Chapter 3 - The Golden Cage
They didn't let her leave. Arthur confiscated her phone and locked her in the East Wing guest suite. It was a gilded cage of silk sheets and antique furniture, guarded by two armed men in the hallway.
For two days, Elena paced the room. A private doctor had come, taken her blood, and left without a word. The waiting was a psychological torture designed to break her.
On the third night, the heavy oak door clicked open. It wasn't Arthur. It was Sebastian.
He slipped into the room, locking the door behind him. He looked exhausted, the arrogant smirk replaced by tight, drawn lines of stress.
"My father is paying off the lab," Sebastian said bluntly, crossing the room to stand before her. "The DNA results tomorrow will say you are a fraud. He’s already drafting the press release to have you arrested for extortion."
Elena felt the blood drain from her face. "Then why did you expose me? Why did you drag me into this if you knew he would crush me?"
Sebastian looked down, his jaw clenching. "Because I need you, Evangeline. I am the bastard son. Arthur adopted me after you 'died' to maintain the public image of a perfect family. He treats me like a puppet. I run the company, I make him billions, but he holds all the voting shares until he dies."
He stepped closer, the scent of bergamot and expensive scotch washing over her. "If you are the true, blood-born heir, the Sterling Trust automatically transfers fifty-one percent of the company to you upon your twenty-first birthday. Which is next month."
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"You want to use me to take down your father," Elena realized.
"I want to partner with you," Sebastian corrected, his grey eyes burning with intense vulnerability. "He killed your nanny. He probably started the fire that supposedly killed you. We both want him gone. But to do that, we have to steal the real DNA results before he destroys them."
