Chapter 2: The Severed Tie**
"Julian, what is the meaning of this nonsense?!" Vanessa’s voice sliced through his daze like a razor. She stomped toward him, her five-carat engagement ring glinting under the chandelier. "Tear that trash up right now and call the guards. We have three governors and five ambassadors waiting for this ceremony!"
Julian slowly stood up. The boy instinctively backed away, pulling his sister tighter. Mia buried her tear-streaked face into Liam's neck, shivering from the cold air-conditioned cathedral.
"They're not trash, Vanessa," Julian said, his voice deadly quiet.
"Julian, darling, be reasonable," Julian’s mother, Evelyn Vance, hissed from the front pew, adjusting her mink stole. "You cannot ruin our family’s merger over some gold-digger’s bastard children. Give the boy twenty dollars and have him removed from the premises."
Julian turned to look at his mother, then at Vanessa. For ten years, he had lived his life as a pawn—working eighty-hour weeks, attending empty charity galas, and agreeing to marry a woman he didn't love just to satisfy the Vance legacy. Eight years ago, his family told him Elena had taken a cash payoff and abandoned him. He had believed that lie. He had spent years grieving in silence while Elena was driven away, carrying his twins alone.
"Did you know?" Julian asked his mother, his gaze piercing. "When you told me she ran off... did you know she was pregnant?"
Evelyn's cold eyes shifted away. That split second of hesitation answered everything.
Julian looked down at his diamond cufflink, then reached for his lapel. Without a word, he unpinned the white boutonniere and dropped it to the floor. Next came his diamond engagement ring, which he placed flatly on the velvet podium before the priest.
"Julian! If you walk away now, you are disinherited!" Vanessa shrieked, dropping all pretense of elegance. "You will leave this cathedral with nothing!"
May you like
"I came into this world with nothing," Julian said, turning his back on high society. He bent down and lifted Mia gently into his right arm, wrapping his left arm around Liam’s trembling shoulders. "And for the first time in eight years, I finally have everything."
---
