Chapter 16
An old protective habit.
“I can't do this.”
She walked toward the door.
Charles's voice stopped her.
“If you leave now, the question doesn't disappear.”
She turned.
“You don't control me.”
“No.”
His gaze was cold.
“But three trusts were amended last month based on representations that James, Oliver, and Henry are Julian's biological children.”
The room changed.
Rebecca looked at me.
This was no longer about gossip.
Charles continued.
“If those representations are false, I have a legal obligation to correct them.”
Vanessa's lips parted.
Julian stared at his father.
“You changed the trusts already?”
“Yes.”
“And my four children?”
Charles looked at me.
For the first time, something resembling shame crossed his face.
“We didn't know they existed.”
Julian laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“That phrase is going to haunt this family.”
Vanessa reached for the door.
Julian spoke.
“If the boys are mine, say you'll do the test.”
She stopped.
He waited.
“I shouldn't have to prove anything.”
“Neither should Evelyn.”
Vanessa looked at me with raw hatred.
“This is because of her.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“You walked into my wedding.”
“With proof about my children.”
“You knew what it would do.”
“Yes.”
For the first time that day, I let myself say the full truth.
“I knew it would force everyone in this family to acknowledge that the children you erased me for were not the only children Julian had conceived.”
Her eyes filled.
“You wanted revenge.”
“If I wanted revenge, I would have gone to the newspapers two years ago.”
I gestured toward Charles.
“I had twelve million reasons to build a very public story. I didn't.”
Vanessa stared at me.
“I came because my children deserve to exist in the truth. Whatever truth exists about yours belongs to you.”
That seemed to strike her harder than accusation.
She sank into a chair.
Julian crouched in front of her.
“Vanessa.”
She covered her face.
“Please.”
“Are they mine?”
She began sobbing.
Julian didn't touch her.
That detail broke my heart in a way I hadn't expected.
Two years earlier, her tears had pulled him away from me.
Now he simply waited.
“Vanessa.”
Her shoulders shook.
“I didn't know.”
Julian's face went blank.
“What?”
She lowered her hands.
“I didn't know for sure.”
Margaret sat down hard.
Charles did not move.
Julian whispered, “Explain.”
Vanessa stared at the floor.
“I had been seeing Adrian.”