Chapter 2
For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.
Granddaughter.
The word landed against my chest like something alive.
I had imagined many things on the bus ride to the hotel.
Being turned away.
Being laughed at.
Being told the invitation was a mistake.
But I had not imagined Sebastian Valle holding me like he had been waiting years.
Margaret made a small sound behind us.
“Sebastian, surely you don’t mean—”
He turned.
The warmth vanished from his face.
“Do not speak.”
Two words.
Quiet.
Sharp.
They shut down the whole lobby.
Margaret’s mouth closed.
Sebastian looked at the manager.
“Mr. Bell, collect my granddaughter’s belongings.”
“Yes, sir.”
The manager dropped to one knee and carefully picked up my clothes, my notebook, my mother’s envelope, and the photograph.
He handled everything like it mattered.
That almost made me cry harder.
Sebastian saw my cheek.
His eyes darkened.
“Who struck you?”
Nobody moved.
I did not answer fast enough.
The guests did it for me with their silence.
Sebastian turned to Margaret.
“You hit her?”
Margaret forced a laugh.
“I thought she was causing a scene.”
“She was standing in my hotel with my invitation.”
“I didn’t know who she was.”
His voice went colder.
“So you believed she was safe to humiliate.”
Color left Margaret’s face.
Security lowered their eyes.
Phones slowly disappeared.
Too late.
Everything had already been recorded.
Sebastian took my hand.
His fingers were thin, but his grip was steady.
“Come with me.”
I should have asked questions.
I should have demanded proof.
Instead, I followed him into the private elevator because my knees were shaking and because, for the first time in my life, someone powerful had stood between me and cruelty.
The doors closed.
The lobby disappeared.
Silence filled the elevator.
Sebastian still held my hand.
I stared at his reflection in the gold doors.
“You knew my name.”
His throat moved.
“I have known your name since the day you were born.”
My heart twisted.
“Then why didn’t I know yours?”
Pain crossed his face.
“Because your mother disappeared before I could bring you both home.”
I pulled my hand back.
“My mother said no one wanted us.”
His eyes closed.
“Of course she did.”
Anger rose fast.
“Don’t talk about her like that.”
He opened his eyes.
“I loved your mother.”
The elevator rose.
My pulse thundered.
“Then where were you when she was cleaning offices with pneumonia? Where were you when we lost our apartment? Where were you when she died owing the hospital money?”
Sebastian flinched at every question.
Good.
I wanted them to hurt.
“I searched,” he said. “For years.”
“She didn’t believe that.”
“I know.”
“How?”
The doors opened into a private suite.
He did not move.
“Because someone made sure she didn’t.”
My stomach tightened.
“Who?”
Sebastian looked toward the window, where the city lights glittered like another world.
“Margaret.”
I laughed once.
It came out ugly.
“The woman who just slapped me?”
“She was my son’s fiancée before your mother.”
“My mother never told me that.”
“She wouldn’t have. The pain was too deep.”
He walked slowly to a desk and picked up a framed photograph.
A younger Sebastian.
A young man with my eyes.
And my mother, Elena, laughing in a yellow dress.
My hands shook.
“That’s her.”
“Yes.”
“Who is he?”
Sebastian’s face softened and broke at once.
“My son. Adrian Valle.”
I stared at the photograph.
My father.
A man I had never been allowed to name.
“Is he alive?”
Sebastian’s silence answered before he did.
“No.”
My chest tightened.
“How?”
“Car accident. Two months before you were born.”
The room tilted.
My mother had told me my father abandoned us.
She had said his family threw her away.
Now there was another story standing in front of me with my father’s face inside a silver frame.
Sebastian opened a drawer and removed another envelope.
Old.
Sealed.
“My son wrote this for your mother before he died. It was returned unopened.”
I did not take it.
I was afraid if I touched one more secret, my whole life would split.
Before either of us spoke, the suite door opened.
Margaret stepped inside without knocking.
Her face was white with rage.
“You foolish old man,” she hissed. “Do you have any idea what she can do to this family?”
Sebastian straightened.
“I know exactly what she is.”
Margaret’s eyes cut to me.
“A mistake.”
Something inside me went still.
Sebastian slammed his cane against the floor.
“She is the Valle heir.”
Margaret froze.
So did I.
May you like
Then Sebastian looked at me.
“And that is why they kept you hidden.”
