Chapter 14

Ethan looked at her the way one looks at a corpse. "Shut your mouth. Don't insult the word love."

Julian smiled coldly. "Scheming and manipulation aren't love, Vivienne. Richard never wants to see either of you again."

"What I don't understand is this—the Sterling family gave you everything. Why did you still go after Claire?"

Vivienne's response was a sudden, sharp laugh. "Go after her? Her mother is the one who went after us."

Julian's composure cracked. He hadn't expected her to say something like that even now. But Vivienne only sneered.

"Don't look at me like that. My mother was with Richard first. If Grace Sterling hadn't seduced him away from us, my mother and I wouldn't have been forced to live in Europe for all those years."

The truth was the exact opposite—Richard had fallen for Grace at first sight and pursued her relentlessly. Yet Vivienne twisted it into Grace being the seductress.

A vein pulsed at Julian's temple. His hatred for her had never been more absolute. "Your mother was nothing but Richard's mistress. Vivienne—your mother was the other woman, and so are you."

The words struck Vivienne's deepest wound. Her eyes burned with hatred. Then, abruptly, she smiled. "Ethan. Julian. Don't tell me you actually think everything that happened to Claire was all my doing?"

"Julian—if it weren't for you, how would I have been able to plant people inside that facility? You're the one who handpicked them for me, remember? If anyone's the real architect of her suffering, it's you. So what gives you the right to judge me?"

Julian's eyes went wide. "No. I didn't know. I only thought—"

He couldn't finish the sentence. Vivienne filled in the rest with a light, mocking laugh. "I know. You thought you were just having someone teach her a little lesson. But you were my accomplice, Julian. You don't get to play innocent."

Julian recoiled as though he'd been struck. A flicker of genuine horror crossed his eyes. "No. I was manipulated." His gaze turned unfocused, haunted. He began muttering, almost to himself. "Claire, I didn't mean it. I swear I didn't know. I didn't know any of it."

His mental state had been deteriorating ever since Claire's disappearance. Ethan had no patience for their back-and-forth. His voice was razor-sharp. "Where is she? What did you do with Claire?"

Vivienne looked at him, and then she laughed. Ethan backhanded her across the face, his expression devoid of any emotion. "Talk. Where is Claire?"

The laughter died on her lips. Her voice went flat and cold. "Ethan, if I had the power to make her disappear, I would have done it years ago. Claire left on her own."

A chill passed through Ethan's eyes, and the pain cut all the way to the bone. He'd been refusing to believe it.

But everything pointed to the same conclusion—Claire hadn't been taken. She'd chosen to leave. She'd erased every trail, made herself impossible to trace, and severed every thread that might lead back to her.

That was what hurt the most. She'd wanted to leave them that badly.

Seeing his expression, Vivienne smiled again. "Oh, and Ethan? That time you and I were together in her room—she was watching the whole time."

The words hit Ethan like a bolt of lightning. His face twisted with dark fury. "You seduced me on purpose. You wanted her to see."

Vivienne looked at him with pure disdain. "Please. If you hadn't been willing, no amount of seduction would have worked. Tell me—how do you think she felt, watching that?"

No wonder Claire had left him. No wonder she'd blocked every trace of his existence from her life. Now he understood why.

Ethan closed his eyes. The anguish carved through him. When he opened them again, every trace of emotion had been locked away behind a wall of ice. "You're never getting out. I'm going to make sure you and your mother experience every last thing Claire went through."

Vivienne's expression froze. She stared at him in wild-eyed panic. "No! You can't do this to me! My father won't let you!"

Ethan's smile was glacial. "Your father? Your father would rather die than look at either of you."

After that, Richard sank deeper into his private hell. He drank every night until he blacked out, always crying out for Grace. His grief was boundless, his tears seemingly inexhaustible. "Grace, I'm sorry. I failed you. I failed our Claire. It's all my fault."

He never came out again. He drank himself into ruin, and the doctors eventually diagnosed him with late-stage stomach cancer. Meanwhile, Julian split his time between running Sterling Corporation, attending psychiatric treatment, and searching for Claire alongside Ethan. He was stretched to the breaking point. Every night, sleep refused to come. All he could think about was the sister he'd betrayed.

When he found Claire, he would beg her forgiveness. He would tell her that none of it had been her fault—that he was the one who'd believed the lies and hurt her. If she'd just come home, he would spend the rest of his life making it up to her. He would never let anyone hurt her again.