The Billionaire’s Secret Son

I was on the couch when he walked in, still in my work clothes, with my heels still on. I hadn’t been able to do much more than get through the front door and sit down since I got back from the whole humiliating drama.

Cassian walked in at seven, his jacket still perfect, not a single thing out of place. He stopped when he saw me for Just a second. Then he set his briefcase down on the entryway table and loosened his tie like it was any other evening.

“You’re home,” he said.

I stared at him. “Where else would I be?”

He didn’t answer that. He walked to the kitchen, poured himself a drink, and came back into the living room. Stood by the window with his glass and looked out at the city.

I watched him. “Are you going to say anything?”

“There’s nothing to say that wasn’t already said this morning.”

I laughed as I stood up, stepping closer to him. “Nothing to say.” I stood up. “Cassian, you announced our divorce to eighteen people before you even told me. There is plenty to say.”

He turned from the window and reached into his jacket. He pulled out a folded envelope and set it on the coffee table between us.

I looked at it and then looked at him. “What is that?”

“The agreement.” His voice was flat. “Reviewed by both legal teams. It’s fair.”

I didn’t touch it. “You had this ready.”

“Yes.”

“How long?”

He said nothing leaving me hanging for a minute.

“How long have you been planning this Cassian?” I stepped closer. “Because those folders this morning weren’t put together overnight. Someone spent weeks on that. So how long have you been sitting on this while I was here thinking we were—” I stopped. Pressed my lips together. “While I was here.”

He set his glass down. “It doesn’t matter how long—”

“It matters to me!” My voice cracked across the room and he didn’t even flinch. “I am your wife. I live in this house. I show up to every event, every dinner, every thing you need me at and you were sitting across from me every single day knowing you were going to do this?”

“It wasn’t personal.”

I went very still. “What?”

He looked at me steadily like the way he looked at every problem he’d already solved. “The marriage was a business arrangement, Seraphina. It was always a business arrangement.”

The room felt smaller all of a sudden. “You don’t mean that,” I said quietly.

“The Hart family connections gave Vale Industries significant leverage in three key markets.” He said it with no hesitation.“That was the foundation of this marriage. You know that.”

“I know what it started as.” I walked right up to him. “That’s not what it stayed as and you know it.”

He glanced at me softly for a second then went back to his cold expression. “Sign the papers,” he said.

“Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t feel anything.” My voice dropped. “Tell me right now. To my face.”

He held my gaze. “I don’t love you.”

I froze. I stood there trying to wrap my head around what he just said to me. He didn’t love me? How could he say that to me?.

“I never did.” His jaw was tight but his voice didn’t waver. “What you interpreted as something more was never—”

“Stop.” I held up my hand and turned away from him. I Pressed my fingers to my mouth and stood there for a second just breathing. Don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry in front of him right now.

I turned back around. “You used me.”

“I utilized the arrangement we both agreed to.”

“I was twenty four years old.” My voice shook. “My father put me in front of you and I was twenty four and I actually thought—” I stopped, shook my head. “I gave you everything. Three years of my life. I built myself around this marriage, around you, and you’re standing here telling me it was a business transaction?”

“You’ll be well compensated—”

“I don’t want your money!” The words exploded out of me and he actually stepped back. It was the first time I’d ever seen Cassian Vale step back. “I am not some asset you can write a cheque for and file away. I am a person.” My hands were shaking. “And I come from just as much money as you do so don’t stand there and offer me a settlement like you’re doing me a favour.”

His eyes flickered. Something shifted in them.

“You have no claim to Vale Industries,” he said. Quieter now. “Not the shares, not the board seat my father offered you last year, nothing. The lawyers have made sure of that.”

“Excuse me?” I laughed. “Your father offered me that seat because I earned it. The Meridian deal? Mine. The Ashford acquisition? I restructured that entire proposal. You sat in that meeting and presented my work and now you want to stand here and tell me I have no claim—”

“You have no proof of that.”

I stared at him and he looked back at me, completely unbothered.

“You took my work,” I said slowly. “You’re telling me you took my work and now you’re taking everything else and you want me to just — sign a piece of paper and disappear.”

“It would be easier for everyone.”

“For you.” I stepped forward. “Easier for you.”

“Seraphina—”

“No.” I picked up the envelope off the table and threw it at his chest. It hit him and papers scattered across the floor. “I am not signing anything. Not today, not without my own lawyers, not until every single person knows what you did in that boardroom this morning.”

His jaw tightened. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

“I’m pregnant Cassian.” I said it quietly this time. It wasn’t like the way I said it this morning in front of everyone. It was just the two of us, just the truth sitting between us in a room that suddenly felt very large and very empty. “I told you this morning and you said nothing. You looked at me and said nothing.”

He was quiet for a moment. “We’ll arrange—”

“Don’t.” My voice came out thin. “Don’t you dare say we’ll arrange something.”

Something felt wrong suddenly. I felt a pull in my body that was low and sharp. I pressed my hand to my stomach without thinking.

Cassian’s eyes dropped to my hand. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I stepped back.

“Seraphina—”

“I said nothing.” But my legs felt weak. The room tilted slightly and I grabbed the back of the couch.

“You’re pale.” He moved toward me. “Sit down—”

“Don’t touch me.” I held my hand out, kept it there until he stopped.

I looked down. I was bleeding. No. No, no, no…

There was a lot of blood just enough to make everything stop.