Chapter 2 — No Other Option

Harlan was already at the door when his father called his name.

He did not stop.

He walked fast through the hallway. The front door opened. It closed behind him.

Elena’s uncle leaned toward his wife. “He is proving the point isn’t he?”

“Robert made the right call,” his wife said quietly. “He had to.”

“What did anyone expect?”

Margaret, Elena’s grandmother had stayed quiet through all of it. When she finally spoke her voice was calm and steady.

“Let him go. Harlan has always been too much of everything that a company like Carter Group cannot afford.”

Elena looked at her grandmother for a moment.

Then her mind went somewhere else.

She was thinking about Harlan. Not the angry young man who had just walked out the door but the little boy he used to be, who used to follow her around the house and always called her his sister without hesitation. asking questions about everything. He had never been given any reason to think she wasn’t her sister.

And neither had she.

She had grown up beside him believing he was her only brother. And now sitting in this room carrying what her father had told her beforehand.

three days ago her father came to her. There was something she needed to know about Harlan before Sunday. Something he should have told her a long time ago.

“When grandpa said that it’s time to hand over the CEO position to you, I knew I could not let you walk into that room without knowing everything. I should have told you years ago. I was a coward. I kept telling myself the right moment would come. It never did.”

.

Coward. right moment. She became curious.

He took a breath.

“Before I ever met Veronica, She was violated by a group of men. Harlan was born from that.”

“What!” Her mouth spoke without her permission.

But he continued.

“He didn’t even know who his father was, because they all have her.”

“Dad, please hold on. What did you just say?” Her voice came out barely above a whisper. “That Harlan is not my brother?”

“Yes. Elena. But he’s still your brother. No matter what.”

“Dad! No! I don't believe this,” she whispered.

Her mind was already in a mess. She stared at her father, shock and confusion crashing through her. The truth didn’t make sense.

I was drunk that night . We spent one night together. I am not proud of it.” She was pregnant. And she told me about Harlan.

she had lost focus since. Her eyes locked on his face but her mind is far gone. Her heart was pumping. She turned away from her father. The words were still moving around inside her head refusing to settle.

She was already weeping.

“It almost destroyed my union with your mother. May her soul rest in peace,” he said

Her mother. Even now. Even in the middle of all of this. The thought of her still filled her with sorrow.

She wiped her face slowly with the back of her hand.

She stood up.

She walked to the window and stood there with her back to him. Her hand pressed flat against the glass.

“So everything I grew up believing,” she said quietly. “The only brother I have was not really my brother.”

A sharp pain moved through her chest and fresh tears came.

William came to where she stood and stopped just behind her.

“I adopted Harlan as my own son after I married Veronica. I did it for the family, for the company.“

She turned and looked at her father.

She tried to find something to say.

Nothing came.

“Why now Dad?” Her voice was quieter than she intended. “Why are you telling me this now. After all this time with him. And now at the exact moment when his place in this family is being decided.”

William looked at her with something heavy and honest in his eyes.

He reached for her hands and held them gently in his.

“Elena. I am sorry. I know how much this is. I know what it cost you to hear it.”

That day, She sat with those words for a long time after he left.

She was still sitting with them now.

Back at the table William had not sat down.

He was standing at the edge of the room with one hand on the back of his chair looking at the doorway Harlan had walked through. His face showed the struggle of a man holding two things that did not fit together. The decision he had made and the son he had just watched walk out.

“Veronica.” Robert’s voice was quiet but final. “Please. Go and talk to your son.”

Veronica was sitting at the far end of the table. Her face carried the look of a worried mother trying to find the right words. Her lips opened slightly.

Nothing came out.

Elena watched her for a moment.

Then she looked away.

She had known Veronica too well. Veronica was never truly surprised by Harlan’s behavior even when she pretended to be. The things Harlan believed about himself and about Elena and about his place in this family had not formed on their own. Veronica had put them there. Quietly. Over the years.

Veronica stood up.

She smoothed her dress. She placed her napkin on the table. Then she walked out of the room without a word to anyone. Like a woman who had already decided what she was going to do before she even stood up.

Elena watched her leave.

Then she looked at her grandfather.

His face was mostly the same as it had been all evening. But his eyes looked heavier than they had at the start of the night. He had done what he believed was right. But it had cost him something.