Chapter 6 - The Audio Recording from the Forbidden Office
By midnight, the blizzard outside Lake Shore Drive had coated the city in a thick blanket of white silence.
Inside Sebastian’s breathtaking two-story penthouse, the open floor-to-ceiling windows offered a panoramic view of Lake Michigan’s dark, ice-flecked waters. A warm fire crackled in the massive stone fireplace, casting golden light across the hardwood floors and plush cream furniture.
Lily was fast asleep in a brand-new, white wooden crib that Sebastian’s staff had delivered and set up in the master guest suite three hours earlier. She was wrapped in a soft organic cotton blanket, her yellow rattle resting safely beside her pillow.
I sat on the wide window bench in the main living room, wearing a borrowed grey cashmere sweater that swallowed my frame, holding a warm mug of cocoa in my hands.
Sebastian walked out of his private study, wearing a simple black t-shirt and dark trousers, his dark hair damp from a shower. He looked younger without his suit jacket, more human, but his presence still commanded every square inch of the room.
He sat down on the bench a few feet away from me, setting two crystal glasses and a bottle of sparkling water on the low table.
“Detective Miller just called,” Sebastian said softly, his voice carrying a calm satisfaction. “Julian Sterling’s attorneys reached out to the District Attorney twenty minutes ago. They are offering full cooperation against his mother in exchange for a plea deal that keeps Julian out of prison.”
I let out a long, shuddering breath. “And Lily?”
“Julian signed a formal, irrevocable waiver of all parental rights,” Sebastian revealed, pulling a faxed document from his folder and laying it on the table. “He acknowledged under oath that he abandoned her, that he has no legal claim to her custody, and that you hold sole, unassailable parental authority. He also established a five-million-dollar irrevocable education trust in Lily’s name, which you exclusively control.”
Tears welled up in my eyes, but this time, they weren't tears of terror. They were tears of pure, unadulterated freedom. The dark cloud that had hovered over my daughter’s life since the day she was conceived had been permanently blown away.
“It’s over,” I whispered, wiping my cheek with the sleeve of the cashmere sweater. “It’s really over.”
“It’s over,” Sebastian confirmed gently.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black USB drive, setting it beside the document.
“There’s one more thing you should hear, Maya,” Sebastian said. “This is the audio file my office security system captured at 4:56 PM today—three minutes before I woke up.”
I looked at the drive, puzzled. “Audio?”
Sebastian plugged the drive into a small sleek speaker resting on the table and pressed play.
The room filled with the static-free sound of Sebastian’s basement office. In the background, the soft, steady rhythm of Sebastian’s sleeping breath was audible.
Then came the sharp sound of the heavy oak door creaking open outside the office.
Veronica Hale’s voice echoed clearly through the speaker: "Hurry up, Arthur! He’s asleep at his desk. He took a sleeping pill after his twelve-hour flight from London."
Arthur Vance’s deep, gruff voice replied: "Is the baby in the bag?"
"Yes," Veronica whispered. "She’s quiet. But Victoria wants to make sure Sebastian doesn't wake up while you carry her out."
Then came Arthur Vance’s cold, chilling response: "If Calder wakes up, I’ll deal with him. Victoria paid me enough to handle a billionaire sleeping off jet lag. Just make sure the waitress gets blamed for the disappearance."
Then, a sudden rustle of fabric, followed by Lily’s tiny, bright voice letting out a soft babble: "Dada!"
The sound of the yellow rattle dropping and bouncing down the carpeted stairs echoed sharply on the tape.
Arthur Vance cursed: "Dammit! She dropped her toy!"
Veronica hissed: "Leave it! Just throw her onto the landing and close the door! Calder’s moving!"
The tape ended with the heavy THUD of the basement door closing, followed by the soft sound of tiny baby feet pattering on the carpet as Lily crawled down the last three steps toward Sebastian’s chair.
I stared at the speaker, my heart hammering against my ribs.
“She saved herself,” I whispered, a wet laugh breaking through my tears. “Lily dropped her rattle and woke you up.”
“She didn't just wake me up, Maya,” Sebastian said, his voice dropping into a deep, velvety tone that sent a thrill straight through my chest. “She crawled over to my chair, pulled herself up by my knee, reached her little arms out, and placed her yellow rattle directly in my lap.”
He looked at me, his gray eyes shining with an emotion so intense, so profound, that it took my breath away.
“When I opened my eyes,” Sebastian continued, stepping closer to where I sat on the window bench, “and saw that beautiful, fearless little girl looking up at me... I didn't see an intrusion. I didn't see a health code violation.”
He reached out, his warm, strong fingers gently tucking a stray lock of hair behind my ear.
“I saw the answer to a question I had been asking myself for ten years,” Sebastian whispered.
May you like
My breath hitched in my throat. “What question?”
“Whether I was ever going to find a reason to stop fighting the world,” Sebastian said softly, “and start building a home.”
