Chapter 2 - The Family Archives Proved I Had Told the Truth—but One Missing Letter Made Sebastian Realize Someone Was Still Inside His EmpireSebastian took us to a private townhouse rather than Vale Tower.
I refused at first.
He didn't argue.
He simply said:
“It's safer.”
That was the first time I realized how serious he was.
Sebastian could intimidate almost anyone.
He couldn't intimidate me anymore.
Not after four years alone.
Not after raising three children while working two jobs.
Not after holding Owen, Ivy, and Noah through fevers and sleepless nights.
I had learned how to survive without him.
But I couldn't ignore the danger in his eyes.
Someone had hidden our children.
Someone had manipulated both of us.
And that person still had access to the Vale family.
Sebastian ordered an entire archive transferred to the townhouse.
Old security logs.
Mail records.
Personnel files.
Phone records.
Private communications.
Everything.
I sat across from him while our children played in the adjoining room.
He looked at me.
“You really came to the tower?”
“Yes.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“Pregnant?”
I nodded.
“Five months.”
His hands curled into fists.
“What did they tell you?”
“That you wanted nothing to do with me.”
“I would never say that.”
“You did.”
“I didn't.”
I looked away.
“You said there was never an us.”
His face tightened.
“When?”
“The night before you left.”
He stared at me for several seconds.
Then he shook his head.
“I remember that night.”
“So do I.”
“I told you I loved you.”
“No.”
“I did.”
“You said—”
“I told you I was going to fix everything.”
He stood.
“I remember because I believed it would be the last night I could see you.”
My heartbeat changed.
“What?”
He walked toward the window.
“My grandfather threatened you.”
I stared at him.
“He told me if I stayed with you, you'd disappear.”
“You never told me.”
“I thought I could protect you.”
“You protected me by destroying me?”
“I thought it would save your life.”
I felt tears burning my eyes.
“You should have trusted me.”
He turned.
“I was twenty-eight.”
“So was I.”
“I was raised to believe that if someone threatened your weakness, you removed the weakness.”
“And I was your weakness?”
“You were the only thing I couldn't survive losing.”
His words silenced me.
Before I could answer, an archivist entered.
“Mr. Vale.”
Sebastian turned.
“What?”
“We found something.”
He placed a box on the table.
Inside were hundreds of envelopes.
My handwriting.
My name.
Sebastian's name.
Every letter I had written.
Never opened.
Some still had postmarks.
My hands trembled.
“He kept them.”
Sebastian stared at the box.
“Who?”
The archivist swallowed.
“The family office.”
Sebastian picked up the first envelope.
His fingers shook.
“You sent this?”
“Yes.”
He opened it.
He read.
Then another.
Then another.
His face became darker with every page.
One letter included an ultrasound image.
Another described my pregnancy.
Another pleaded with him to contact me.
Another had a photograph of newborn Owen, Ivy, and Noah.
Sebastian stopped breathing.
“You sent me this?”
“Yes.”
He looked at the photograph.
Three newborns.
Three tiny faces.
His children.
He pressed his thumb against the image.
I could hear his breathing.
Then he opened the final letter.
It was dated three years earlier.
The envelope had never been opened.
It said:
Sebastian, I won't ask you to love me again. I only want you to know that your children exist. Please don't let them grow up thinking their father chose not to know them.
Sebastian sat down.
He covered his face.
For several minutes, he didn't speak.
Then he whispered:
“I would have come.”
I cried silently.
“I know.”
“No.”
He looked up.
“You don't know.”
His voice cracked.
“I would have burned down the entire city to find you.”
The archivist cleared his throat.
“There is something else.”
Sebastian lowered his hands.
“What?”
“One letter is missing.”
“Which one?”
“The first.”
I frowned.
“The first letter?”
He nodded.
“The one sent before the rest.”
Sebastian looked at me.
“What did you write?”
I thought.
“I don't remember.”
“You must.”
“I was scared.”
He stared at me.
Then the archivist said:
“According to the records, the first letter was received.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“It was signed for.”
“By whom?”
The archivist's face went pale.
“Your grandfather.”
Sebastian stood.
“He knew.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't he tell me?”
The archivist hesitated.
“Because the signature was forged.”
Sebastian stared.
“Whose?”
The answer came softly.
“Your grandfather's private secretary.”
Silence.
Sebastian looked at the security footage on the monitor.
The secretary had died two years earlier.
But the file showed something else.
The secretary had one living relative.
His son.
A man who was now—
Sebastian's current chief legal adviser.
Sebastian slowly looked toward the door.
May you like
Someone inside his empire had been helping bury our marriage for four years.
And that person was still close enough to touch his secrets.
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