Chapter 8 - THE MOTHER-IN-LAW WHO CAME BEGGING
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Seraphina stared at Grant.
Grant stared at Julian.
Julian stared at the phone.
“Mavis Holloway is my sister?”
Seraphina finally whispered.
Daniel Price answered carefully.
“That is what Mr. Keene told me.”
Grant shook his head.
“No.”
Seraphina turned toward him.
“Mavis is your mother.”
“Yes.”
“If she is my half sister…”
Grant’s face went pale.
The implications rushed into the room.
Not biological danger—Grant and Seraphina shared no blood connection because Mavis was only potentially Seraphina’s paternal half sister, making Grant Seraphina’s half-nephew.
But their marriage became suddenly, horribly, grotesquely complicated.
Grant gripped the desk.
“No.”
Julian quickly intervened.
“We need verification before anyone assumes the claim is true.”
Seraphina nodded.
“DNA.”
“Yes.”
Grant ran both hands through his hair.
“My mother never said anything.”
“She may not know.”
Julian looked toward the hallway.
“She should be asked.”
Mavis was brought into the library twenty minutes later.
She entered angrily.
“What now?”
Then she saw everyone’s faces.
Her expression changed.
Seraphina stood.
“Who was your father?”
Mavis blinked.
“What?”
“Your biological father.”
“Why are you asking?”
“Answer.”
Mavis’s lips tightened.
“Charles Rose.”
Julian asked, “Do you have a birth certificate?”
“Yes.”
“Original?”
“No.”
Seraphina felt dread.
“Did your mother ever mention Alexander Bellamy?”
Mavis became completely still.
There it was.
Grant saw it too.
“Mom.”
Mavis looked at her son.
“What?”
“Answer her.”
Mavis sat.
Her hands shook.
“I was told never to discuss it.”
Seraphina’s chest tightened.
“By whom?”
“My mother.”
“Why?”
“She said Alexander had another life.”
Seraphina whispered, “He was my father.”
Mavis looked at her.
“I know.”
Grant stepped backward.
“You knew?”
Mavis closed her eyes.
“I learned who Seraphina was after you married.”
The room exploded.
Grant shouted.
“You knew?”
“Keep your voice down.”
“You knew she was Bellamy?”
“Eventually.”
Seraphina stared at her.
“For how long?”
Mavis began crying.
“Five years.”
Five years.
Five years of insults.
Five years of pretending Seraphina came from nothing.
Five years of watching her finance Grant’s company.
“Why?”
Seraphina whispered.
Mavis looked at her.
“Because I hated you.”
The honesty was shocking.
“Why?”
“Because he chose you.”
Seraphina shook her head.
“My father?”
“He acknowledged you.”
Mavis’s voice cracked.
“He raised you. Educated you. Gave you the company.”
Seraphina felt sick.
“You believed he abandoned you.”
“He did.”
“You were older than me.”
“Yes.”
“Did he know you existed?”
Mavis looked away.
“I don’t know.”
Julian interjected.
“The trust suggests he did.”
Mavis began sobbing.
“He sent money.”
Seraphina froze.
“When?”
“My mother received payments.”
“Then he knew.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he bring you into the family?”
“I don’t know!”
Mavis suddenly shouted.
“I spent sixty years not knowing!”
The room became silent.
For the first time, Seraphina did not see the cruel mother-in-law.
She saw an abandoned child who had grown into a bitter woman.
That did not excuse anything.
But it explained something.
Mavis continued.
“When Grant brought you home, I knew immediately.”
“How?”
“Your eyes.”
Seraphina felt tears unexpectedly gather.
“Alexander’s eyes?”
Mavis nodded.
“I saw him twice when I was a child.”
Grant sat down heavily.
“You knew Seraphina was your sister and let me marry her.”
Mavis covered her mouth.
“I didn’t know until after the wedding.”
“When?”
“A year later.”
“Then why didn’t you tell us?”
Mavis looked at Seraphina.
“Because I was ashamed.”
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
North Coast.
The inheritance.
The secret ownership.
Suddenly Seraphina understood.
“You discovered the seventeen percent.”
Mavis nodded.
“When?”
“After your father died.”
“And Martin helped you.”
“Yes.”
“Who is he to you?”
Mavis wiped her face.
“His mother worked for mine.”
Julian leaned forward.
“Martin knew about the trust?”
“He found the documents.”
“And became trustee?”
“I appointed him.”
“Why?”
“He said he could protect what belonged to me.”
Seraphina’s voice became colder.
“By stealing from my company?”
Mavis shook her head.
“I didn’t know about the forged guarantees.”
“But North Coast?”
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
“I believed Bellamy owed me.”
Seraphina stared at her.
“Then you took money from Grant’s company to collect a debt you believed my father owed you.”
Mavis whispered:
“Yes.”
Grant looked devastated.
“My entire company…”
Mavis reached for him.
“Grant—”
He pulled away.
“You used me.”
“I was protecting you.”
“You blackmailed me with Dad’s fraud.”
“I needed you to continue the payments.”
Grant stared.
His mother had not merely known about his misconduct.
She had helped create it.
Seraphina sat quietly.
The family around her had spent seven years calling her dependent.
Yet all of them had been depending on her.
Mavis turned toward Seraphina.
“Please.”
The word sounded unnatural coming from her.
“I will return everything.”
Seraphina said nothing.
“I’ll sign over the trust.”
“It was already yours.”
“I don’t want it.”
“That does not erase what happened.”
“I know.”
Mavis moved closer.
“Please do not destroy Grant.”
Grant looked up sharply.
Seraphina almost laughed.
Even now.
Mavis was begging for Grant.
Not apologizing to Seraphina.
“You still don’t understand,” Seraphina said.
Mavis began crying again.
“He’s my son.”
“And I am apparently your sister.”
Mavis froze.
The sentence filled the room.
For sixty years Mavis had wanted acknowledgement from the Bellamy family.
Now she had it.
And she looked terrified.
Seraphina stood.
“I will not protect Grant from lawful consequences.”
Mavis lowered her head.
“But I will not punish him for what you did either.”
Grant looked at Seraphina.
She continued.
“He will answer for his decisions.”
Then to Mavis:
“And you will answer for yours.”
Seraphina left the room.
Halfway upstairs, she heard footsteps.
Mavis followed.
“Seraphina.”
She stopped but did not turn.
Mavis’s voice trembled.
“I know I have no right to ask you anything.”
“Then don’t.”
“I need to tell you one thing.”
Seraphina turned.
Mavis looked suddenly broken.
“Alexander tried to contact me.”
Seraphina’s expression changed.
“When?”
“Before your wedding.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You didn’t meet him?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Mavis cried harder.
“I refused.”
Seraphina stared.
“He died six weeks before the wedding.”
“I know.”
Mavis removed an old envelope from her purse.
The paper was yellowed.
“It came two months before he died.”
Seraphina recognized her father’s handwriting instantly.
Her legs weakened.
The envelope had never been opened.
“Why?”
“I hated him too much.”
Seraphina took it.
Her fingers trembled.
The letter was addressed:
MY DEAR EVELYN.
Not Mavis.
Evelyn.
Her sister’s real name.
Seraphina opened the envelope.
Inside was a single handwritten letter.
By the third paragraph, she began crying.
Her father had not abandoned Evelyn.
He had spent decades trying to find her after her mother disappeared.
The trust had been created for her.
And the final paragraph contained a sentence that made Seraphina sit down on the staircase.
IF I CAN BRING YOU AND SERAPHINA TOGETHER BEFORE I DIE, I WILL CONSIDER IT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I EVER ACCOMPLISHED.
Mavis sank onto the step beside her.
For the first time in seven years, the two women cried together.
But downstairs, another crisis was unfolding.
Julian received confirmation that Martin Keene had booked a private flight.
Departure: Miami.
Destination: Switzerland.
May you like
Departure time:
Three hours.
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