Chapter 3

A liveried attendant, looking flustered, approached Sera.

"Madam Vanderbilt... Thorne," he corrected himself quickly, "a courier has arrived with an urgent package for you."

Sera' s smile widened. "Excellent. Bring it here, at once."

Leo looked at me, his face pale, a flicker of doubt in his eyes despite his fierce defense.

I gave him a small, reassuring nod. "It's alright, Leo. Let them play their game."

My calmness seemed to unnerve Sera more than any outburst would have.

She snatched the large envelope from the attendant.

"This," she announced, holding it aloft, "is the truth. The irrefutable proof that Damien Archer is Leo's father, and that Marc Thorne has been living a lie, or perhaps, was a willing party to my 'benevolent' deception."

She shot me a venomous look.

Damien preened, already imagining the headlines, the sympathy, perhaps even a share of my fortune through his newfound "son."

I saw the greed in his eyes, the same avarice that had always defined him, and Sera too.

She fumbled with the seal, her hands trembling slightly, not with sorrow now, but with eager anticipation.

"I'll read it aloud," she said, "so there can be no doubt."

The room was silent, save for the crinkle of the envelope.

My mind went back, briefly, to the years of quiet observation, the small tells, the financial discrepancies I' d noted, the way Sera' s affection always seemed tied to my latest success or a new acquisition.

I remembered the day I received my diagnosis of azoospermia, the bleakness of it.

And then, the flicker of foresight, the consultation with a specialist, the painful but successful surgical sperm extraction, the small, precious sample placed into cryopreservation. A contingency.

A secret known only to me and one other person.

Sera cleared her throat, her eyes scanning the document.

Her triumphant expression began to falter.

A line of confusion appeared between her perfectly sculpted eyebrows.

She read it again, her lips moving silently.

Damien leaned closer, impatient. "Well? What does it say?"

Sera looked up, her face a mask of disbelief.

"This... this can't be right," she stammered.