Chapter 8
Catherine Vale was alive.
Seventy now.
Living in Maine.
Different surname.
No connection to Ashford.
Marcus moved her because Sebastian threatened her after she spoke.
Why hide that from me?
Because my mother begged him.
I was nineteen.
Angry.
Dangerous.
Ready to turn grief into war.
She feared I would kill Sebastian without proof and tear two families apart.
So she gave me the sanitized truth:
Father’s heart failed.
Cross mourned with us.
Catherine moved away.
Life continued.
Except life built on edited truth always collects interest.
I called Catherine.
She answered after six rings.
“Hello?”
I said my name.
Silence.
Then:
“You sound like him.”
My father.
My throat tightened.
We spoke briefly.
She confirmed Marcus’s story.
Sebastian confronted Alistair over the destroyed marriage agreement.
He wanted the Cross family tied permanently to Ashford.
Alistair refused.
The argument became vicious.
Then Catherine left to find Marcus.
When she returned, Alistair was on the floor.
Sebastian gone.
No evidence he physically harmed him.
Important.
We would not invent murder because grief wanted one.
But Sebastian lied afterward.
Said he had not been there.
Then threatened Catherine when she contradicted him.
That was enough.
I looked at Gideon.
“Your brother knew.”
Gideon said nothing.
Vivienne stared.
“My father?”
Her voice broke.
Gideon finally said:
“He believed the agreement mattered.”
Not denial.
“He believed our families were stronger together.”
Vivienne looked at him.
“So you knew?”
Gideon closed his eyes.
There.
She stood.
For the first time, she looked more betrayed by him than afraid of me.
“You knew Dad threatened Catherine.”
“Yes.”
“And you still used that old agreement to push Lucian and me together?”
“We were already together.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Good.
Vivienne was finally asking the right questions.
Gideon had not created our love.
He exploited it.
Then bugged me to find out whether Marcus still possessed evidence that could destroy the Cross family’s version of history.
May you like
The watch was not about protecting my engagement.
It was about protecting Gideon from the truth hidden inside it twenty years ago.
