Semua Bab The Billionaires Greatest Regret: Bab 41 - Bab 50

POV: Roman Ashford"The results confirm it," Arthur said, his voice careful over the phone, Roman gripping the receiver tightly enough that his knuckles had gone white, Vivienne watching from across the kitchen table where they'd been sitting together, waiting, since early that morning. "Ninety-nine point nine eight percent probability of paternity. Julian Marchetti is your father's biological son."Roman was silent for a long moment, absorbing the confirmation, and Vivienne watched a complicated mixture of emotions move across his face, grief and validation and something that looked almost like relief, all tangled together in a way she recognized from her own experience confirming Leo and Maya's paternity all those months earlier."Thank you, Arthur," Roman said finally. "Please let Julian know. And begin preparing whatever documentation we'll need regarding the trust fund's structure."He hung up and sat in silence for a moment longer, and Vivienne reached across the table to take h

POV: Roman Ashford"She threatened my mother," Julian said quietly, staring at the copy of Eleanor's unsent letter Roman had brought to their meeting, his hands trembling slightly as he read it a second time. "All these years, I believed my father simply lost interest as I got older. I built an entire understanding of my own childhood around that belief. And it wasn't even true.""I'm sorry," Roman said. "I know that doesn't undo thirty-two years of believing something false, but I wanted you to have the truth, regardless of how it complicates things."Julian set the letter down, something raw and unguarded crossing his composed exterior for the first time since their initial meeting weeks earlier. "My mother worked two jobs for most of my childhood, after the payments stopped. She never explained why the money disappeared. I think she was ashamed, actually, believing your father simply hadn't wanted the burden of a second family enough to keep supporting us discreetly. She died still

POV: Vivienne Ashford"The appeal isn't frivolous," Arthur said, his expression grim as he laid out the legal review three days later, Roman and Vivienne seated across from him in the same conference room where so many of this family's crises had been dissected over the past two years. "Eleanor's new legal team is arguing that one of the seated jurors failed to disclose a prior business relationship with the Ashford Group during voir dire, specifically an old consulting contract with a firm the juror's brother-in-law owned, terminated by your father nearly a decade ago under contentious circumstances.""Is that grounds for a full retrial?" Roman asked, his jaw tight."Potentially," Arthur admitted. "Courts take juror nondisclosure seriously, particularly when it suggests possible bias against the defendant. If the appellate court agrees the relationship was material and should have been disclosed, they could order a new trial entirely, or at minimum a resentencing hearing."Vivienne f

POV: Vivienne Ashford"I want to visit her," Vivienne said, the words surprising even herself as she said them aloud, Roman looking up from his desk with an expression of open disbelief."Visit Eleanor? In prison?""I need to understand what she's actually trying to accomplish with this appeal," Vivienne said. "Arthur's legal analysis tells us the technical grounds, but it doesn't tell us her actual motivation. Is she genuinely hoping for release, or is this simply another way of maintaining leverage over this family from behind bars, another way of proving she still has power over us even in prison?""Does it matter which?" Roman asked. "Either way, we fight the appeal with the same strength.""It matters to me," Vivienne said. "I spent five years running from a threat I didn't fully understand, building an entire trust structure around my own fear rather than clear information. I don't want to make that mistake again, not with something this significant. I want to see her directly,

POV: Vivienne Ashford"Sarah Chen's formal recommendation cleared the board this morning," Arthur said, setting a folder on Vivienne's desk with more visible satisfaction than the routine paperwork typically warranted. "Diane Whitfield officially joins Ashford Group as an independent strategy consultant, effective next week.""That was fast," Vivienne observed, glancing up from the nursery decorating catalog she'd been reviewing during a rare quiet moment, Grace napping soundly in the bassinet beside her desk. "I thought these board approvals usually took months.""Sarah Chen doesn't believe in wasting good talent while waiting for bureaucracy to catch up," Arthur said, though something in his tone suggested more personal investment in the outcome than his usual professional detachment typically allowed. "I've been coordinating the onboarding details directly."Vivienne studied him for a moment, noting the faint color rising in his cheeks, an uncharacteristic tell from a man who had s