The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband – Episode 51
Sebastian remained on one knee after Natalie closed the ring box. He did not ask which secret she meant or attempt to persuade her that none remained. “Ask me,” he said. “You will get the entire answer.”
Natalie sat opposite him, keeping their hands joined. “You told me taking Klein Enterprises back was for your mother. What did the Klein family actually do to Stephanie Myers?”
Grief changed his face before he spoke. He had described humiliation and exclusion, but not the event that transformed pain into a plan lasting years.
Stephanie became ill while Sebastian was still young. A treatment existed, but the Klein-controlled insurance trust denied coverage by classifying her as an unauthorized dependent. Sebastian’s father possessed the authority to reverse the decision and refused.
“He said helping her would legitimize a scandal,” Sebastian explained. “Protecting the family name mattered more than keeping her alive.”
Stephanie sold nearly everything she owned, but treatment came too late. Her death was not caused by poverty alone; it was produced by wealthy people who decided cruelty was cheaper than acknowledgment.
Natalie understood why hospital bills affected Sebastian so deeply. When he learned George had placed the same weapon against her, paying the balance became more than generosity. He had been trying to rewrite an ending he could not change for his mother.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“Because grief made me feel weak, and Bash Myers was built to be the opposite.” Sebastian looked toward Stephanie’s flowers on the table. “I wanted you to see a man who could solve everything, not the boy who begged people who never listened.”
The confession did not absolve his lies, but it exposed the fear beneath them. Natalie had also hidden helplessness behind competence, refusing support until desperation forced disclosure.
“Did you ever plan to hurt anyone physically?” she asked.
Sebastian answered without qualification. He used financial pressure, legal acquisitions, and public exposure. He had threatened Nick Volkov to protect her, but the Klein takeover itself was designed to remove power, not lives.
He admitted enjoying the thought of his father losing everything. Over time, that satisfaction became less important than preventing the company from repeating the practices that harmed Stephanie.
“There is nothing else?” Natalie asked. “No hidden child, secret wife, criminal empire, or company in my mother’s name?”
Despite the tension, Sebastian almost smiled. “No. Daniel has disclosed every account, alias, and legal risk. Bash Myers is the only other life.”
Natalie opened the ring box again. The ring represented the church bargain, but it had also remained with her through moments when the marriage became real without permission.
“I won’t answer tonight,” she said. Sebastian rose slowly, accepting uncertainty as part of the freedom he owed her.
She explained what she needed before choosing again: an agreement protecting her career and education, no claim on Sebastian’s premarital fortune, and no clause that made leaving financially impossible.
“You are negotiating your way out before agreeing to stay,” he observed.
“I am making sure staying will always be a choice.” Natalie slid the box back toward him. “If you still want to ask after the lawyers finish, ask me at the church where this began. Then I’ll give you an answer neither money nor fear purchased.”