Chapter 3 - Shadows of the Past
My mother did not leave without a final, venomous warning.
"You think you can play the heroic father, Julian?" she sneered at the doorway, her mask completely slipping. "You have no idea what it takes to raise children in our world. The Cartwrights will ruin you in the courts. I will freeze your trust funds before midnight. You won't have a dime left to feed your sudden family."
"I earned my own capital eight years ago in venture tech, Mother," I replied coldly. "My personal accounts aren't touched by Vance Enterprises. Now leave."
When the heavy doors finally clicked shut, the silence returned, heavier and darker than before. Harrison had stayed behind, leaning against the doorframe, looking down at his polished leather shoes.
"Julian," Harrison said softly, looking up with genuine remorse in his eyes. "I didn't know. Swear to God, I thought Mara just moved back home to Ohio six years ago. Mom told me the same story she told you."
I looked at my younger brother. Harrison had always been the black sheep, refusing to participate in the corporate games my mother played. "Did you know Arthur was forging documents?"
"No," Harrison swore, shaking his head. "But I can find out where the paper trail leads. If Mom used company funds to pay off doctors or forgers six years ago, it's on the internal server. I'll get it for you."
"Thank you, Harry," I murmured.
Harrison nodded briefly at Mara, cast a gentle smile at the four boys, and slipped quietly out the door, leaving us alone once more.
I turned back to the living room. Mara was kneeling by the sofa, softly soothing the boys, wrapping them in blankets from my guest bedrooms. She looked exhausted, her shoulders slumping under the weight of an ordeal that had suddenly transformed from a daily struggle for survival into a high-stakes war against the most powerful family in the city.
"You shouldn't have done that," Mara said softly, without looking up as she brushed Max's hair away from his forehead. "You just destroyed your entire life in five minutes."
"My life was a lie five minutes ago, Mara," I replied, walking over and kneeling on the floor beside her. For the first time, I allowed myself to look closely at my sons without the fear of interrupting a dream.
Milo had my exact brow line. Mason had the tiny scar near his right eyebrow that I had gotten when I was seven. Max had my exact smile, and Micah—the quietest of the four—was clutching his blanket with the same left-handed grip I used every day.
"Six years," I whispered, reaching out with a trembling hand to touch Micah’s small, warm shoulder. The boy didn't pull away; he looked at me with curious, trusting eyes. "How did you survive alone with four babies?"
Mara let out a small, weary sigh, resting her hands in her lap. "My sister helped for the first two years before she passed away. After that... it was double shifts, night classes, moving from apartment to apartment every time rent went up. I thought you were living a glamorous life in Europe, married to Brielle, not giving a damn about the girl you left behind in a tiny diner in Soho."
"I searched for you, Mara," I said, tears burning the backs of my eyes. "When I woke up from the coma in London, I couldn't remember the first two weeks after the accident. My mother brought me papers signed with your handwriting saying you didn't want to see me. I sent investigators to your old apartment, but the landlord said you had moved without a forwarding address."
May you like
"Because your mother had my landlord evicted!" Mara said, her eyes flashing with renewed pain. "She bought the building and tore it down, Julian! She erased every trace of me so you couldn't find me!"
The sheer ruthlessness of Victoria Vance’s design was staggering. She hadn't just separated us; she had systematically demolished every bridge, every document, every physical location that could lead us back to one another.
