Chapter 2: The Mother's Shield
The boy in the booth—Leo—immediately hopped down, sensing his mother's distress. He stood right beside Elena’s leg, glaring up at Sebastian with a tiny, ferocious scowl.
"Is he a bad man, Mama?" Leo asked, his little voice booming with an innate authority that made Sebastian’s chest ache.
"No, sweetie," Elena said, her eyes never leaving Sebastian's. "He's just someone who's lost. Put your shoes on."
"Elena, wait. Please," Sebastian begged. He had never used that word in his adult life. Please. He was a man who dictated terms, who crushed competitors, who moved billions with a stroke of a pen. But right now, on his knees metaphorically in front of a pasta station, he felt entirely powerless. "Look at them. Look at me. You can't honestly tell me I don't have a right to know the truth."
"You lost your rights when your mother threatened to blacklist every medical residency I applied to, Sebastian!" Elena hissed, stepping closer so her words hit him like physical blows.
"She showed me the hotel logs. She showed me the photos of you with Victoria Vance in Aspen while I was hospitalized with severe morning sickness. She told me if I didn't sign the non-disclosure and the divorce papers, she would make sure my parents lost their pension fund. I chose my babies' survival over your money."
Sebastian felt the room tilt violently.
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Aspen. Victoria Vance. He had been in Aspen five years ago—but it was for a forty-eight-hour infrastructure conference, and his mother had insisted on managing the hospitality bookings. He had slept alone in a corporate suite while his mother’s PR team apparently manufactured a digital execution of his marriage.
"My mother," Sebastian whispered, a dark, terrifying clarity finally breaking through his five-year grief. "She didn't just manage the divorce. She built it."
