Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO ANSWERED HIS PHONE At seven the next morning, Sebastian Carter walked into his mother’s Gold Coast mansion without calling ahead.
He had not slept.
The dining room where Evelyn Carter ate breakfast looked exactly as it had when he was a child.
Fresh white roses.
Silver coffee service.
Financial newspapers folded beside imported fruit.
Even grief had never been permitted to disturb that room.
Evelyn sat at the end of the table wearing a cream silk robe and reading glasses.
She looked up when Sebastian entered.
“You look terrible.”
“You told me Hannah lost the babies.”
Her hand stopped halfway to her coffee cup.
Sebastian watched her carefully.
He had spent thirty-seven years learning how his mother lied.
She never raised her voice.
She never rushed.
She simply paused long enough to choose the version of reality most useful to her.
“She did,” Evelyn said.
“I saw three five-year-old children last night.”
The spoon slipped from her fingers and struck the saucer.
A tiny sound.
But in Evelyn Carter’s world, it was an explosion.
“Where?”
“Does it matter?”
“Of course it matters.”
“They are alive.”
Evelyn removed her glasses.
“I don’t know what Hannah told you, but you should not make assumptions based on resemblance.”
“One of them has the same genetic eye condition I had as a child.”
“You cannot know that by looking.”
“I know my own face.”
Evelyn stood.
“Sebastian, sit down. We need to discuss this rationally.”
“I am being rational.”
“No. You are reacting emotionally to a carefully staged encounter.”
He stared at her.
“Staged?”
“Hannah appears in the same restaurant where you are dining with Olivia, accompanied by three children who resemble you, and creates a public confrontation. You don’t find that convenient?”
“She was meeting the owner about a school nutrition contract.”
“So she claims.”
“She didn’t approach me.”
Evelyn’s expression hardened.
“Hannah always knew how to make herself look innocent.”
Sebastian stepped closer.
“What happened at the hospital?”
“I have already told you.”
“Tell me again.”
Evelyn’s mouth tightened.
“She experienced complications. The pregnancy ended. She refused to see you. Her doctors believed emotional stress would be harmful.”
“Which doctor?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Which hospital administrator spoke to you?”
“It was five years ago.”
“Where is the medical report you showed me?”
“In the family files, perhaps.”
“Find it.”
Evelyn reached for her phone.
“I will have Richard contact the records department.”
“No. I want the original document.”
“Why?”
“Because Hannah says you brought a lawyer into her hospital room.”
Evelyn stopped moving.
The silence told him more than her words ever had.
“You did,” he said.
“She was unstable.”
“She had just given birth.”
“She was making irrational accusations.”
“What papers did you ask her to sign?”
“Sebastian—”
“What papers?”
“A separation agreement.”
“While she was recovering from surgery?”
“It protected everyone involved.”
“Everyone except my wife and children.”
Evelyn’s eyes flashed.
“Do not speak to me as though I created that marriage’s problems. Hannah was never prepared for your life. She resented your work, your family, your responsibilities.”
“She was carrying triplets.”
“And you were negotiating the largest acquisition in Carter Group history. She knew what was at stake.”
“I should have been with her.”
“Yes. You should have. But you weren’t.”
The statement landed exactly where Evelyn intended.
She had always known how to turn another person’s guilt into obedience.
Five years earlier, Sebastian had been in Singapore finalizing a merger when Hannah’s pregnancy became dangerous. He had planned to return early.
Then his mother sent medical updates insisting everything was stable.
Olivia, who worked as Carter Group’s communications director, assured him Hannah needed rest and did not want constant calls.
When Evelyn told him the babies had died, Sebastian returned to Chicago within twenty hours.
The house was empty.
Hannah was gone.
Her closet had been cleared.
Divorce papers waited on his desk.
A medical summary stated fetal loss after emergency complications.
He had believed it because grief made investigation feel impossible.
And because part of him had been angry that Hannah left without facing him.
Now he understood that anger had been easier than searching for the truth.
“Did Olivia speak to Hannah at the hospital?” he asked.
Evelyn looked toward the window.
“I don’t recall.”
“Did Olivia answer my phone calls?”
“You received hundreds of calls during that week.”
“Did she tell me the babies were dead?”
Evelyn’s face remained still.
“I told you what the hospital informed me.”
“That was not my question.”
Before she could respond, the dining-room doors opened.
Olivia entered wearing a gray coat, her blond hair pulled into a perfect knot.
She looked between them.
“What happened?”
Sebastian turned.
“Hannah has a recording.”
Olivia’s face changed.
Not dramatically.
A slight widening of her eyes.
A pause before her next breath.
But he saw it.
Evelyn saw it too.
“What recording?” Olivia asked.
“The hospital call.”
“That’s impossible.”
The words escaped too quickly.
Sebastian stepped toward her.
“Why is it impossible?”
Olivia recovered.
“Because you told me Hannah never called you.”
“She did.”
“She may have fabricated something.”
“With my voice?”
“Artificial audio can be created.”
“Five years ago?”
“She could have edited it recently.”
Sebastian looked at the woman he had intended to marry in six weeks.
She had chosen the wedding venue.
Ordered custom invitations.
Selected a house in Lake Forest for the family she said they would build together.
He had believed their relationship was mature because it lacked the emotional intensity of his marriage to Hannah.
Now he wondered whether calm had simply been another form of control.
“What did you say on that call?” he asked.
Olivia’s eyes sharpened.
“I did not speak to Hannah.”
“You answered before I told you your voice was on the recording.”
Evelyn stood abruptly.
“This interrogation ends now.”
Sebastian ignored her.
“Olivia.”
“I was at the hospital briefly,” she admitted. “Your mother asked me to bring documents.”
“What documents?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Did you take Hannah’s phone?”
“She was sedated. It kept ringing.”
“Did you answer it?”
“Maybe once.”
“Did you tell me the babies died?”
Olivia’s lips parted.
Evelyn stepped between them.
“Sebastian, enough.”
He moved around his mother.
“Did you tell me my children were dead?”
Olivia’s eyes filled with tears.
It was a performance he had seen her use with investors, journalists, and angry board members.
“I was trying to protect you.”
The room went silent.
Sebastian felt as though the floor had shifted beneath him.
“From what?”
“From Hannah.”
“My wife?”
“She was going to destroy everything you had built.”
“She had just given birth to my children.”
“She wanted you to abandon the Singapore agreement. She told your mother she would expose internal family information. She was unstable.”
“Did you lie to me?”
Olivia looked toward Evelyn.
That glance answered him.
Sebastian turned to his mother.
“You planned this.”
Evelyn’s voice became cold.
“We prevented a temporary emotional crisis from ruining your future.”
“My children were not a temporary crisis.”
“You had responsibilities beyond one woman’s demands.”
“They were my sons and daughter.”
“You did not know they would survive.”
“But they did.”
“And Hannah chose to leave.”
“You changed the locks.”
Evelyn’s expression hardened.
“She no longer belonged in that house.”
Sebastian stared at her as though seeing a stranger.
All his life, Evelyn had spoken about legacy.
Family duty.
The Carter name.
She had taught him that blood mattered more than anything.
Yet she had erased three Carter children because their mother did not fit into her plans.
“You will give me every document related to Hannah,” he said.
Evelyn laughed once.
“You are not issuing orders in my home.”
“I’m issuing them as chairman of Carter Group. If company staff, legal counsel, or resources were used to conceal this, I will authorize an independent investigation.”
Olivia stepped forward.
“Sebastian, think about what you’re doing. A public investigation would damage the company.”
“I don’t care.”
“You will care when thousands of employees are affected.”
“That is the same argument you used five years ago, isn’t it?”
Her silence confirmed it.
His phone vibrated.
A message from Hannah’s attorney appeared.
Mr. Carter, my office represents Hannah Monroe and her three minor children. All communication concerning parentage, visitation, or custody must be directed through counsel. You are prohibited from contacting the children directly. We are arranging independent DNA testing. Any attempt to approach their residence, school, or childcare program will result in immediate legal action.
Sebastian read it twice.
Hannah Monroe.
She had taken back her name.
The children probably carried it too.
Evelyn noticed the message.
“What is it?”
“Hannah has retained counsel.”
“Of course she has.”
“She agreed to DNA testing.”
Olivia crossed her arms.
“She wants money.”
Sebastian looked at her.
“No.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know Hannah.”
“You knew her five years ago.”
“And apparently, I never knew you at all.”
Olivia went pale.
Sebastian pulled the engagement ring from his coat pocket.
She had removed it the previous evening before sleeping and left it at his penthouse after their argument.
He placed it on the dining table.
The diamond hit the polished wood with a hard click.
Evelyn stared at it.
“What are you doing?”
“The wedding is postponed.”
Olivia’s voice broke.
“You can’t be serious.”
“I need the truth.”
“And if those children are yours?”
He thought of Ethan stepping protectively in front of Hannah.
Sophie declaring that triplets were people, not a package deal.
Lucas laughing at his own joke without understanding how much pain surrounded him.
“If they are mine,” Sebastian said, “then I have already lost five years.”
Olivia’s grief disappeared.
In its place came something colder.
“You think Hannah will welcome you back?”
“I don’t expect her to.”
“She hates you.”
“She has every right.”
“She will use those children to punish you.”
“No. That is what you would do.”
Olivia slapped him.
The sound echoed through the dining room.
Sebastian did not move.
Evelyn’s face tightened.
“You will regret humiliating her.”
Sebastian looked at both women.
“I already regret trusting you.”
He left the mansion without turning back.
Behind him, Olivia stared at the engagement ring.
Evelyn waited until the front door closed.
Then she calmly picked up her phone.
“Call Richard,” she said.
Olivia touched her shaking hand to her mouth.
“What are we going to do?”
Evelyn looked toward the empty doorway.
“We remind Sebastian what Hannah is capable of costing him.”
“And the recording?”
“We discredit it.”
“What if she has the original file?”
“Then we find out how she obtained it.”
Olivia lowered her voice.
“There was another recording.”
Evelyn’s face became perfectly still.
“What did you say?”
“The night after the delivery. I kept it as insurance.”
“Where is it?”
“In a safe place.”
“Destroy it.”
“I may need it.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“If that second recording exists, it does not protect you.”
May you like
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“It buries us both.”
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