Chapter 7 - Michael Grant’s Second Betrayal
Michael answered on the first ring this time.
Julian did not greet him.
“I heard the recording.”
Silence.
Then:
“I was afraid you would.”
“You stood beside Serena while she threatened Elena with losing Ethan.”
“I was there to prevent things from escalating.”
“You were there to give the threat legal weight.”
Michael exhaled.
“That is fair.”
Julian nearly laughed at the calmness.
“How much did Serena pay you?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why?”
“Your mother.”
“She was dead last year.”
Michael stopped.
Elena looked at Julian.
Good.
There was the crack.
“Michael?”
He spoke more carefully.
“Celeste left a private retainer.”
“For after her death?”
“Yes.”
“To keep my son from me?”
“To manage family exposure if Elena resurfaced.”
Julian closed his eyes.
His mother had built a mechanism intended to survive her.
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand in a legal reserve.”
“Where is it now?”
“Most untouched.”
“Most?”
Michael hesitated.
“I billed approximately thirty-two thousand for consultations.”
Julian’s voice lowered.
“You took money to threaten the mother of my child after the woman who hired you was already dead.”
“I believed a sudden paternity dispute would destabilize Ethan and your business.”
Elena laughed.
“Everyone always knew what was best for Ethan except his mother.”
Michael did not respond.
Julian said:
“I want every document.”
“I can’t simply waive privilege.”
“Whose privilege? My dead mother’s?”
“Her estate may still hold portions.”
“Then contact the executor.”
“I already did.”
“When?”
“Today.”
“And?”
Michael’s voice changed.
“The executor authorized disclosure of documents relating to possible misconduct.”
Julian looked at Elena.
“Send them.”
Within an hour, encrypted files began arriving.
They exposed Celeste’s strategy with painful precision.
She believed Elena had been “emotionally destabilizing” Julian.
She believed Serena was more socially compatible.
She believed a pregnancy would complicate the divorce and weaken Julian’s public image.
But one email from Celeste to Michael, written only two months after Ethan was born, shifted everything.
Elena has refused the settlement. Do not antagonize her further. If the child is Julian’s, this could become catastrophic if handled cruelly.
Julian stared.
His mother had begun changing course.
A later email:
Serena is too involved. She continues monitoring Elena without my approval.
Then:
I told Serena to stop using company resources.
Then the final one:
If Julian ever learns about the child, tell him I was wrong.
Julian pushed back from the table.
Elena read silently beside him.
His mother had helped start the lie.
Then recognized what it had become.
Too late.
There was another attachment.
A draft letter addressed to Julian, never sent.
My son,
I believed removing Elena would protect you from a destructive marriage. I allowed my contempt for her to become permission for cruelty. If the child is yours, you should know him. Serena disagrees.
Julian could barely breathe.
Elena touched the edge of the screen.
“Why didn’t she send it?”
Michael answered through speaker.
“She was ill by then. Serena persuaded her to wait until paternity could be privately confirmed.”
“Was it?”
Silence.
Julian looked up sharply.
“Was paternity tested?”
Michael said:
“Not legally.”
“What does that mean?”
“Serena obtained a DNA sample.”
Elena went rigid.
“From whom?”
“Ethan.”
Julian stood so fast the chair hit the wall.
“How?”
Michael sounded sick.
“At the Miami charity event.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Serena had approached Ethan not only to see him.
She had collected something.
“What sample?”
“A drinking straw.”
Elena whispered:
“She gave him lemonade.”
Julian remembered Ethan calling her Aunt Serena.
Michael continued:
“She used a private laboratory.”
“Did you see the result?”
“Yes.”
Julian’s voice cracked.
“And?”
Michael answered:
“99.99 percent probability of biological paternity.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Julian stared at the wall.
Serena had known with scientific certainty for almost a year.
And still said nothing.
Then Michael added one final fact.
“The report was copied to another recipient.”
“Who?”
“A company address.”
Julian frowned.
“What company?”
“Vance Meridian Holdings.”
Julian went cold.
That was the parent company of his hotel empire.
May you like
If the DNA report had entered company files, someone else in his business knew.
Cliffhanger: Serena had secretly obtained Ethan’s DNA a year earlier and confirmed Julian was his father—and a copy of that result had been sent into Julian’s own corporate organization.
