomenological photoionized plasma model, we first characterize the parameter that drives emission lines observed in 2S0921 in XMM–Newton and Chandra data. Following this, we run the Monte Carlo radiation transfer simulation to get scattered/reprocessed emissions in the wind, with the density and velocity structure obtained from the previous work. Our model agrees with all the wind emission lines in the Chandra high and medium energy grating spectra for an intrinsic source luminosity of L > 0.2 LEdd. This result strongly favours thermal-radiative winds as the origin of the ADC. We also show how high-resolution spectra via microcalorimeters can provide a definitive test by detecting blueshifted absorption lines.