Chapter 4: The Truth and the Consequences
The legal proceedings were swift. Once the documents were public, the "Sterling legacy" disintegrated. It turned out that Victoria had been embezzling from the company for years to fund her lifestyle, a fact that my legal team unearthed with devastating ease.
Mark tried to play the victim, claiming he was just following his mother's orders. He came to my hotel room, wet from the rain, looking exactly as I had looked on that curb four days prior.
"I didn't know, Serena," he pleaded. "I was just... I was just afraid of her. Please, take me back. We have a child."
I opened the door, not to let him in, but to let him see the reality. I pointed to the nursery set up in the corner, where a private nurse was watching Leo.
"You had a child, Mark," I said. "And you watched him shiver in a storm. You chose to pull the curtain shut. That wasn't fear. That was a choice."
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I handed him a file. It wasn't a divorce agreement—it was a restraining order and a full relinquishment of parental rights. "You don't get to be a father when it's convenient for your social status. You lost that right the moment you locked the gates."
He looked at the papers, his face crumbling. For the first time, he realized that he had lost everything: his wealth, his pride, and his family. He had gambled on his mother’s cruelty, and he had lost.
