Chương 4
Daniel’s silence answered.
“How much?”
“One hundred thousand dollars.”
“And Clarissa thought that would make this easier?”
“Clarissa thought it would prove she wasn’t trying to lure Maya into a trap.”
“It proved she lives in this family.”
Daniel put his glasses back on. “So do you.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened. Daniel had known him since he was sixteen and did not flinch.
The atrium doors opened. Clarissa entered carrying the diamond ring in one hand. She had changed out of her heels and was barefoot on the marble, which made her look younger and angrier.
“Your grandfather says the twelfth letter was delivered to Marcus,” she said.
Sebastian looked toward the balcony.
Marcus was no longer there.
“Where is he?”
“Gone.”
Every exterior door had been watched. Every garage exit was controlled. Sebastian did not ask how Marcus had left. The mansion had service corridors built when wealthy men still expected servants to remain unseen, and Augustus had spent a lifetime preserving useful old things.
Daniel took out his phone.
Sebastian said, “No police.”
Clarissa gave a sharp laugh. “Of course not.”
“This house contains enough material to bury half the people in it.”
“Whose fault is that?”
He looked at her.
She lifted the ring. “You were going to marry me knowing exactly what your family was.”
“I never lied about what we were.”
“No. You used that clever distinction where you omit everything and call it honesty.”
“My grandfather hid children from me.”
“And you’re shocked because deception has finally been used against you.”
Daniel looked between them. “This may not be the best time.”
“There has never been a good time in this house,” Clarissa said. “That’s why everything rots in locked cabinets.”
She placed the ring beside Maya’s letters again.
“Marcus made a call four minutes before Maya arrived. The number belongs to an editor at the Chronicle Ledger.”
“How do you know?”
“I asked Evelyn to show me the family phone account.”
Sebastian looked at her. “Evelyn cooperated?”
“She hates Marcus more than she fears you.”
That sounded like the family he knew.
“Find him,” Sebastian told Daniel.
Clarissa shook her head. “He’s not the important part.”
“He has the missing letter.”
“Maybe. Augustus is the one who read eleven and decided you did not deserve to know.”
Sebastian lifted the oldest envelope. “He will answer for that.”
“What does that mean?”
He met her gaze.
Clarissa’s face changed. Not fear exactly. Recognition.
“No,” she said.
“You don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“I know what your family means when it says someone will answer.”
Daniel stepped forward. “Sebastian, Maya has legal counsel. The children’s existence is now public enough that any action against Augustus will be examined.”
“I don’t need a reminder.”
“You do when you’re angry.”
“I’m not angry.”
Clarissa looked at the crushed silver pin in his hand.
He released it.
The crest had bent against his palm.
Augustus waited in the upstairs study. He stood beside the windows with one hand behind his back, looking over the East River as if the city belonged to him in a measurable way.
Sebastian entered alone.
The old man did not turn.
“When your father was thirty-six,” Augustus said, “he brought your mother to a restaurant without security. He wanted to prove he could live like an ordinary man.”
Sebastian closed the door.
“I know the story.”
“No, you know the ending.”
“I was there for the ending.”
Augustus’ shoulders lowered slightly.
Sebastian had been nine when the car exploded outside the restaurant. He remembered a waiter carrying him through smoke. He remembered his mother’s shoe in the gutter. He remembered Augustus at the hospital, silver hair still dark then, telling him not to cry where anyone could see.
His younger sister had died the next morning.
“You raised me to believe what happened to them was my father’s fault,” Sebastian said.
“Carelessness has consequences.”
“So does fear.”
Augustus finally turned.
“I saw Maya’s first letter three weeks after the attack at Pier Nine.”
Sebastian remembered that year. An ambush near one of the Vale shipping warehouses, two dead guards, a bullet through his shoulder, months of retaliation that had left three families burying sons.
“You were compromised,” Augustus continued. “Her return address was connected to Adrian Cale.”
“Maya worked for Cale’s mother.”
“She deposited money into his account.”
“She managed his mother’s bills while the woman had dementia.”
“I learned that later.”
“How much later?”
Augustus’ eyes moved away.
Sebastian took one step closer.
“How much later?”
“Six weeks.”
“And after six weeks?”
“She was pregnant with three children bearing our name. The information alone could have brought every enemy we had to her door.”
“So you kept reading.”
“I protected her.”
“You threatened her.”
“I warned her.”
“You had her watched outside a preschool.”
“I had the children watched.”
“There is no difference.”
“There is every difference.”
Sebastian’s hands remained at his sides.
Augustus had taught him to fight without movement. Stillness forced the other man to fill the silence. It was strange to use the lesson against him.
“You arranged the reduced rent,” Sebastian said.
Augustus gave a small nod.
“The anonymous childcare grant.”
“Yes.”
“The hospital bill after Owen’s pneumonia.”
“Yes.”
Maya had probably believed a charitable fund had covered it. Sebastian could imagine the humiliation when she learned otherwise.
“You paid enough to keep them where you could see them.”
“I paid enough to keep them alive.”
“And you made sure she lost the job at Hudson Medical.”
Augustus’ expression shifted.
That was confirmation.
Sebastian felt something cold move through him.
“You had a woman with three infants fired.”
“She had accessed your corporate directory.”
“She was trying to reach me.”
“She was creating a trail.”
“She was asking for help.”
“She had already refused money.”
Sebastian stared at him. “You offered her money?”
“Through an intermediary.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“She had nowhere to go.”
“She had choices.”
May you like
“She chose not to sell my children to you.”
Augustus’ mouth tightened. “Do not romanticize her. You barely knew her.”
