Chapter 3

The Laurent Grand Hotel.

Suite 1201.

It was on of the most expensive suite in the hotel that bore their name and now Vivian Laurent was not the owner in it. She was a guest. A guest who could be asked to leave.

Their two suitcases stood by the door, unpacked. Chloe paced in the suite, Vivian was sitted,they're just back from the Boardroom.

Then the knock came.

Vivian's head lifted instantly.

Chloe stopped pacing.

"Mother," Chloe whispered. "Who..."

Vivian didn't answer. She was already moving.

She opened the door.

Adrian stood there.His tie loosened. His eyes tired.

Vivian's face broke into a smile that was almost tears.

"Adrian," she said.

She didn't wait.

She threw her arms around him and held him tight, her cheek against his chest. Her voice shook.

"I knew it. I knew you would come. I knew my son would never abandon his mother. Never."

She held him tighter.

"Thank you. Thank you for coming. I knew after that... that circus in the boardroom, you would remember who you are. Who we are."

Chloe ran to him too, grabbing his arm.

"Brother, Thank God. We were so scared."

Vivian pulled back slightly, still holding his shoulders, looking up into his face with wet eyes.

"You are a good son, Adrian. A good son. We will fix everything. Your father Richard he would never want this. That will they brought? we will prove it is fake, everything is fake,you are misunderstanding everything. We will call our lawyers. This will be over soon."

Adrian did not hug her back.

His hands remained at his sides.

He looked down at her, and his voice, when it came, was quiet.

"Stop."

Vivian blinked.

"What?"

"I said stop, Mother."

He gently, but firmly, removed her hands from his shoulders.

He walked into the suite "The truth is already there," he said. "You should accept the reality."

The smile fell from Vivian's face.

"Accept what reality?" Her voice sharpened. "That you brought a maid into Richard's boardroom and let her sit in his chair?"

"The DNA is real. The bracelet is real. The video of Richard is real," Adrian said. His tone did not rise. It stayed cold, flat. "Robert was Dad Lawyer you already know that, Elena is Richard Laurent's biological daughter. That is not an accusation. That is a fact."

Vivian stepped forward, her voice high.

"So what if she is? So what? He is dead! This company is ours! We lived there! We ...."

"She is the heir to fifty-one percent," Adrian cut her off, looking at her for the first time. "By law, she is now Chairwoman."

Vivian laughed. A short, disbelieving laugh.

"Chairwoman? Adrian, listen to yourself. What did that girl know about being a Chairwoman, I am the Chairwoman I am the only one that can control the Chairwoman position, whats does she know?We protected this Family for many years She doesn't know anything"

"She will learn."

"She will learn?" Vivian's composure cracked. "And while she learns, what happens to us?"

Adrian's eyes hardened. He looked directly at Vivian.

"Why would you attack Elena?"

The room went silent.

Vivian stared at him.

"What are you talking about?"

"Last night. The factory on."

Adrian took a step closer to her.

"The guards informed me. They were the ones who told me Elena left and you followed,I know you are going to cause troubled I followed and you were ready to attack her already, Mother Why?"

Vivian did not blink.

"If anything had happened to Elena at that time," Adrian continued, his voice now low and dangerous, "if she had died last night, you and Chloe would have faced the consequences. Criminal consequences. Do you understand me?"

Chloe's mouth fell open.

Vivian saw the look in his eyes and tried another tactic. Her voice softened. She reached for his hand again, her eyes filling with tears.

"Adrian, my son. You are under so much pressure. That girl... . She has turned you against your own mother. I did everything for you. Everything."

She squeezed his hand.

"You must not let her come between us."

Adrian looked down at her hand on his.

Then he asked the question.

"Who is our father?"

Vivian froze.

Chloe froze.

"What?" Vivian whispered.

"Who is our father, Mother? Chloe's and mine?"

Chloe interrupted instantly, her voice shrill with panic.

"Mr. Richard is our father! How can you not believe that? Adrian, how can you ask such a thing? Mr. Richard raised us He ..."

Adrian did not look at Chloe. His eyes never left Vivian.

"Tell me," he said to Vivian. "Is Richard Laurent my biological father or not ?"

Vivian's lips parted. For the first time, she had no rehearsed answer. Her hand slowly slipped off his.

"Adrian..." she said, her voice barely a whisper. "So you don't believe us? After twenty-eight years of being your mother? After I raised you? You believe that... that girl's lawyer over me?"

"Answer me."

Vivian's eyes filled with real crocodile tears.

"Richard is your father in every way that matters," she said. "He chose you. He loved you. What does blood matter?"

That was the answer.

Adrian closed his eyes for a second.

When he opened them,he seem drained.

"Please," he said quietly. "Do not do anything. Do not call anyone. Do not go near Elena. Do not go near the company. Stay in this hotel until the court decides. That is my last request as your son."

He turned to leave.

"Adrian!" Vivian grabbed his arm. "Adrian, don't leave! Don't leave us here!"

He stopped at the door, his hand on the handle. He did not turn around.

"I left two guards downstairs. For your safety."

"Adrian, please!" Vivian begged, her voice breaking, her elegant mask finally falling. "That house is ours! That money is ours!The Company.....Everything"

He opened the door.

Chloe screamed, "Brother!"

Adrian walked out.

The door closed with a soft click.

Vivian stood staring at the door, her hand still stretched out in the air where his arm had been. Her chest rose and fell quickly.

Then she screamed.

It was raw, furious, animal.

"I can't accept this!" she shouted, grabbing a vase from the table and throwing it against the wall. It shattered. "The wealth belongs to us! It belongs to us! It has always belonged to us!"

Chloe was quiet standing

"Mother..." she whispered again, her voice small. "Now if we are not our Father's children What are we,who is our father?"

Vivian didn't answer. She was staring at the closed door, her eyes red, but not from tears anymore. From fury.

"Mother!"

Chloe grabbing her hands. Her nails dug into Vivian's skin.

"Answer me! How can I survive if Richard Laurent is not my father ...."

Vivian snapped her head toward her.

"Shut up!"

Chloe flinched.

Vivian calmly grabbed her daughter's face, hard. Her perfect manicure digging into Chloe's cheeks.

"Listen to me, Chloe. Listen to me carefully. It does not matter who gave us blood. What matters is who gave us a name. Who gave us this life. Richard put his ring on my finger. He put his name on your school papers. He put his name on your birth certificate. That makes him your father. That makes everything his OURS."

Her voice dropped to a hiss.

"Do you understand? The blood doesn't matter. The paper matters. The name matters."

Chloe's eyes filled with tears, but she nodded frantically. The idea of losing everything was more terrifying to her than the idea that her father was not her father.

"No... no, the wealth can't go to her," Chloe whispered, shaking her head over and over. "It can't. It is not hers. Mother, it is not hers. I can't.. I can't go back to being nothing. I can't live like normal people. I can't!"

She looked around the grand suite as if seeing it for the first time as something she could lose.

"My cars. My cards. My friends. Mother, they all laugh at me ...they only like me because I am a Laurent. If I am not a Laurent, what am I? What am I?"

"You are a Laurent," Vivian said, releasing her face. "And you will always be a Laurent. Because I will not let that maid take what I built for twenty-two years with my bare hands."

She turned away from Chloe and walked to the window. Down below, the city lights glittered. Laurent Tower stood in the distance the tallest building, with her husband's name on it.

And now, that little maid was sitting in his chair inside it.

Vivian's hands curled into fists.

"Adrian," she whispered to the glass. "You left me with no choice."

Chloe wiped her tears. "What are you going to do?"

Vivian didn't answer her daughter. She picked up her phone

She dialed a number

"MARCUS," she said to her personal assistant. Her voice was elegant. Call Julian Black's private office.Tell Mr. Black that Vivian Laurent wants to see him. Tonight.Tell him I am coming as a partner. I have something he has wanted for years"

She ended the call.

Chloe was shocked when she heard JULIAN BLACK

She stared, her heart pounding so loud she could hear it.she finally spoke, her voice small and shaking.

"Mom..."

Vivian didn't turn.

"Mom, you said Blackstone," Chloe whispered. She walked closer, grabbing Vivian's arm. "Julian Black? Mother, they are our rival group. They are Laurent's rival group. Dad told us they are vultures. They have tried to destroy us for ten years. How can we go to them?"

Vivian slowly turned and looked at her daughter without saying a word

"If we go to them, everyone will say we betrayed Laurent. Adrian will hate us forever," Chloe said, her voice cracking. "He will never forgive us."

Vivian eyes softened, she looked like a mother again.

She hold Chloe's both hands while clearly facing her.

"My baby," she whispered. "My sweet girl.Your father is dead, and your brother just chose a maid over his own mother.Everything is on that maid now. Don't you see? Our shares don't matter anymore. Fifty-one percent is gone. That girl owns the house. She owns the company. She owns the name on that building out there and even this that we are in."

She pointed at the window, at Laurent Tower.

"Even if we keep our twenty five percent, what is twenty percent when someone else is sitting in your father's chair, sleeping in your mother's bedroom, wearing your jewelry? We will be nothing. We will be the guests in our own life."

She pulled Chloe close, hugging her tight.

"I don't care about me anymore, Chloe. I am old. I have lived my life. But you? You and Adrian? You are my children. I want everything for you guys. Everything I stole, everything I lied for, everything I buried I did it for you. So you would never have to be what I was. A nobody."

Chloe sobbed into her shoulder. "Mom..."

Vivian pulled back, wiped Chloe's tears with her thumb, and her voice turned to steel.

"So if Adrian won't help us keep what is ours, then I will find someone who will. Even if he is our rival. Even if he is the devil himself. I will kneel to our rival if I have to, so that my children can keep standing."

Vivian was looking out the window at Laurent Tower. At the name LAURENT lit up in white lights against the night sky.

For twenty-two years, she had smiled. She had played the perfect wife. The perfect mother. The perfect society lady who poured tea and donated to charities and said "please" and "thank you."

She had buried a woman alive in the past to keep this life.

And now, her own son the son she had raised , the son she had lied for, stolen for had looked at her like she was a stranger and told her to stay in a hotel like a guest.

"Do you know what I was before I became a Laurent, Chloe?" she asked

Chloe sniffled. "What?"

"I was nothing. I was a cleaner with two children and no husband. Men looked at me like I was a thing on the street. Women looked at me like I was dirt.

Richard saved me. He gave me his name. He gave you his name. He gave Adrian his name. And I promised myself that day I would never, ever go back to being nothing. Never."

She let go of Chloe

"Adrian thinks I will sit here in this hotel and wait for a court to tell me I am nobody."

She smiled. A smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"He left me with no choice."

"Are we really going to do it, Mom? Are we really going to work with Blackstone?"Chloe asked

"We are not going to work with them, darling," she said, We are going to use them. And then we are going to burn that maid's world down."

She turned to Chloe.

"Now fix your face Chloe If we are going to sell our soul to the devil, we should at least look expensive doing it."