Chapter 10: A Decade Of Deception

The sound of the penthouse's air conditioner felt like a low-frequency scream in my ears. Long after the line had died, I sat on the edge of the bed with my cell phone still pressed to my ear. Serena was a picture of peace next to me; her hand was curled close to my pillow, almost reaching for me even as she slept, and her breathing was steady and gentle. An hour ago, I was ready to burn the world down for her. Now, the world was burning me.

I moved like a ghost, my joints stiff as I pulled on a black suit, my armor. I couldn't wake her. Not with this. If I looked into her honest, brown eyes now, I might break, and I needed to be the Ice King for what was coming.

I wrote a note on the bedside paper: Urgent business at the firm. I'll be home for dinner. I love you.

The word love felt heavy, like a lovely thing that was being targeted by a lie that had been going on for ten years.

I didn't go straight to the hospital. I went to my office, fueled by a cold, vibrating adrenaline. I cleared three hearings and signed off on a merger like a robot and that terrified my assistant, Evelyn. I wasn't working; I was clearing the desk for a war.

By 10:00 AM, I couldn't stand being in my office anymore. I grabbed my keys and drove to Stanley's Heart Hospital, taking sharp turns. When I arrived, I smelled antiseptic and sadness in the private wing. I saw Michael, a painful memory from my past, pacing near the elevators. He looked messy and tired, nothing like the perfect guy he used to be.

When he saw me coming, he stopped.

"You're really here," Michael said, his voice rough.

The feeling of anger and betrayal came rushing through my veins.

I stopped a few steps away, hiding my shaking hands in my pockets. "Tell me about the phone call, Michael. Now. Or I might hit you."

Michael let out a dull, rough laugh. "Still the lawyer. Still looking for a rule of limitations on pain."

"You have five seconds."

I spoke in a low, angry voice. "What did you mean about my mother? What lie did she tell Eleanor?"

Before Michael could answer, the double doors of the intensive care unit swung open. A nurse, her face pale and urgent, rushed toward us.

"Are either of you with Eleanor Sterling? She's losing consciousness. Her vitals are crashing, and we're moving to intubate. She's slipping into a coma. We need a signature for the emergency procedure immediately."

"I'll sign," Michael said, stepping forward without hesitation, his voice desperate. "I'm her fiancé. Give me the papers."

The word fiancé hit me like a physical blow. The room started spinning .

"Fiancé?" I repeated, the word tasting like ash. "You've been with her this entire time? You stayed?"

Michael didn't look back as he scribbled his name on the electronic tablet. "I never left her, Ed. Unlike you, I didn't have an empire to run. I just had her."

Once the nurse disappeared back into the unit, the silence that followed was suffocating. I felt a thousand questions clawing at my throat. My mother had told Eleanor I was already married? Years ago? Before Serena was even a thought in my mind?

"Sit down, Edward," Michael said, collapsing into a plastic waiting room chair. "You look like you're about to faint, and I don't have the energy to carry you."

I remained standing, ignoring the seat he had offered . "Start talking. From the beginning."

"It was a few weeks before your wedding," Michael began, staring at the floor. "Eleanor was happy. Or she thought she was. Then your mother called her to the estate. Lily sat her down and showed her a set of papers, a marriage license from a private ceremony in Europe. She told Eleanor that you had married some girl from a rival firm months prior to secure a merger and that Eleanor was just the public face for the Vance image. She told her you were using her."

"That's impossible," I replied. "I was with Eleanor every night. I never—"

"She didn't believe it at first either," Michael interrupted, looking up with a bitter scoff. "But your mother is a genius at forgery, Ed. She had photos. She had witnesses. And then she told Eleanor that if she went through with the wedding, she'd be a mistress in her own home. She broke her. She made Eleanor feel like a fool who was being traded for a portfolio."

"And where were you in this, Michael? The loyal friend?"

Michael flinched. "I was the shoulder she cried on. I was the one who was there when you were too busy at the office to answer her calls, calls she was making to beg you for the truth. But you never answered, did you? Because Lily was intercepting your messages. She made sure you stayed busy while she dismantled your life."

The immense scale of the deception began to sink in. My mother hadn't just tried to break my current marriage; she had been the architect of my greatest heartbreak a decade ago.

"We didn't sleep together because we wanted to hurt you, Ed," Michael whispered, his voice cracking as he delivered the final, devastating blow. "We did it because we thought you had already betrayed her. Eleanor was spiraling. She wanted to hurt you back. She wanted to move on, to find something real after finding out her entire engagement was a lie. The affair... it wasn't about love, at least not at first. It was payback. It was the only way she felt she could survive the humiliation of being your Mistress."

I backed away, hitting the cold glass of the hospital window. The Golden Couple hadn't died because of a lack of love. They had been executed by the woman who gave me life.

"You're telling me," my voice was barely a whisper, "that she spent ten years hating me for a marriage that never existed?"

"And you spent ten years being hostile because of a betrayal that was engineered," Michael said, standing up to face me. "But here's the blow, Ed. The real reason I called you today..."

Michael stepped closer, his voice dropping to a terrifyingly quiet whisper.

Eleanor didn't just discover the truth, she found out that the girl in the fake photos wasn't random. She's from a rival family that almost destroyed the Vance firm and ended up owing money to Lily. Your father's will was a trap. The assets stay in your mother’s name until you get  married. Lily hasn't been protecting your heart; she’s been protecting her seat at the head of the table

Eleanor was driving to Oaktown last night to come tell you the truth when she ran into a ditch.

Michael's eyes locked onto mine with a look of pure, unfiltered dread.

I just have a million questions going through my head. Did my mum really sign the fake marriage contract behind my back or was it just a stunt to send Eleanor packing? What does this mean for Serena and I?

I need to get to the bottom of this before it gets too messy.