Chapter 5 - The Cracks in the Glass Castle
The silence that followed my revelation was heavier than a collapsing building.
Vincent stared at Sophia, his sharp intellect piecing together the horrifying puzzle of the last eighteen years.
"Sophia," Vincent said, his voice dropping an octave into a terrifying, deadly calm.
"Where did that money go?"
Sophia took a trembling step backward, her perfectly manicured hands shaking as she tried to force a dismissive laugh.
"Vincent, please, she's clearly lying to manipulate you! She's a gold digger trying to use this boy to get into your pockets!"
Noah, who had been completely silent while processing the catastrophic shift in his reality, suddenly stepped forward.
He positioned himself squarely between me and the billionaire.
"Do not speak to my mother that way," Noah warned, his voice remarkably steady and commanding, sounding eerily like Vincent in a boardroom.
"We don't want your money, we don't want your trust fund, and we certainly do not want you in our lives."
Noah grabbed my hand firmly.
"Let's go, Mom. We're done here."
He didn't wait for a response, pulling me down the corridor toward the exit doors.
Vincent tried to follow us, taking two desperate steps forward.
"Noah, wait! Please!"
"Leave us alone," Noah shouted over his shoulder, pushing open the heavy brass doors and leading me out into the cool evening air of Cambridge.
We walked in complete silence for three blocks, the bustling city noise fading into the background of our chaotic thoughts.
When we finally reached a quiet park bench, Noah stopped and sat down heavily, putting his head in his hands.
I sat beside him, my heart aching as I watched my brilliant, invincible boy struggle to process the betrayal of his own existence.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, tears finally spilling over my eyelashes and rolling down my cheeks.
"I wanted to protect you from him, from that world, from feeling like you were second best to Ethan."
Noah slowly lifted his head, his blue eyes incredibly gentle as he looked at me.
"You sacrificed everything for me," he said softly, wiping a tear from my cheek with his thumb.
"You scrubbed floors, you skipped meals, you worked yourself to the bone so I could study."
He took a deep breath, a sudden, fierce determination settling over his features.
"He didn't make me who I am. You did."
Meanwhile, back in the opulent suite of the Four Seasons hotel, a violent storm was breaking over the Moretti family.
Vincent had not spoken a single word during the silent, suffocating car ride back from the university.
The moment the heavy suite door clicked shut, he turned to his head of security.
"I want a complete forensic audit of the Bennett trust fund, and I want it on my desk in one hour," Vincent ordered coldly.
Sophia fell onto the plush sofa, sobbing hysterically and begging for him to listen to her.
"I did it for us, Vincent! I did it for Ethan! I knew if she had unlimited resources, she would eventually come back and try to take your empire away from our son!"
Vincent stared down at the woman he had lived with for nearly two decades, feeling an overwhelming wave of disgust.
"You let my firstborn son grow up in poverty," Vincent said, his voice shaking with a terrifying, suppressed rage.
"You stole from a child to protect your own fragile ego."
Ethan, who had been standing in the doorway listening to the screaming match, looked back and forth between his parents in utter shock.
"Dad, what is going on?" Ethan asked, his voice trembling. "Who was that boy at the ceremony?"
Vincent looked at the son he had raised in extreme luxury, the boy who had a fleet of tutors but still barely managed to get accepted into a decent college.
Then he thought of Noah, standing on that stage, fiercely intelligent, profoundly honorable, and utterly uncorrupted by the Moretti wealth.
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"That boy," Vincent said softly, his eyes hardening with an unbreakable resolve.
"Is your older brother. And I am going to get him back, no matter what it takes."
