Chapter 6 - WHY SEBASTIAN DESTROYED OUR MARRIAGE
I looked at Sebastian.
He looked away.
That told me Victoria’s document was real.
Not forged.
Not manipulated.
Real.
“You knew there was danger.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“And you never told me.”
“No.”
I laughed once.
“Of course.”
“Maya.”
“No.”
I stepped away.
“Everybody in this family has the same disease.”
Victoria smiled faintly.
Sebastian ignored her.
“Maya, listen.”
“I’ve been listening for four years.”
“I received a threat before the divorce.”
“What kind?”
His jaw tightened.
“A photograph of you leaving our apartment.”
My anger paused.
“What else?”
“A photograph of you at work.”
Then:
“One of you sleeping.”
Cold ran through me.
“Who sent them?”
“I didn’t know.”
“You thought Arthur?”
“Yes.”
“Did he admit it?”
“No.”
“Then why divorce me?”
Sebastian looked ashamed.
“Because the last envelope contained a bullet.”
I stopped breathing.
“With your name engraved on it.”
Silence.
“You should have told me.”
“Yes.”
“Instead you told me I was a mistake.”
“Yes.”
“You made me believe you never loved me.”
“Yes.”
His voice cracked.
“I thought hatred would make you leave faster than fear.”
The words landed harder than I expected.
Because suddenly the courthouse made sense.
Sebastian’s cold face.
His clenched jaw.
The way he never looked at me after signing.
I had interpreted cruelty as indifference.
It had been deliberate cruelty.
Which was not better.
Just different.
“You decided for me.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t trust me.”
“No.”
“I trusted myself too much.”
That answer stopped me.
Victoria tapped the desk.
“Touching.”
Sebastian turned.
“Why continue Evergreen?”
Her smile disappeared.
“Because Arthur was wrong about one thing.”
“What?”
“He believed you were strong enough to control the family.”
“And you didn’t?”
“I believed you would destroy it.”
Sebastian almost laughed.
“By what? Becoming legitimate?”
“Exactly.”
There it was.
Victoria had benefited from the old Vale structure.
Hidden cash.
Private influence.
Political pressure.
The things Sebastian had slowly dismantled after Arthur died.
The triplets made her position even weaker.
If Sebastian had heirs, she lost any eventual claim to his controlling trusts.
“You watched my children,” I said.
“I made sure they remained outside Vale affairs.”
“You bugged my home.”
Victoria said nothing.
That was enough.
“You broke into my apartment.”
“I needed the letters.”
“Why?”
“Because they proved Arthur’s involvement.”
“You killed Briggs?”
Her face changed.
“No.”
Sebastian studied her.
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“Convenient.”
Victoria looked suddenly less controlled.
“Walter called three people before he died.”
“Clarissa.”
“Yes.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Who was third?”
She hesitated.
“Julian.”
We looked at one another.
Julian had omitted that.
Sebastian called Daniel.
“Bring Julian in.”
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then one of the federal agents entered.
“Mr. Vale.”
“What?”
“We have a problem.”
Julian’s estate was burning.
By the time emergency crews arrived, the west wing was engulfed.
Julian was missing.
The stolen federal file was gone.
So was the Evergreen archive.
But security footage captured one vehicle leaving before the fire.
Clarissa Hart’s.
Sebastian stared at the screen.
“No.”
I thought of Clarissa visiting Briggs.
Clarissa receiving my settlement money.
Clarissa standing in Central Park.
Clarissa claiming she did not know about the children.
Too many coincidences.
Her apartment was empty.
Phone off.
Passport gone.
Then Daniel found something in Arthur’s archived correspondence.
Clarissa had not simply been promised to Sebastian.
Her father had owed Arthur Vale seventeen million dollars.
Arthur erased the debt on one condition.
Clarissa would marry Sebastian and secure influence over the family trusts.
If Sebastian refused?
Clarissa’s father lost everything.
Clarissa had spent years trapped inside Arthur’s plan too.
That did not make her innocent.
But it changed the shape.
“What if Clarissa isn’t running from us?” I asked.
Sebastian looked at me.
“What?”
“What if she’s running from whoever killed Briggs?”
Victoria went pale.
Sebastian noticed.
“What do you know?”
“Nothing.”
“Victoria.”
She looked toward the federal agents.
Then finally broke.
“Arthur had another man.”
“Name.”
“He handled things even family members weren’t supposed to know.”
“Name.”
“Elias Ward.”
Sebastian froze.
I knew the name too.
Everyone in New York business circles did.
Elias Ward was chairman of Vale International’s audit committee.
Sebastian’s mentor.
A man who had advised him after his father died.
A man currently serving as executor of Arthur Vale’s remaining private trusts.
Sebastian whispered, “Elias practically raised me.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“That’s why Arthur chose him.”
Elias had access to every account.
Every security contract.
Every trust.
Every legal file.
If Arthur wanted the children erased, Elias could maintain it indefinitely.
And after Arthur died, Elias had every reason to continue.
Because the triplets’ existence triggered an independent audit of the Vale trusts once Sebastian formally acknowledged them.
“What would the audit find?” I asked.
Victoria looked at Sebastian.
“Everything Elias stole.”
“How much?”
“Hundreds of millions.”
Sebastian went still.
Then his phone rang.
Clarissa.
He answered on speaker.
She was crying.
“Sebastian.”
“Where are you?”
“He has Julian.”
“Who?”
“Elias.”
Every person in the room froze.
Clarissa continued.
“Briggs tried to confess. Elias killed him.”
“Where are you?”
“Vale Harbor.”
Sebastian’s face changed.
Vale Harbor was the family’s private shipping terminal in Brooklyn.
“He wants the original continuity trust.”
“Why?”
“Because once you register the triplets as heirs, the trust automatically opens the audits.”
I understood.
The children didn’t need to inherit anything immediately.
Their legal existence alone exposed the theft.
Clarissa sobbed.
“He says if Maya signs documents denying your paternity, he can delay everything.”
“No.”
“He has Julian.”
Sebastian’s face hardened.
“And if Maya refuses?”
Clarissa went silent.
Then:
“He said he’ll take one of the children.”
The room became ice.
I stepped toward the phone.
“Tell Elias something.”
“Maya—”
“Tell him I’m done being scared of Vale men.”
Sebastian looked at me.
I continued.
“And tell him if he comes anywhere near my children, there will not be enough lawyers in New York to save him.”
Clarissa gave a broken laugh.
“I believe you.”
The line died.
Sebastian looked toward the agents.
Then at me.
“You stay with the kids.”
“No.”
“Maya.”
“This time, yes.”
He blinked.
I stepped closer.
“My children need one parent who isn’t walking into a trap.”
Relief and pain crossed his face together.
“I’ll bring everyone home.”
“Sebastian.”
He stopped.
“Don’t promise what you can’t control.”
He nodded.
“Then I promise I’ll do everything I can.”
Better.
He left.
Twenty minutes later, I went upstairs.
Three beds.
Three sleeping children.
Owen stirred.
“Mommy?”
“I’m here.”
“Where’s the gray-eye man?”
My throat tightened.
“His name is Sebastian.”
“He’s Daddy.”
I sat beside him.
“Yes.”
Owen smiled sleepily.
“Is he coming back?”
I looked toward the window.
For once, I refused to lie.
“I don’t know.”
Then the townhouse alarm exploded.
Glass shattered downstairs.
Security shouted.
Someone had entered the house.
Sebastian had been drawn away.
Exactly as Elias planned.
May you like
And I was upstairs with the three children he needed.
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