Chapter 4 - The Ultimatum
Vance stared at the adoption papers resting on the glass coffee table, feeling as if the floor had just vanished beneath his feet.
He looked from the legal documents to Grant’s smug face, a cold, calculating billionaire logic overriding his emotional panic.
Vance Callahan did not lose negotiations, and he certainly did not surrender his own bloodline to a corporate rival.
He buttoned his suit jacket, masking his utter desperation with a terrifying, icy composure.
He informed Grant that Callahan Biotech possessed enough capital to bury the Ellison empire in decades of grueling litigation.
Maddie stepped in front of Grant, her voice shaking as she accused Vance of treating their children like corporate assets.
She pleaded with him to just walk away and let them live in peace.
Vance looked deeply into her tear-filled eyes, his heart breaking, but his stubborn pride refusing to back down.
He told Maddie that he would rather burn the entire city of Manhattan to the ground than let another man raise his son and daughter.
He gave her exactly twenty-four hours to agree to a paternity test and joint custody negotiations.
If she refused, he promised to freeze every single bank account tied to her name and tie her up in family court until she went bankrupt.
Maddie gasped in horror, realizing that the monster she had married was fully resurrected.
Vance turned on his heel and walked out of the apartment, the heavy door clicking shut behind him like a prison cell closing.
He spent the entire day mobilizing the most ruthless team of custody lawyers in the country.
By midnight, he felt a sickening mixture of triumph and self-loathing.
He knew he was hurting the woman he still secretly loved, but he could not bear the thought of losing his children.
His secure phone suddenly rang, the harsh sound echoing through his dark, empty penthouse.
It was Marcus, and the security chief sounded genuinely terrified.
Marcus told Vance to turn on the television immediately.
Vance grabbed the remote and turned on a massive news screen, his stomach plummeting into an endless abyss.
A major tabloid channel was broadcasting blurry, zoomed-in photos of Maddie, Grant, and the twins standing in the Brooklyn apartment window.
The news anchor excitedly announced that Vance Callahan’s secret love children had been discovered.
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The anchor falsely claimed that Maddie was a manipulative gold-digger who had hidden the heirs to extort billions from the Callahan estate.
Lila Crane had leaked the twisted story to the press in an act of petty, scorched-earth revenge.
