Chapter 5 - Unraveling Threads
Senator Hastings marched down the stone steps, his face flushed with irritation. His daughter, Caroline, was struggling to keep her heavy lace train from dragging across the grass, her eyes darting angrily toward the crowd gathered near the kitchen doors.
"Eleanor! Ethan!" the Senator boomed, stopping near Table 27. "The press is waiting outside the gates, the governor is sitting in the second row, and my daughter is standing in the heat! Why is there a scene being caused near the kitchen?"
Caroline’s eyes landed on me first, flashing with immediate hostility. "Who is this woman? And why is she dressed like she's going to the Met Gala at my wedding?"
Then, Caroline’s gaze shifted downward.
She saw Liam. Then Noah. Then Caleb.
Caroline looked from the three identical little boys to Ethan, whose face was still dripping with sweat and pale as chalk.
"Ethan..." Caroline’s voice dropped, dropping all aristocratic composure. "Who are those kids?"
"They... they are..." Ethan stammered, completely unable to form a coherent sentence.
"They are his sons, Ms. Hastings," I offered smoothly, taking a half-step forward. "I am Victoria Vance, Ethan’s ex-wife. And these are our five-year-old triplets."
Senator Hastings turned his glare toward Eleanor. "Triplets? Ethan had children? You told my family he had no prior baggage or unresolved familial obligations! You guaranteed us his past was entirely clean!"
"They aren't his!" Eleanor snapped, her voice cracking with desperation. "She's lying! She disappeared five years ago and brought these orphans here to blackmail us! They have no blood relation to the Montgomery family!"
Noah, who had been listening quietly while eating a strawberry from the fruit basket on Table 27, looked up at Eleanor.
"We aren't orphans," Noah said clearly, his young voice ringing out across the quieted lawn. "And we aren't liars. You're the mean lady from the picture frame in Daddy's old desk."
The crowd collectively gasped.
"Daddy's old desk?" Caroline repeated, turning frantically to Ethan. "You kept photos of them? You knew about this?!"
"I didn't!" Ethan pleaded, grabbing Caroline’s hands. "Caroline, I swear I didn't know! She never told me she was pregnant!"
"Because you didn't ask, Ethan," I said, my tone as sharp as a diamond scalpel. "The day I left, I tried to tell you. I called your office four times. Your mother blocked my calls, had your guards revoke my building access, and sent me a letter threatening to ruin my family if I ever contacted you again. You were too busy enjoying your trust fund to care where I went."
Senator Hastings looked at his daughter, then at Ethan, and finally at Eleanor. His political instincts, refined over thirty years in Washington, immediately signaled danger.
"This is an absolute circus," the Senator declared coldly. "Caroline, pull up your dress. We're leaving."
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"Dad! No!" Caroline cried. "The press is outside! The campaign donors are here!"
"I will not have my family’s name dragged through the mud of an illegitimate heir scandal!" Senator Hastings snapped. "The Montgomerys are financially insolvent and clearly untruthful. This wedding is over!"
