Chapter 2 - The Confrontation at Table 27
Ethan’s polished shoes clicked heavily against the stone patio as he crossed the lawn. He paid no attention to the hundreds of eyes fixed on him, nor to the soft call of his bride-to-be from the terrace above.
He stopped three feet from Table 27.
Up close, Ethan looked older than he had five years ago. There were faint lines around his eyes, and the effortless arrogance that used to define him was nowhere to be seen. He stared down at the three little boys sitting neatly in their velvet tuxedos, his breathing shallow and uneven.
"Maya," he breathed, his voice shaking. "Are they... are they..."
"Say hello to your father, boys," I said calmly, taking a sip from the water glass a terrified waiter had just placed in front of me. "Though to be fair, he hasn't earned the title."
Liam looked up from his cloth napkin, his dark brows drawing together in a scowl that was a carbon copy of Ethan's when he was annoyed. "Are you the man who made Mama cry?"
Ethan winced as if he had been slapped. He dropped to one knee, bringing himself level with the boys. His hands hovered in the air, desperate to touch them, yet terrified of the answer he already knew in his heart.
"How old are they?" Ethan whispered, his eyes searching my face with raw desperation.
"Five," I replied flatly. "They turned five last month. Exactly nine months after I signed the divorce papers your mother drafted."
A heavy groan escaped Ethan's throat. He pressed his palms against his face for a long moment before looking back up at me. "You were pregnant when you left? Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you come to me?!"
"Come to you?" I let out a soft, sharp laugh that cut right through him. "To the man who stood by his mother’s side while she froze my bank accounts? To the husband who watched his mother accuse me of being a gold-digger and didn't say a single word to defend me? I left to protect my children from becoming cold, manipulative shells like the rest of your family."
"Ethan!"
A sharp, venomous voice sliced through our conversation.
Eleanor Montgomery had arrived. She marched across the lawn like a general entering a battlefield, flanked by two security guards and her future daughter-in-law, Caroline. Her face was a mask of furious, porcelain-hard rage.
"Get up from the floor this instant, Ethan!" Eleanor commanded, her voice trembling with anger. "You are making a spectacle of yourself in front of the Senator!"
Ethan didn't get up immediately. He slowly rose to his feet, his gaze lingering on the triplets before turning to face his mother. "Mother... did you know about this?"
"Know about what?" Eleanor snapped, refusing to look directly at the three children. "This woman is an opportunist! She disappeared five years ago with a quiet settlement, and now she crashes your wedding with three random children to create a public scandal!"
"Random children?" I stood up slowly.
Even in my heels, Eleanor was slightly shorter than me, but today, the power balance had shifted completely. I didn't look like the frightened twenty-three-year-old girl she had pushed around five years ago. I was thirty now, the founder and CEO of Vance Global Digital, a woman who answered to no one.
"Careful, Eleanor," I said, my tone dangerously low. "Your age is showing, along with your panic. A simple DNA test will take twenty-four hours. Do you really want me to run it through the national press?"
"You wouldn't dare," Eleanor hissed, taking a step closer. "You signed a non-disclosure agreement when you took the divorce settlement!"
"I took nothing from you," I corrected her, leaning in so only she, Ethan, and Caroline could hear. "Check your records, Eleanor. I returned every single penny of your insulting two-hundred-thousand-dollar payout five years ago. I don't owe you my silence. I don't owe you anything."
Caroline Hastings stepped forward, her eyes flashing with anger as she grabbed Ethan’s arm. "Ethan, tell her to leave! The ceremony was supposed to start twenty minutes ago! The press is outside the gates!"
Ethan looked at Caroline’s hand on his arm, then looked at me, and finally down at his three sons, who were watching the adults with wide, intelligent eyes.
"No," Ethan said quietly.
May you like
Caroline blinked, stunned. "What did you say?"
"I said no," Ethan repeated, louder this time. He pulled his arm free from Caroline’s grip. "She isn't leaving. And neither are my sons."
