Chapter 3: Corporate Maneuvers and the Carter Empire’s Secret Fault Lines
While my children slept soundly in their beds, downtown Chicago was burning with frantic energy across the executive suites of Carter Global.
Sebastian Carter sat behind his massive, custom-built teak desk on the forty-fifth floor of the Carter Tower, staring blindly at a quarterly financial report that he hadn't read a single word of. The warm glow of the city skyline reflected in the floor-to-ceiling windows, but his mind was trapped entirely inside that restaurant booth at The Grand Oak.
“They’re five.”
The math echoed relentlessly in his skull. Five years ago. The exact period when he had returned from his Tokyo delegation to find his penthouse locked, his wife vanished without a trace, and his mother casually informing him that Hannah had suffered a catastrophic miscarriage and fled the state out of grief and mental instability.
He had believed it. He had been too wrapped up in closing a multi-billion-dollar merger to dig deeper, too trusting of his mother’s administrative authority, and too easily comforted by Olivia, who had smoothly stepped in to manage his social calendar, his corporate image, and eventually, his heart.
A sharp knock broke the silence of the office.
The heavy mahogany door pushed open, and Olivia stepped inside. She wore a sleek silk blouse and immaculate pearl earrings, but her posture was rigid, her fingers nervously twisting the strap of her designer handbag.
"Sebastian," Olivia began, her voice pitched with careful sweetness as she walked toward his desk. "Working late again? The wedding planners are waiting for us to finalize the floral arrangements for the June ceremony, and you haven't answered my messages."
Sebastian didn't look up from his desk. He slowly closed the financial report, steepled his fingers, and raised his cold, piercing grey eyes to meet hers.
"Cancel the wedding planners, Olivia."
The words dropped into the quiet office like lead weights. Olivia’s breath hitched, a nervous laugh escaping her lips before she caught herself. "Don't be absurd, Sebastian. Are you still thinking about that bizarre encounter at dinner? Some delusional woman running a catering side-hustle tries to claim her children look like you, and you're ready to derail our entire lives?"
"She didn't claim they looked like me, Olivia," Sebastian said, his voice terrifyingly quiet, devoid of its usual warmth. "I saw them. Ethan has my exact hairline. Lucas has the precise birthmark behind his left ear—the same one my grandfather and I carry. And their ages... they match the exact week I left for Tokyo."
Olivia stepped closer, her face twisting into a mask of wounded betrayal and feigned concern. "So what? It’s a coincidence! Do you have any idea how many children are born every day with common traits? You are a billionaire tech and real estate mogul, Sebastian! Every grifter in Illinois knows your face. Women come out of the woodwork all the time trying to attach themselves to the Carter name!"
"Hannah is not a grifter," Sebastian snapped, slamming his palm flat against the mahogany desk. The sudden sound made Olivia flinch violently. "When we were married, she refused to sign my prenuptial clauses until I agreed to donate half of her personal inheritance to children's literacy charities. She drove a ten-year-old sedan while I offered her sports cars. She doesn't want my money, Olivia. If she did, she wouldn't have built a multi-location organic food supply company entirely on her own merit without ever reaching out to me once!"
Olivia’s facade cracked for a split second, revealing a flash of genuine panic before she masked it with bitter indignation. "Oh, so now you're defending her? After she abandoned you? After she snuck away like a thief in the night without giving you a chance to grieve the children we were told she lost?"
"My mother told me she lost them," Sebastian corrected, his eyes narrowing as he stood up from his chair, towering over her. A sudden, chilling realization began to dawn in his mind. "My mother... and you."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Olivia hissed, stepping back defensively.
"It means," Sebastian said, walking slowly around the desk toward her, "that tomorrow morning, I am filing an emergency motion in Cook County Probate Court for a legally binding DNA paternity verification. And if I find out that anyone—anyone—interfered with my family, lied to my face, or kept my children away from me..."
He didn't finish the threat. He didn't have to. The look in Sebastian Carter's eyes was the exact reason competitors feared him in the boardroom—absolute, merciless ruthlessness.
May you like
Olivia spun on her heel, rushing out of the office and slamming the heavy door behind her. Once she was out in the private elevator lobby, safe from his gaze, her knees buckled. She pressed her trembling hands against the cool glass wall, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
She knew the truth. She knew that if Sebastian ever heard that audio recording buried in the cloud backup, her life, her social standing, and her golden ticket to the Carter empire would instantly turn to ash.
