Chapter 3 - the father who had not answered
For three years, Sarah had imagined what she would say when she finally stood face-to-face with Julian.
She had prepared angry speeches in the shower. She had written letters she never sent. She had practiced saying his name without sounding hurt.
Now that he was there, she could not speak.
Julian looked older than he had when she last saw him. The shape of his face was the same, but exhaustion had settled behind his eyes. A thin scar crossed his temple, the only visible reminder of the accident that had changed all their lives.
He stared at Sarah as though she were the one who had returned from the dead.
“What are you doing here?”
The question broke something inside her.
“Trying to reach my son.”
Julian flinched.
“You were ordered to stay away.”
“I was ordered to complete a medical review. I completed it three years ago.”
“You never attended the final hearing.”
“No one told me there was one.”
Julian’s jaw tightened.
“That isn’t true.”
Sarah pulled the returned envelope from her coat.
“Neither is this?”
He recognized her handwriting.
Marcus spoke before Julian could respond.
“We found dozens of Sarah’s letters in Eleanor’s office.”
Julian turned toward him.
“You searched my aunt’s office?”
“I opened a locked cabinet after detecting an unauthorized connection to the hotel security network.”
“Why wasn’t I told?”
“I tried to tell you today. Eleanor’s staff took your phone.”
Julian looked at the private guards.
“Leave.”
The lead guard shook his head.
“Our instructions come from Ms. Vale.”
“This is my hotel.”
“Ms. Vale said you might become emotionally compromised.”
Julian stepped closer.
The guard finally understood his mistake.
Marcus’s officers entered behind Julian and removed Eleanor’s men from the corridor.
As they left, Julian looked toward the ceiling.
“Leo?”
“Dad?”
Relief and fear filled the boy’s voice.
Julian’s face changed.
He climbed the hidden staircase behind Marcus. Sarah followed.
The upper room had no windows. It appeared to be an old document vault, barely large enough for a table and two filing cabinets.
Leo sat against the far wall.
A chair had been pushed under the door handle from the outside.
Sarah rushed to him.
Leo buried his face against her shoulder. She held him so tightly that she felt every frightened breath.
“I knew you would come,” he said.
“I will always come.”
“You didn’t before.”
The words were quiet, but they cut deeper than anger.
Sarah pulled back enough to look at him.
“I tried.”
Leo’s eyes moved to the envelope in her hand.
“Is that one of the letters?”
“Yes.”
He touched his name on the front.
“She told me you forgot me.”
“I never forgot one minute.”
Julian stood a few feet away, motionless.
Leo looked at him.
“Dad said you were sick.”
“I was hurt for a while. Then I got better.”
“Eleanor said you kept trying to take me because you wanted money.”
Sarah glanced at Julian.
He looked sick.
“I never said that,” he told Leo.
“She showed me your messages.”
“What messages?”
“The ones where you called Mom dangerous.”
Julian looked at Marcus.
“I never wrote that.”
Marcus’s expression became grim.
Leo pointed toward the lower archive.
“The papers are behind the portrait. The real ones.”
Sarah helped him stand.
That was when she saw the red stain on his shirt.
“What happened?”
“I knocked over a bottle when Eleanor chased me. I hit the cabinet.”
“Did she hurt you?”
Leo hesitated.
“She grabbed my arm. Then she locked me in here.”
Julian’s voice became dangerously calm.
“Why was Eleanor chasing you?”
“I found a letter with Grandfather’s seal.”
“Sebastian’s seal?”
Leo nodded.
“The bird looked wrong on the papers Eleanor showed the judge. On the old letters, it faces right. On her papers, it faces left.”
Sarah remembered something Julian’s father once told her.
The Vale crest was never printed from a standard image. Every official legal document used a metal press that created a raised mark. Forgers often copied the decorative design without noticing the falcon’s direction changed when transferred.
Leo had noticed.
“What was inside the sealed letter?” Julian asked.
“I didn’t read all of it. Eleanor came in.”
“Where is it now?”
“She took it and put it in her bag.”
Music echoed from below.
The gala was beginning.
Julian lifted Leo into his arms despite the boy being almost too old to carry.
“We’re leaving.”
Marcus blocked the stairway.
“We may not have time.”
“Why?”
Marcus held up his radio.
A voice crackled through it.
“Eleanor has entered the ballroom. She just announced an emergency meeting of the Vale Foundation board.”
Julian’s eyes narrowed.
“What kind of emergency?”
May you like
The answer came from the radio.
“She is asking the board to remove you as chairman.”
