Chapter 2 - The Shadows of Vale TowerThe quiet hum of the high-speed elevator inside Vale Tower on Fifth Avenue was the only sound breaking the heavy, suffocating silence.
An hour had passed since the encounter at Bethesda Terrace.
Sebastian had refused to let me walk away. He had immediately dismissed Clarissa Hart—ignoring her hysterical threats to break off their engagement—and summoned his chief executive security team to escort me and the triplets directly to the private penthouse suite on the subterranean level of Vale Tower.
The three boys sat on a plush velvet sofa inside the mahogany-lined office, eating fresh fruit tarts and warm milk provided by Sebastian’s personal assistant. Owen was fascinated by a floating glass globe on the desk, while Noah and Ivy quietly shared a drawing pad.
I stood near the floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking the Manhattan skyline, my arms crossed tightly over my chest, wearing my dark coat, watching Sebastian walk back and forth behind his desk.
Sitting tied to a heavy leather chair across the room was Thomas Sterling—Adrian Vale’s seventy-year-old security director, who had served the Vale family for thirty years.
Thomas was pale, sweating profusely through his sharp suit, his hands trembling as Marcus Vance—Sebastian’s chief of private security—stood behind him holding an encrypted tablet.
"Read the server logs, Marcus," Sebastian commanded flatly. His baritone was dead, cold, and devoid of any human warmth.
Marcus tapped the tablet screen, projecting high-definition digital archives onto the room's central wall display:
THE INTERCEPTED LETTERS: 2022 security logs showing eleven certified letters from Maya Bennett seized at the central mail vault and transferred directly to Chairman Adrian Vale’s private safe.
THE FORGED DIVORCE RECORDS: Financial wire transfers showing Thomas Sterling paying fifty thousand dollars to a corrupt notary to falsify Sebastian’s signature on the final divorce addendum—an addendum stating Sebastian relinquished all future parental claims.
THE MEDICAL SUPPRESSION: Direct orders signed by Adrian Vale instructing corporate legal counsel to keep Maya Bennett under active surveillance in Brooklyn to ensure she never reached Sebastian.
I staggered back a step, covering my mouth with my hand as tears of absolute shock spilled over my lashes.
It wasn't a lie.
Sebastian hadn't abandoned us. He hadn't thrown me away because he grew tired of me.
Our entire separation—four years of lonely nights, working double shifts at an elementary school, crying over medical bills, and raising triplets in a small two-bedroom apartment—had been systematically engineered by his grandfather, Adrian Vale.
"Thomas," Sebastian spoke, stepping up to the trembling security director, his six-foot-two frame casting a terrifying shadow over the old man. "My grandfather told me four years ago that Maya took a three-million-dollar settlement and moved to Europe."
"Mr. Vale... please!" Thomas sobbed, his voice cracking with groveling terror. "Your grandfather insisted! He said a schoolteacher with no family lineage would destroy the company's public standing! He said the Hart family merger was required for the South American shipping contract!"
Sebastian reached down, his large, calloused hand gripping Thomas’s silk tie, pulling the old man upward until their faces were inches apart.
"You let my wife carry my triplets in poverty," Sebastian whispered, his storm-gray eyes burning with an ancient, apocalyptic rage. "You let my sons and daughter grow up without their father."
"It was Adrian! It was all Adrian!" Thomas wept frantically.
"Where is my grandfather right now?" Sebastian asked coldly.
"He... he is at the Metropolitan Club," Thomas stammered. "He is hosting the pre-wedding dinner with the Hart family."
Sebastian released Thomas’s tie, letting the old man slump back into the chair. He wiped his hands with a white handkerchief, turning slowly toward me.
The terrifying rage in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a look of profound, soul-crushing remorse as he looked into my face.
He walked over to where I stood, stopping two inches away. He didn't try to touch me without permission, but his hands trembled at his sides.
"Maya..." Sebastian choked out, his voice thick with unreserved tears. "My God... Maya... what did he do to you?"
I looked into his storm-gray eyes—the same eyes I had seen in Owen’s face an hour ago.
"He made me believe you hated me, Sebastian," I whispered, my voice breaking. "He made me believe our love was nothing to you."
May you like
Sebastian dropped to his knees right on the hardwood floorboards in front of me, taking my cold, trembling hands into his large, warm palms, pressing his forehead against my fingers.
"I will burn his entire empire to the ground tonight, Maya," Sebastian promised, his deep voice shaking with absolute, unyielding devotion. "And I will spend every second of the rest of my life earning back your heart."
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