Chapter 75: The Discovery

Harper made it three floors down before the nausea won. She barely reached the restroom in time, retching into the toilet while her whole body shook. Morning sickness, stress, fear,she couldn't tell where one ended and another began.

When she emerged, Sebastian was waiting outside the women's restroom, his face etched with worry.

"Don't," she said, holding up a hand. "Don't tell me it'll be okay. Don't tell me we'll fix this."

"Then what do you want me to say?"

"I want you to admit this is a disaster." Her voice echoed in the empty hallway. "Our contract is public. Everyone knows this started as a business deal. How do we come back from that?"

Sebastian's jaw worked. "The same way we've handled everything else. Together."

"I can't…" Harper pressed her palms against her eyes. "I need space. I need to think."

"You're leaving."

It wasn't a question. Harper saw the resignation in his face, the bracing for impact he'd probably learned from years of his father's emotional unavailability.

"I'm going to the hotel," she said carefully. "For a few days. That's all."

"That's what it looks like when you leave, Harper. A few days and a week becomes permanent." His voice was hollow. "I won't stop you. I promised I'd never trap you. But don't pretend this is just space."

"What else am I supposed to do? Stay and watch our lives get dissected on cable news? Pretend it doesn't matter that strangers are debating whether our baby was planned or a manipulation?"

"Yes!" Sebastian's composure finally cracked. "Yes, that's exactly what I want you to do. Stay and fight with me instead of running when it gets hard."

"I'm not running…"

"You've been running since you found that pregnancy test. Since you overheard me with Claire. Every time things get real, you bolt." His words were sharp but not cruel. Honest. "I know you're scared. So am I. But leaving won't make this better."

Harper wanted to argue, but the truth of it lodged in her throat. She had been running. From her feelings, from the vulnerability, from the terrifying possibility of losing everything she'd started to want.

"I don't know how to do this," she whispered.

Sebastian's expression softened. He took a step closer, careful, like approaching a wounded animal. "Neither do I. But Harper, I love you. That's not manufactured. It's not the contract or the proximity or the circumstances. It's you. And I need you to decide if you believe that."

Three words she'd been waiting for and dreading in equal measure. Three words that changed everything and solved nothing.

Before she could respond, Sebastian's phone rang. He glanced at it and swore. "It's our lawyer. I have to take this."

He stepped away, voice low and urgent. Harper leaned against the wall, Sebastian's words echoing in her head. I love you.

Her phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number: Check your email. You need to see this before you make any decisions.

Vanessa. Sebastian's ex-fiancée.

Harper's finger hovered over the delete button, but something made her open her email instead. The message from Vanessa contained a single attachment: a video file dated two days ago.

She pressed play.

The footage showed Marcus in what looked like a hotel room, talking to someone off-camera. The quality was grainy but the audio was clear.

"The contract leak is just the beginning,"Marcus said."Once Harper leaves and she will, they always do. Sebastian will be vulnerable. Emotional. That's when we move on to the secondary plan."

The off-camera voice: "And if she doesn't leave?"

"She will. I've made sure of it. The medical leak, the headlines, now the contract exposure. She's already staying at the hotel. Give it three days and she'll file for divorce. Sebastian will spiral like he always does when someone abandons him."

Harper's blood ran cold.

"You seem very certain,"the off-camera voice said.

"I know my nephew. His father spent twenty years teaching him that love is conditional. That people leave. Harper's just proving him right."Marcus smiled.

"Once she's gone and Sebastian's unstable, the board will have no choice but to reinstate me as CEO for the company's stability."

The video ended.

Harper stared at the screen, rage and clarity washing over her in equal waves. Marcus hadn't just been attacking Sebastian's business. He'd been engineering an emotional collapse, using her as the weapon.

And she'd almost given him exactly what he wanted.

Sebastian returned, his face grim. "The lawyer says three more outlets are running stories about the contract. We need to make a statement or Harper? What's wrong?"

She held out her phone. "Watch this."

His expression shifted as the video played, from confusion to recognition to fury. "Where did you get this?"

"Vanessa sent it. I don't know how she got it, but…"

"The secondary plan." Sebastian looked up sharply. "What secondary plan?"

Harper's mind raced. "He said once I leave and you spiral, the board will reinstate him. What else could he do? He's already suspended."

Sebastian was already dialing. "Claire. I need you to check the Colton Industries server access logs for the past seventy-two hours. Specifically anything Marcus touched before we locked him out." Pause. "I don't care if IT says it's secure. Check."

He paced while waiting, energy crackling off him like static electricity.

"What are you thinking?" Harper asked.

"Marcus is desperate. Desperate people don't stop at plan A." Sebastian's phone buzzed. He read the message and went pale. "Jesus Christ."

"What?"

"Marcus accessed the company's acquisition files the night before the board meeting. Specifically, the Adriatic Hotel purchase agreement and renovation contracts."

Harper's stomach dropped. "Why would he need those?"

"Because buried in those contracts is the clause that if I'm deemed unfit to manage the acquisition,through mental instability, breach of fiduciary duty, or personal crisis,the company can void the deal and sell the property to recoup losses."

"He's going to try to take the hotel."

"Not try. He's already started." Sebastian showed her another message from Claire. "He filed an emergency petition with the board yesterday claiming the hotel represents a catastrophic conflict of interest given our 'deteriorating marriage.' If you leave, if I fall apart, he gets enough votes to force a sale."

Harper thought of the Adriatic, three generations of her family's history, finally being restored to its former glory. Thought of losing it all because Marcus Colton was a vindictive monster who knew exactly which wounds to press.

"That's why he leaked the contract," she said slowly. "He needed me to leave. I need you to be emotionally compromised."

"And we almost gave it to him." Sebastian looked at her with something fierce and determined. "But we're not going to. Right?"

It wasn't really a question. It was a choice being offered. Stay and fight, or run and lose everything.

Harper thought about her Aunt Eleanor, who'd held onto the Adriatic through recessions and gentrification and countless offers to sell. Who'd been stubborn and proud and refused to let anyone take what mattered.

She thought about the baby growing inside her, who deserved parents who didn't run when things got hard.

She thought about Sebastian saying I love you, like it was both a confession and a plea.

"Right," she said firmly. "We fight."

Sebastian's relief was visible. He pulled her into his arms, and Harper let herself hold on tight.

"I'm sorry," she whispered against his chest. "For running. For not trusting this."

"You're here now. That's what matters." He pulled back enough to see her face. "But Harper, I meant what I said. I love you. Not because of a contract or a baby or because it's convenient. You."

"I love you too." The words came easier than she expected. "I'm terrified and I don't know how this all works out, but I love you."

His kiss was thorough and claiming, a promise and a relief all at once.

When they broke apart, Harper's mind was already racing. "If Marcus needs me to leave to make his case, what happens if I don't? If we show the board we're stronger than ever?"

"He'll escalate. Find another angle." Sebastian's expression hardened. "Unless we remove him from the equation entirely."

"How? He's already suspended. You can't fire a family from the board."

"No. But we can make him irrelevant." Sebastian pulled out his phone, fingers flying across the screen. "Marcus's entire plan relies on the board believing I'm unstable. So we prove the opposite. We show them exactly how stable and committed we are."

"How?"

Sebastian looked at her, something wild and reckless in his eyes. "We held a press conference. Today. Tell them everything the contract, the marriage, the pregnancy, all of it. On our terms. Then we announce we're dissolving the contract entirely and renewing our vows."

"That's insane."

"That's the point. Marcus wants chaos and weakness. We give them radical transparency and strength." He was already texting. "Claire can set it up for five o'clock. We control the narrative before Marcus can spin it."

Harper's heart hammered. Going public meant no privacy, no protection. It meant exposing everything to scrutiny and judgment.

It also meant taking away Marcus's weapons.

"Okay," she said. "Let's do it."

Sebastian kissed her again, quick and grateful, then immediately started making calls.

Harper picked up her phone and opened the message from Vanessa. She typed: Thank you. Why did you help us?

The response came within seconds: Because Marcus tried to use me the same way five years ago. And because Sebastian deserves to be happy, even if it wasn't with me.

Harper stared at the message, then looked at Sebastian, who was pacing and barking instructions into his phone about press releases and venue setup.

Her phone buzzed again. Claire: Whatever you two are planning, make it good. Marcus just called an emergency shareholder meeting for tomorrow morning. He's going for a vote of no confidence.

Harper showed Sebastian the message. His expression went dark.

"Then we don't wait until five." He checked his watch. "We go now. Live stream from here. No preparation, no script. Just us, telling the truth."

"Sebastian…"

"Trust me. Please."

Harper looked into his eyes and saw the same fear she felt, but also determination and love and the stubborn refusal to let Marcus win.

"I trust you," she said.

They set up in Sebastian's office, Harper's hands shaking as Claire patched them through to every major news outlet via video conference.

The red recording light blinked on.

And everything changed.