Chapter 3 - THE DINNER OF LIONSThat evening, the private dining room at Le Bernardin was suffocatingly quiet.

Arthur Vale, the patriarch of the family dynasty, sat at the head of the table. At eighty-two, his silver hair was brushed back, his eyes sharp as obsidian, and his posture rigidly unyielding. To his right sat Clarissa Hart, her eyes red-rimmed from crying, nursing a glass of vintage champagne like it was medicine. To his left sat Sebastian, staring blankly into his untouched glass of scotch.

“Explain to me again,” Arthur Vale rumbled, his voice like grinding stones, “why my grandson has humiliated the Hart family by walking out of a public park behind a woman pushing a bastard’s stroller, and why my top security director has been hospitalized with a broken jaw.”

Sebastian slowly raised his eyes to meet his grandfather’s. There was no fear in them anymore—only a cold, calcified fury.

“They aren't bastards, Grandfather,” Sebastian said softly. “They’re my children. Triplet heirs to the Vale name. A boy with your eyes, and two girls who have their mother’s spirit.”

Clarissa gasped, slamming her champagne glass down so hard the stem shattered, liquid splashing across the white tablecloth. “Sebastian! Have you lost your mind completely? You haven’t even verified paternity! That woman is a manipulative street rat—she probably dug up some random kids just to extort you!”

“Watch your mouth, Clarissa,” Sebastian warned, his tone flat and dead.

“Enough!” Arthur slammed his cane against the hardwood floor, the echo silencing the entire room. He leaned forward, resting his weathered hands on the carved handle. “Sebastian. Listen to me very carefully. You are engaged to marry Clarissa next month. The Hart-Vale merger consolidates forty percent of Manhattan’s commercial real estate under our umbrella. A scandal involving unknown children from an annulled marriage with a nobody will tank our stock before the quarterly earnings report.”

“Let it tank,” Sebastian said.

Arthur’s eyes narrowed into slits. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Sebastian stood up, pushing his chair back with a scraping screech that made the waiters cower near the service door. “Four years ago, you and Daniel Mercer orchestrated a lie. You told me Maya walked away willingly. You made sure I signed the papers while I was half-drugged on post-operative painkillers from my appendix surgery, convincing me she was cheating on me with a college buddy.”

Arthur didn't blink. He didn't even look guilty. “We did what was necessary for the continuation of this family, Sebastian. You were weak. You were blinded by a foolish college romance with a girl who had nothing to offer. I saved you from a lifetime of mediocrity.”

“You didn't save me,” Sebastian whispered, leaning over the table, staring straight into the eyes of the man who had raised him. “You cursed me. You turned me into a monster who broke the only person who ever truly loved me for who I was, not what was in my bank account.”

Clarissa stood up, her face twisted in absolute betrayal. “And what about us, Sebastian? What about our engagement? What about me?”

Sebastian turned to look at her, his expression entirely devoid of pity. “Our engagement was a business transaction, Clarissa. Call the press. Tell them the wedding is off. Sue me for breach of contract. Do whatever you want. But I am getting my family back.”

“You’re throwing away a billion-dollar empire for a broke nobody and three brats?” Clarissa screamed, her aristocratic composure completely shattering as tears of rage streamed down her cheeks.

“No,” Sebastian said, grabbing his car keys from the table. “I’m finally building one.”

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As Sebastian strode out of the restaurant, Arthur Vale sat back in his chair, a slow, dangerous smile spreading across his wrinkled lips. He picked up his phone, dialed a private number, and spoke into the receiver.

“Daniel,” Arthur murmured softly. “The boy is making a mistake. Make sure Maya Miller understands the full cost of declaring war on the Vales.”