Chapter 7 - The Night the Penthouse Went Dark
“Vivienne Ward was my mother?”
Daniel did not answer immediately.
I wanted to shake him.
Sebastian looked equally stunned.
Finally Daniel said, “Biologically, yes.”
My thoughts fractured.
Sebastian’s adoptive mother.
The woman who raised him.
Was my biological mother.
“What does that make us?”
“Nothing biologically,” Daniel said quickly. “Sebastian is Elena and Richard’s son. You are my daughter with Vivienne.”
Sebastian turned toward the broken window.
I couldn’t tell whether he was relieved, horrified, or both.
“How?” I asked.
Daniel’s eyes filled with shame.
“Vivienne and I had an affair.”
I laughed once.
Of course.
Apparently everyone in our parents’ generation had spent their lives constructing lies like architecture.
“When?”
“Years after she learned she couldn’t carry a pregnancy safely. She and Richard were already emotionally separated, though publicly together.”
“And she had me?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did Elena raise me?”
“Because Thomas found out.”
Daniel explained that Thomas had viewed me as leverage.
Vivienne remained socially powerful.
Daniel possessed damaging evidence.
A child connected them.
So Vivienne secretly arranged for Elena to adopt me.
“Did Sebastian’s father know?”
“Yes.”
“Did Sebastian?”
“No.”
I looked at him.
His face had become unreadable.
“Your mother was my mother.”
“The woman who raised me was your mother,” he corrected quietly.
My throat tightened.
“This is insane.”
“Yes.”
Something about the calmness of his answer broke the tension.
I started laughing.
I couldn’t stop.
Sebastian stared.
Then, impossibly, he laughed too.
Daniel looked confused.
I wiped tears from my eyes.
“Sorry. There are apparently limits to how many life-altering secrets a person can absorb before the brain gives up.”
Sebastian placed a hand on my back.
“Come on.”
“Where?”
“Away from here.”
The estate was compromised.
By sunrise, we returned to Manhattan.
Crown Meridian Tower was locked down.
Sebastian placed us on the private residential floors.
Elena and Daniel were kept separately because being in the same room inevitably led to accusations.
Mara remained under guard.
Sebastian spent forty-eight hours restructuring his organization.
He froze accounts.
Closed illegal operations.
Transferred legitimate companies into independent trusts.
Men who had spent decades profiting from the Ward name suddenly discovered their incomes disappearing.
Threats arrived immediately.
Sebastian ignored them.
At midnight on the second day, I found him standing in the bedroom where everything had started.
The stained sheets were gone.
Fresh linen.
Same skyline.
Same bed.
Nothing felt the same.
“You’re avoiding me,” I said.
“I’m working.”
“You work while eating, walking, drinking coffee, and apparently sleeping.”
“I haven’t slept.”
“My point.”
He rubbed his face.
I approached.
“Are you regretting it?”
“What?”
“Dismantling everything.”
“No.”
“Me?”
His head lifted.
“Never ask me that.”
The intensity startled me.
He came closer.
“I regret that you became involved in this.”
“I was involved before I knew your name.”
“I know.”
“But I don’t regret meeting you.”
His expression softened.
I touched his hand.
“This room terrified me that morning.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought when you understood what the night meant to me, you’d want distance.”
“I did want distance.”
My chest tightened.
He continued.
“Because wanting you close gave people a weapon.”
“That isn’t romantic.”
“I’m still learning.”
I smiled.
He kissed my forehead.
Gentle.
Nothing like the reckless night that had begun everything.
Then the penthouse lights went out.
I laughed nervously.
“If this is another attack, I’m officially moving to a cabin.”
Sebastian immediately reached for his phone.
“No signal.”
The emergency lights did not activate.
That frightened him.
“Stay behind me.”
A sound came from the hall.
Footsteps.
Sebastian opened a hidden drawer and retrieved a weapon.
I hated seeing it.
But I hated the darkness more.
The bedroom door slowly opened.
A figure stepped inside.
Sebastian raised the weapon.
“Don’t.”
Mara’s voice.
The lights returned.
She stood with both hands raised.
Sebastian’s expression turned murderous.
“How did you get past security?”
“You still use your father’s override code.”
“That will change.”
“It should.”
She handed him a folder.
“What is this?”
“The one secret Richard refused to put into the ledger.”
Sebastian opened it.
Inside were documents showing Thomas Ward had not merely survived his supposed death.
He had built a second organization.
Judges.
Police officers.
Bankers.
Politicians.
Some operated inside Sebastian’s own businesses.
A hidden empire inside the visible one.
“That’s why Thomas doesn’t want you shutting down operations,” Mara said.
“Because his network uses mine as cover.”
“Yes.”
Sebastian studied the names.
Then stopped.
At the bottom of one page was a signature.
He stared.
“No.”
I moved closer.
The signature belonged to his younger brother.
Nicholas Ward.
Sebastian had spoken of Nicholas only twice.
Nicholas lived in London.
Publicly ran charitable foundations.
Avoided family business.
Sebastian picked up his phone.
“I need confirmation.”
Mara shook her head.
“Sebastian.”
“What?”
“Nicholas arrived in New York yesterday.”
“Why wasn’t I told?”
“Because he didn’t come through customs under his real name.”
My stomach twisted.
Sebastian called security.
Before anyone answered, a text appeared.
From Nicholas.
Brother, we should talk before you make another mistake.
Attached was a photograph.
My breath stopped.
Elena sat tied to a chair.
Daniel beside her.
Nicholas stood behind them.
Smiling.
May you like
Then another message arrived.
Bring Valerie. Come alone.
