Chapter 250 Twenty Years of Lies
Emilia’s POV
Titus’s voice came out rough, like he’d been swallowing gravel. He stood in the middle of the living room, looking older than I’d ever seen him.
"I’ve only loved one woman my entire life," he said. "Your mother, Mila. But I’ve slept with two. The other one was Pearl Haymitch. Abigail’s mother."
Mila flinched like he’d struck her.
"Before you think I did it out of love," Titus continued, his jaw tight, "let me be clear. I didn’t love her. Not even close. Pearl was manipulative. Calculated. She wanted to marry into money, and she set her sights on me. I avoided her every chance I got. But she was relentless."
Sebastian stood frozen, his hands clenched at his sides. The muscle in his jaw kept jumping.
"She was a secretary at my company," Titus went on. "Sometimes she’d come along to client meetings. One night, after a business dinner, I had too much to drink. She saw her chance. Took me to a hotel. Slipped something into my system. I wasn’t in my right mind when it happened."
My stomach turned. This was getting worse by the second.
"Afterward, she tried to force me to divorce your mother. I panicked. I was terrified Mila would find out and never forgive me. So I paid Pearl off. A lot of money. Told her to disappear and keep her mouth shut."
"And she did," Titus said bitterly. "For about six months. Then she came back. Pregnant. Claimed the baby was mine and demanded I take responsibility."
Sebastian’s breathing had gone shallow. I wanted to reach for him, but I couldn’t move.
"I didn’t believe her," Titus continued. "Pearl had been with other men before me. So I told her we’d do a paternity test after the child was born. If it was mine, I’d take responsibility. If it wasn’t, I’d have her arrested for blackmail."
His voice cracked. "She disappeared after that. I didn’t hear from her again for twenty years. Not until the day you brought Abigail home."
Sebastian’s face went white.
"The second I saw her," Titus said, "I knew. She looked exactly like Pearl. So I asked about her mother. And it was her. Pearl’s daughter. My first thought was that this was Pearl’s doing. She couldn’t marry into wealth herself, so twenty years later she sent her daughter to finish what she’d started. Otherwise, how the hell does my son fall in love with Pearl Haymitch’s daughter?"
The silence afterward pressed down on all of us.
Then Mila spoke, and her voice was barely a whisper.
"I didn’t know about any of this twenty years ago," she said, tears streaming down her face. "I had no idea Titus had been with another woman. Not until Pearl herself told me."
Sebastian turned to her, his eyes blazing. "What?"
"It was after Abigail left," Mila said. "I received an anonymous letter. There was a photo inside. Evidence of Titus and Pearl together. The letter gave me a time and a place to meet. I was furious, but I went."
Her hands were shaking now. "That’s when I found out the woman in the photo was Abigail’s mother. Pearl was arrogant. Smug. She threw your father’s betrayal in my face. We argued. And then she dropped the bomb."
Mila’s voice broke completely. "She told me Abigail was Titus’s daughter. That the reason he’d been so desperate to get her away from you was because you two were half-siblings."
"Moon Goddess," I whispered.
"I didn’t believe her at first," Mila went on. "But she was so confident. She said the fact that Titus wanted Abigail gone so badly was proof enough. I was terrified. Terrified for you, Sebastian. Terrified of what people would say if the truth came out. So I paid her. A lot of money. And I told her to leave and never come back."
She wiped at her face with trembling hands. "But she didn’t. She came back again and again. Seven times, she extorted money from me. Seven times."
Sebastian stood rigid, holding himself together by sheer will.
"I wanted to confront your father," Mila said, looking at Titus with something caught between love and betrayal. "But I thought, what’s the point? It happened so long ago. And I didn’t want to destroy our marriage over something that was already done. So I kept quiet."
"But I couldn’t let it go," she continued. "I had to know if Abigail was really Titus’s daughter. So I hired a private investigator."