The slap landed harder than Seraphine expected. For a moment she only heard the sharp sound and felt the sting flaming across her cheek.
“How dare you slap me!” she snapped, stumbling back. “You’re not my father—who are you to—”
“Yes,” Mr. Howard said. “I am not your blood father. I am your stepfather. But I raised you. I gave you everything. Is this how you repay me?”
Seraphine’s eyes flashed. “Everything? You gave me a name and a house, and you kept the truth from me. You gave me nothing that matters.” Her voice trembled with a mixture of rage and hurt.
Howard’s mouth tightened. He moved closer and the second slap came quicker, sharper. Seraphine clutched her cheek, blinking, trying to steady herself.
“How dare you do that to my daughter,” he growled, looking past Seraphine at the framed photograph of Vivienne on the wall.
Seraphine spat back, words tumbling out like a thrown stone. “Do you even care about your daughter? You never did. You left her alone. You treated me better because I fit the life you wanted. You made her the scapegoat.”
Howard’s face faltered for a second, then hardened into anger. “That was my mistake,” he said tightly. “I thought she caused trouble. I judged wrong. But you—” He pressed his thumb into the envelope he had kept on the desk, as if the paper had weight enough to prove his point. “You ruined everything.”
“Ruined everything?” Seraphine scoffed. “She took what’s mine—my child, my place. If anyone ruined something, it’s her stealing what’s rightfully ours.”
“From now on,” Howard said, voice flat and final, “you will not receive a single cent from me. Not one penny. You will have no claim on my estate. Not a thing.”
Seraphine’s face blanched. She straightened, chest trembling. “I’ll tell my mother about this…” she hissed. “You’ll see. She will make you change your mind.”
Howard’s jaw tightened. “Do it,” he said. “Tell her. See what she says now.”
The room fell into a brittle silence, then a polite knock sounded at the door. A woman entered in heels and silk, calm in a way that seemed practiced. Lana, Seraphine’s mother and Mr. Howard’s second wife, surveyed the scene with the easy authority of someone used to smoothing storms.
“What is this?” she asked.
Howard flung the facts at her without ceremony. He told her everything Seraphine had done to Vivienne, and how he was a fool not to know his own son was being played at.
Lana listened, fingers lightly folded. She made a faint sound — not shock, but calculation. “Oh?” she said, like a woman reading a menu. “So what? We can fix this. It’s not a big deal. A sincere apology, the right faces at the right time, and the public moves on. People forget.”
Seraphine looked at Lana with pleading eyes. “You… you can do that? You can make them look like the victims?”
Lana’s smile tightened into something sharper. “Of course. We have friends. A few calls, some social proof. The merger partners mustn’t suspect instability.” She turned to Howard. “Think of the company. Think of appearances. Seraphine needs a calm hand. We can spin this.”
“If you don’t want what’s left of my goodwill,” he said at last, voice lower, “then leave this house. Leave it all. If you choose to trade a roof for a lie, be gone.”
Seraphine collapsed. She sank into a chair and began to cry. Her hands covered her face.
“It’s Vivienne’s fault,” she sobbed to Lana, when the others had turned away. “She took my son. She needs to pay.”
Lana patted her hand like a mother smoothing a fevered brow. “We’ll see about that,” she murmured. “We’ll make sure she pays.”
Adrian sat in his office, the room dark except for the city lights flickering through the window. He rubbed his temples, exhausted. Elias’s empty room haunted him the most. Every corner of that space reminded him of laughter that no longer existed. His chest tightened every time he remembered the nurse’s voice saying, “I’m sorry, Mr. Calder… he didn’t make it.”
But deep inside, something didn’t add up. Vivienne couldn’t have just vanished. He had people searching day and night, but it was as if she had disappeared from the world.
His thoughts were broken when the door opened without warning. Standing there was a woman he hadn’t seen in weeks — his mother. Her face was pale, her eyes burning with fury.
Before he could speak, her hand met his cheek with a sharp slap. The sound echoed in the room.
“You’ve ruined everything,” she said, her voice low but trembling with rage. “You destroyed your marriage, your name, and our family’s dignity. You lied, you cheated, and now you expect me to stand by you?”
Adrian stared at her, speechless.
“She trusted you,” she continued, her voice cracking. “Vivienne loved you, Adrian. She gave you everything, and you threw it away for that woman. How could you?”
“Mother, please—” he started, but she raised her hand again.
“Don’t,” she cut him off sharply. “Don’t you dare make excuses. You don’t deserve to say her name.”
Adrian lowered his gaze, shame rising in his chest.
“Do you even realize what you’ve done?” she said, her voice shaking. “You didn’t just lose a wife and a child. You’ve brought disgrace to this family. Your father can’t even show his face in public because of you.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but she turned away, her eyes wet with anger and disappointment.
“I never thought I’d see the day my own son would make me feel ashamed to be his mother,” she whispered.
And with that, she turned and walked away, leaving the door wide open behind her.
Moments later, another figure entered. This time, it was his own father. His steps were heavy, his face a storm.
Before Adrian could stand, a fist connected with his jaw.
“You embarrassed this family!” his father shouted. “You ruined my friendship with Howard! Do you realize what you’ve done?”
Adrian staggered, holding his face. “Father, please—”
“No!” his father barked. “You’ve caused enough shame. You were given everything — a good wife, a strong company — and you threw it all away for greed and lust.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“You think meaning matters now?” His father’s voice dropped lower, colder. “From today, you’re no longer welcome here.”
Adrian froze. “What are you saying?”
His father straightened, his voice firm. “You have two choices. Go to the rural branch and manage it. Start from nothing. Or be disowned. You choose.”
Adrian looked at him in disbelief. “Father, please don’t—”
“I said choose,” his father said again, his tone final.
Adrian’s throat tightened. The walls around him seemed to close in, the life he had built crumbling in his hands.
