Chapter 4 - THE FIANCÉE WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Clarissa arrived at Sebastian’s townhouse the next morning furious.
Not frightened.
Furious.
“You froze my accounts.”
Sebastian stood in the library.
I remained near the doorway.
Three security officers waited outside.
Clarissa saw me.
Her mouth tightened.
“Of course she’s here.”
Sebastian’s voice stayed calm.
“Why did you visit Walter Briggs?”
She froze.
Only slightly.
Enough.
“Who?”
“Bad answer.”
“Sebastian—”
“Philadelphia. Yesterday. Three hours before he died.”
Her face changed.
Then she looked at me.
“This is because of her.”
“No.”
Sebastian stepped closer.
“This is because a company you control received five million dollars meant for my ex-wife.”
Clarissa stopped breathing.
I felt sick hearing the amount aloud.
“My grandfather arranged that transfer,” Sebastian continued.
“Why?”
Clarissa sat without permission.
For the first time, some of her arrogance disappeared.
“I didn’t know it was hers.”
“Don’t.”
“I swear.”
Sebastian laughed once.
“You want to try again?”
Clarissa closed her eyes.
“Your grandfather told me it was compensation.”
“For what?”
“For waiting.”
I stared.
“What does that mean?”
She looked at me.
Arthur Vale had promised Clarissa for years that she would marry Sebastian.
Their families had wanted it since college.
When Sebastian married me secretly, Arthur considered it temporary rebellion.
After our divorce, Arthur told Clarissa the five million was a “bridal trust” compensating her for the embarrassment.
“You believed him?” I asked.
“I wanted to.”
At least that was honest.
Sebastian leaned against the desk.
“Did you know Maya was pregnant?”
“No.”
“Yesterday in the park, you looked at Owen like you knew.”
Clarissa swallowed.
“I knew there had been a pregnancy.”
The room went cold.
“What?”
She looked toward me.
“Arthur told me four years ago that Maya claimed she was pregnant.”
“Claimed?”
“That was how he said it.”
“And?”
“He said it was handled.”
My stomach turned.
“Handled.”
“I didn’t know there were children.”
“Did you ask?”
Clarissa looked ashamed.
“No.”
Sebastian closed his eyes.
That answer hurt him too.
“You were willing not to know.”
“Yes.”
“Why visit Briggs?”
“He called me.”
“When?”
“Yesterday afternoon.”
“What did he want?”
“Money.”
“Why?”
“He said Maya had resurfaced.”
I stared.
“He knew before the Central Park pictures hit the press?”
Clarissa nodded.
“How?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
“What did he threaten?”
“To release documents showing my company received the settlement.”
“So you went.”
“Yes.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No!”
For the first time, she looked genuinely terrified.
“When I arrived, he was alive.”
“What happened?”
“He gave me a flash drive.”
“Where is it?”
“My apartment.”
Sebastian looked at Daniel.
“Get it.”
Clarissa continued.
“Briggs said Arthur made him do things he regretted.”
“What things?”
“Block letters. Change visitor logs. Redirect payments.”
“The divorce?”
“Yes.”
My hands went cold.
“He said Arthur had arranged something else.”
Sebastian went still.
“What?”
Clarissa shook her head.
“He wouldn’t tell me unless I paid two million.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“I left.”
“And he died.”
“Yes.”
She looked at Sebastian.
“I didn’t kill him.”
I believed her.
I wasn’t sure why.
Maybe because Clarissa looked guilty of cowardice, greed and willing ignorance.
Not murder.
Daniel recovered the flash drive forty minutes later.
It contained scanned letters.
Mine.
All of them.
Sebastian sat at the library table and opened the first.
I had written it nine days after discovering the pregnancy.
Sebastian, I know you told me we were a mistake, and maybe I should have enough pride not to write. But I’m pregnant. The doctor thinks there may be more than one baby. I don’t know what you want, but you deserve to know.
He stopped reading.
The second letter came after the first ultrasound.
Three babies. I laughed when the doctor said it because crying felt worse. They’re healthy. I’m terrified. I wish you were here.
Sebastian pressed his fist against his mouth.
There were eleven letters.
Ultrasound photographs.
A hospital appointment card.
One letter I had written but never remembered sending.
I don’t need you to love me again. I just need you not to punish them because you stopped loving me.
Sebastian stood abruptly and left the room.
Nobody followed.
Clarissa looked down.
“I’m sorry.”
I laughed.
“For which part?”
She said nothing.
Then Daniel opened another folder.
One document was marked VALE CONTINUITY PLAN.
Sebastian returned before we finished reading.
Arthur Vale had drafted it four months before the triplets were born.
If Sebastian produced biological children outside an approved Vale marriage, their existence threatened control of several family trusts.
Not because they inherited money automatically.
Because they inherited voting rights.
Three children meant three separate future voting blocks.
Arthur had feared exactly one thing:
Sebastian becoming independent of family control.
Grandchildren loyal to Sebastian would eventually end Arthur’s structure.
So he erased them.
Not for safety.
For power.
Then we reached the final page.
A list of people assigned to “contain exposure.”
Walter Briggs.
Two attorneys.
A private investigator.
Clarissa Hart’s father.
And one more name.
Daniel Cross.
Sebastian looked up.
Daniel had gone pale.
“You.”
Daniel stepped backward.
“No.”
“Your name is here.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Daniel.”
“I was twenty-four.”
“What did you do?”
Daniel’s breathing changed.
“Your grandfather hired me to watch Maya.”
I felt ice move through me.
“For how long?”
“Six months.”
Sebastian stepped toward him.
“You knew?”
“I knew she was pregnant.”
The room exploded.
Sebastian grabbed Daniel by the jacket and slammed him against the wall.
“YOU KNEW I HAD CHILDREN?”
“Sebastian!”
I grabbed his arm.
He didn’t hear me.
Daniel choked out:
“I thought the babies died!”
Sebastian froze.
“What?”
Daniel looked at me.
“Arthur told everyone Maya lost the pregnancy.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“After you disappeared from New York, Briggs circulated a report.”
“What report?”
Daniel whispered:
“That all three babies had been stillborn.”
I stepped backward.
Sebastian released him.
For four years, one half of Arthur’s operation believed I had disappeared with living children.
The other half believed the children never survived.
Someone had deliberately compartmentalized the lie.
Sebastian asked:
“Then who has been watching Maya now?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“You were my security chief.”
“After Arthur died, I thought it was over.”
My phone rang upstairs.
A babysitter.
I answered.
“Maya?”
Her voice shook.
“What?”
“Ivy says someone is outside.”
Every person in the room froze.
“Outside where?”
“The garden.”
Sebastian ran.
We followed.
By the time we reached the second floor, the triplets were standing away from the windows.
Security flooded the courtyard.
No intruder.
But Ivy pointed.
“There.”
A small envelope sat beneath the garden gate.
Addressed to me.
Inside was a photograph.
Three newborn babies in hospital bassinets.
Noah.
Ivy.
Owen.
Taken the day after they were born.
On the back:
ARTHUR WASN’T THE ONLY VALE WHO KNEW.
Sebastian stared at the photograph.
“What does that mean?”
Clarissa whispered:
“Your grandfather wasn’t working alone.”
Sebastian looked toward the family portrait above the fireplace.
Arthur.
His late grandmother.
His uncle Julian.
His aunt Victoria.
His younger cousin Adrian.
An entire dynasty.
And suddenly the question was no longer who erased my children.
May you like
It was which member of Sebastian’s family had been watching them since birth.
---
